(vibrant music) (female narrator) Victoria, the Royal who invented the modern monarchy, Queen who made Britain an empire.

(female #1) Victoria's Britain is ruling the waves, ruling the world.

(narrator) But who was the real woman beneath the crown?

In this series, we discover Victoria as we've never seen her before, a sensuous young queen... (Victoria) He clasped me in his arms and we kissed each other again and again!

(narrator) ...a reluctant mother of nine... (female #2) Victoria definitely didn't like babies.

Always grosses her out to see her own children.

(dramatic music) (narrator) ...a devastated widow... (female #3) She was suicidal, absolutely.

She was...inconsolable.

(narrator) ...and a passionate wife.

(female #1) It's not Victoria the virgin.

It's Victoria the hot mama.

(narrator) Using remarkable archive treasures and through her own words in journals and diaries, we tell the story of a complex, very human queen.

♪ (female #4) Those tiny seconds of moving film, they completely change how we see this monarch.

♪ (female #5) This is really exciting, new evidence about Victoria.

We think we know everything, but we don't.

(narrator) This time, Victoria is left a widow after the death of her beloved Albert.

(bell tolls) (female #6) She simply didn't want to be sovereign.

She wanted to be alone.

(narrator) She runs away from public life and leaves Britain without a Queen.

(male #1) MPs are openly saying, "It's time to wind the monarchy up."

(narrator) But Victoria fights back to win power and the love of her people.

(female #1) There's a sense in which the empire comes home and it puts on an amazing show.

(crowd cheering) (female #3) She suddenly realized that what she'd missed was huge crowds of people there for her and her alone.

(bright music) (narrator) This is the private life of Queen Victoria.

♪ (vibrant music) After 60 years on the throne, a regal Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.

Victoria was now the ruler of an empire that spanned the globe.

She was probably the most famous person on the planet.

(crowd cheering) ♪ A mother to seven grownup children, many married into Europe's leading royal dynasties.

The 78-year-old monarch, loved by her people, waves at the cheering crowds on this summer day of 1897.

She's smiling at people and she's laughing and she enjoys so much that connection with her public.

(crowd cheering) (narrator) Victoria was at the top of her game.

As both monarch and matriarch, she defined an era.

(female #3) She was the only monarch the vast majority of people have ever known on the throne.

So I suppose it's a little bit like Queen Elizabeth today.

Who among us can envisage a time when there isn't a Queen Elizabeth?

Victoria was, in a very real sense, Britain.

(crowd cheering) (Victoria) All vied with one another to give me a heartfelt, loyal, and affectionate welcome.

I was deeply touched and gratified.

(narrator) The jubilee had been a moment of triumph... but after the death of her husband Albert 36 years earlier, it had seemed unlikely a day like this would ever come.

(grim music) The death of Albert, on the 14th of December, 1861, sent shock waves through the country.

(bell tolling) In London, the bells of St Paul's rang out, signaling a national crisis.

Britain was in mourning for the Prince.

♪ It was an absolute shock.

The man was only 42.

♪ It's a little bit like Princess Diana's funeral, a sense that there's an absolute sea change, that something important has happened.

♪ (narrator) And while the nation mourned, Victoria was tortured by grief.

She had lost the love of her life, she'd lost her partner, her friend.

(narrator) In her diary, she wrote... (Victoria) To lose one's partner in life is like losing half of one's body and soul.

It's like death in life.

(Annie) She was suicidal.

She was...inconsolable.

She couldn't use her legs.

She stopped eating.

(melancholy music) (narrator) The funeral at St George's Chapel in Windsor was to be attended by dignitaries from around the world.

Kings, lords, and politicians were there paying their respects.

♪ But, unbelievably, Queen Victoria herself wouldn't be there.

(Kathryn) Women didn't go to funerals because there's a sense in which it's too upsetting for them.

They do mourning work, if you like, but they do it at home.

(narrator) And as a dutiful wife, Victoria followed convention.

(Annie) Victoria was a woman, and she was expected to adhere to the norms of society.

Women were seen as more hysterical.

They were seen as more emotional.

They were seen as much less rational.

(narrator) So, despite being ruler of the British Empire, doctors told Victoria to stay away from the funeral and go home.

