VICTORIA & ALBERT: THE ROYAL WEDDING


Lucy Worsley restages the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Each detail is brought back to life in a spectacular ceremony as Lucy reveals how this event saved the monarchy and invented modern marriage

Aided by a team of experts, Lucy recreates the most important elements of the ceremony and the celebrations, scouring history books, archives, newspapers and Queen Victoria’s diaries for the details.

DETAILS

As part of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Lucy Worsley takes a look back at the romance between the royal couple and their wedding day.

A team of experts, including food historian Annie Gray, clothing expert Harriet Waterhouse and military historian Jasdeep Singh, scour the archives for information on the food served at the wedding breakfast and the clothes worn by the bridal party in an attempt to recreate them for the documentary.

By far the biggest task falls to the team of chefs who have to recreate the wedding breakfast using the descriptions left by the chef who provided the original meal. The team are only allowed to use ingredients and cooking methods that would have been used in a 19th century kitchen. The most elaborate dishes were the towering desserts, while the more stomach-churning recipes are those relating to the meat dishes served. It is quite fascinating to see how much sugar and fat were used compared to today’s standard. Of course the piece de resistance was the massive wedding cake that was made by Smiths the Bakers.

The documentary is a fascinating insight into how Victoria’s wedding set the standards that are still prevalent today.