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York stars on primetime in lavish new ITV drama

@ in Entertainment

Jenna Coleman stars as the young queen in Victoria. Photograph: ITV /

York plays a leading role in ITV’s top new drama which begins on Sunday (August 28).

Several key scenes of Victoria, starring Jenna Coleman as the young queen, were filmed in the city.

The new eight-part drama covers the early life of the monarch from her accession to the throne aged just 18 through to her marriage to Prince Albert, played by Tom Hughes.

In the programme York Minster School doubles up as the exterior of the House of Lords, while the Guildhall was used for its interior.

Filming a scene at York Minster School. Photograph © John Mather
Filming a scene at York Minster School last November. Photograph © John Mather
And how it looks on screen, in this still from the trailer. Photograph: YouTube / ITV
And how it looks on screen, in this still from the trailer. Photograph: YouTube / ITV

Much of the rest of the production was filmed at locations across Yorkshire, with many places doubling for other iconic London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace (Harewood House, Bramham Park, Wentworth Woodhouse, Newby Hall), Kensington Palace (Castle Howard, Newby Hall, Bramham Park, Wentworth Woodhouse) and Windsor Castle (Carlton Towers).

Victoria also filmed at Whitby Harbour and Beverley Minster, which doubled as Westminster Abbey.

The central Buckingham Palace set where much of the seven month shoot took place was created by production designer Michael Howells at Screen Yorkshire’s new Church Fenton Studios, near Tadcaster.

York looked fantastic

Supervising location manager Jim Allan said: “The streets of both York and Whitby along with the stately homes of Yorkshire looked fantastic and were ideal for Victoria, also nothing was too much trouble.

“With the on-going help of local councils, owners and staff, plus the bonus of guidance from Creative England we achieved all our goals on schedule. Yorkshire has great locations and a ‘can-do’ attitude.”

Kaye Elliott, the head of production services at Creative England, said:

It’s fantastic for Yorkshire’s world class locations to be taking centre stage once again in this new prime-time drama for ITV.

The quality of this production is another illustration of how Yorkshire has the skilled crews and facilities to make world class television and now a new large scale studio facility, which is sure to bring further productions to the North.

Victoria starts on ITV1 on Sunday, August 28 at 9pm