She traveled back to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, 60 miles away from Windsor and the prying eyes of the public.

(birdsong) But despite her incredible grief, Victoria was expected to show the public it was business as usual.

For the monarchy, it was considered essential to national morale.

(Kathryn) So this is from the Dundee Advertiser, Friday, the 20th of December, 1861.

"That the shock has not seriously affected the Queen's health, will rejoice the heart of all her loving subjects.

Indeed, so favourable is the state of her health considered to be, that no further bulletins are to be issued."

So, basically, what this is saying is, "Don't panic, Britain, the Queen is absolutely fine."

(dramatic music) Except we know she really, really wasn't.

♪ (narrator) While she mourned on the Isle of Wight, the state funeral to bury her husband began at the chapel in Windsor.

♪ (solemn music) Desperate to be close to the great love of her life.

Victoria had placed a last memento with his body.

(Kathryn) She had it done for Albert, and it was always his favorite portrait of her.

I don't think there's any other way to put it: It's an incredibly erotic picture of Victoria.

She's got her beautiful hair, it's hanging right the way down to her bust.

It's not Victoria the virgin.

It's Victoria the hot mama.

♪ (narrator) When the time finally came to bury Albert, Victoria confessed to her oldest daughter Vicky how pointless her life now felt.

♪ (clock chiming) (Victoria) It is one o'clock and all, all is over.

But, oh, only to have feelings of utter broken-heartedness, utter despair of the life I am to lead.

(dark music) (bird squawking) ♪ (narrator) After Albert's death, Victoria stopped writing in the diary she'd kept since a child.

Now, nearly three weeks later, she began writing again, but only to say how desperate she felt.

♪ (Victoria) I have been unable to write my journal since the day my beloved one left us, and with what a heavy, broken heart I enter on a new year without him.

(narrator) Victoria hadn't only lost her soulmate but her great support, and now she'd have to manage alone, a widow queen without Albert by her side.

(female #6) She kept his room exactly as it was when he died, right down to the little glass that he'd used to take his medicine from that remained in the room.

The servants would come in every morning to lay out fresh towels, fresh clothes, and the hot water for him to shave with.

(somber music) (Piers) The children were not expected to be merry and to do the sorts of things that children did because Albert's death ought to be preoccupying them as much as it was preoccupying her.

(dramatic music) (narrator) Victoria and her family began an established phase of mourning.

As a new widow, she'd follow an elaborate set of social rituals.

♪ (Kathryn) There are prescribed periods of time for people to mourn.

For widows, it's two years.

If you have a lesser relation, then it's six months or it's a year.

Everything becomes very, very set down.

Funeral rites become a kind of performance.

(female #7) For this period of mourning, widowed women were expected to only leave the house when they absolutely had to and stay out of kind of social events.

So, the dress had to be black but also accessories.

The handkerchief, the lace, the stockings, shoes, belt buckles.

Everything had to be black.

(melancholy music) ♪ (narrator) Victoria's mourning wear became her signature look, like a uniform for facing her public without Albert.

(Elizabeth) Victoria, although she initially announced she would wear mourning for at least two years, very quickly decided that she was going to wear deepest mourning for Albert for the rest of her life.

(male #1) She didn't want to surrender her grief because her grief became, um, an expression of her love for Albert.

It's how she defined herself.

(solemn music) (narrator) Grieving for Albert was now all Victoria cared about despite her public duties, but his death meant that she was now left alone to rule.

(Piers) When Albert was around, she was eclipsed in terms of the position that she held because he took over much of the direction of the monarchy.

(Elizabeth) She'd effectively been indoctrinated, and so, suddenly, to be without this man who had persuaded her that she needed him, it was actually terrifying for Victoria.

(Victoria) The amount of work which comes upon me is more than I can bear.

I, who always hated business, have now nothing but that.

Public and private, it falls upon me!

(narrator) Soon, the pressure to be monarch and widow was too much.

Victoria fled from Buckingham Palace and the scrutiny of public life... to the remote Scottish Highlands, her special place to rest and retreat.

But by doing it, she left Britain without a queen.

(somber music) Overwhelmed by the death of her beloved husband Albert, Victoria had abandoned her duties as queen to grieve in private.

She escaped to her Highland retreat, Balmoral, the castle they built together.

(Matthew) It's a big statement of withdrawal to go so far away from London.

You know, this is a long way away.

It was like escaping to a kind of fairyland.

♪ (Elizabeth) She simply didn't want to be sovereign.

She wanted to be alone.

(birdsong) ♪ (dreary music) (narrator) Balmoral gave Victoria the privacy she wanted, but it came at a cost: It was filled with memories of Albert.

(Victoria) Everything, even down to the smallest detail, is somehow associated with him and his memory.

(narrator) Eventually, the castle became too much and she built a private cottage just for her and called it her "widow's house."

(Annie) She really did use that as a way of retreating from Balmoral, which was itself a retreat from London life.

♪ (Victoria) Reached the Glas-allt-Shiel at half past six.

It looks so cheerful and comfortable all lit up, and the little rooms are so cozy and nice.

♪ (Annie) She would go with very select groups-- one lady, maybe just a couple of servants, and one chef-- and there they would eat very, very simply.

She would, for example, go fishing and then they would eat their catch by the side of the river.

(bright music) (narrator) Victoria also found comfort in nearby Blair Castle, home to Anne Murray, the Duchess of Atholl.

♪ Rarely seen correspondence between the two women reveals an intimate friendship that was vital to Victoria's recovery.

♪ (female #8) This is 50 years of letters between, um, Queen Victoria to Duchess Anne.

So they're quite an undiscovered treasure trove.

This book was given to the duchess by Victoria to commemorate a year after Albert's death.

Along with that, um, was sent this amazing little envelope, and it says, "The precious hair of my beloved and adored husband.

December 14, 1861."

I'll open it up, and still inside... is a lock of Albert's hair.

(upbeat music) Not something I would send to my friend, but, um, I think it highlights how close they were.

(mellow music) (narrator) Victoria stayed in the Highlands well beyond her official two-year period of mourning, returning only occasionally to Osborne House or Windsor to see the family.

The magic of the Highlands and the escape from her public life and duty suited the Queen.

(Victoria) Our beloved Balmoral, with its glorious scenery and heavenly air, its solitude and absence of all contact with the mere miserable frivolities and worldliness of this wicked world.

♪ (narrator) But, after more than 20 years of marriage, Victoria felt increasingly alone, and she began to crave male companionship.

♪ (Victoria) I am, alas, not old, and my feelings are strong and warm; my love is ardent.

There's a desire for a strong manly presence who will look after her as if she is the delicate creature that she feels herself to be.

(narrator) And one man was spending an increasing amount of time with the Queen.

He was a Balmoral servant called John Brown.

(bagpipe music) ♪ (female #9) He was tall, curly blond hair, and good looking, broad shoulders, and Victoria was a sucker for someone that looked a bit like that.

He looked a real Highlander.

♪ (narrator) John Brown took Victoria fishing and riding.

He even carried her to and from her horse.

And as they grew closer and closer, she decided to promote him.

(Victoria) I have now appointed that excellent Highland servant of mine to attend me always and everywhere out of doors.

(narrator) But not everyone shared Victoria's enthusiasm for her Scottish servant.

(Kathryn) John Brown is not a likable man.

Clearly, Victoria thought he was absolutely fantastic.

(tense music) But as far as everybody else was concerned, he was a drunken bore.

♪ (Annie) It was very much based on class.

I mean, let's face it: If an outsider comes in and starts to get the Queen's ear, I mean, goodness me.

♪ (narrator) Victoria ignored the gossip and the tittle-tattle and stuck by John Brown.

(Victoria) He is so devoted and attached and clever and so wonderfully able to interpret one's wishes.

He is a real treasure to me now.

♪ They would go out sitting on hillsides in the rain drinking whisky together.

They would also have an awful lot of private time together.

You know, the little cottage that she built for herself.

(Victoria) Whisky toddy was brought round for everyone, and Brown begged I would drink to the fire kindling.

(Kathryn) I mean, John Brown clearly feels that he has license to say anything to the Queen.

At one point, he tells her that she's putting on too much weight, and instead of being completely offended, she takes that on board.

He gave her something nobody else was giving her, which was an honest view.

I think he sort of shocked her out of herself in some ways.

She could be who she wanted to be with him.

(narrator) Albert's death had left a huge hole in her life, and John Brown filled it.

(cheerful music) (Victoria) Often I told him no one loved him more than I did or had a better friend than me, and he answered, "Nor you than me.

No one loves you more."

♪ (narrator) But questions persisted about the close nature of their relationship.

The rumor mill went into overdrive, and there was only one thing on everyone's mind.

(Catriona) When people talk about the John Brown thing, the thing they always fixate on is sex.

(light music) (Kathryn) They really feel that she is probably shacked up with John Brown, having delicious Highland sex.

I mean, people's fantasies run riot.

We thought she was in mourning.

We thought she did nothing but weep over Prince Albert.

It turns out that she's been having a very nice life, thank you very much, in secret.

(narrator) Victoria's retreat from public view lasted for much longer than the two years people were expecting, and her constant refusal to take part in public ceremonies was causing concern.

As if to reassure the nation that she was a dutiful queen, she commissioned Sir Edwin Landseer to paint a portrait of her as a widow, but the painting didn't have the desired effect.

In fact, it backfired, and when it was shown, her popularity took another dive.

(solemn music) (Catriona) So this painting fails because it's trying to say so much but it isn't answering the question that's being asked.

She's trying to use this image to respond to mounting criticism against her seclusion and her abandonment of duty.

She tries to signal her continuing work in a series of ways in this painting.

She's working on matters of state, she has her letter in her hand, she is stopped to deal with this rather urgent matter mid pony ride because it's so important, the work that she is getting on with.

She also suggests that she's keeping up with her motherly work.

We have an image of two of her daughters very content in the background.

(narrator) But the public didn't want a painting.

They wanted to see their queen in person.

By the mid 1860s, her ministers and even her own family were becoming frantic about her absence, and people started to ask, "Was she even fit to rule?"

(tense music) The death of Prince Albert devastated Victoria.

Consumed by grief, she locked herself away in Balmoral, far away from her subjects and her royal engagements, but after five years of mourning, the country had had enough.

(dark music) ♪ (female #5) Basically what's happening here is that Victoria is doing what she wants to do, and she's using her grief as a weapon 'cause when people say, "You ought to spend more time in London and you ought to be seen," she says, "I can't possibly do it.

You know, my nerves are so awful."

It's something that she can put up as a defense when she doesn't want to do something.

And it's difficult to challenge a widow, isn't it really?

(narrator) The goodwill that she and Albert had built up was fading fast, and her demand for isolation was making her seem out of touch, or even worse, as if she didn't care about the nation and her people.

(Elizabeth) There was increasing criticism of Victoria.

It became very apparent that it was Victoria who didn't want to fulfill the public role of sovereign.

(narrator) Victoria's refusal to engage in her public duties was helping to fuel a new and energized clamor to get rid of the monarch.

(Matthew) There are radical politicians, MPs in Parliament, who are openly saying that perhaps it's time to wind the monarchy up.

(narrator) Yet Victoria remained hidden away in Balmoral, dressed in her black dresses, stubbornly refusing to carry out the duties of state.

(solemn music) After almost six years trying to avoid the public and her official duties, the Queen relented and agreed to open Parliament in 1867.

And the weather that day seemed to reflect her mood.

(thunder rumbling) (Victoria) It poured, and the poor people, of whom there were great members out, must have got very wet.

(narrator) But when she came face-to-face with her people, she didn't get the reception she'd hoped for.

(tense music) (Elizabeth) She probably expected that the crowd should be glad to see her.

She was very, very shocked that she was hissed by the crowds.

She never had that before.

(Victoria) Altogether, I regret I went.

There were many nasty faces, and I felt it painfully.

At such times, the sovereign should not be there.

♪ (narrator) The incident made Victoria realize that her relationship with the public was broken... and that she had to find a way to reconnect with her subjects.

(grim music) She decided against giving a speech or organizing a public event.

Instead, she made an unusual decision: She published a book, "Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands."

It was a series of extracts from her diaries, covering the time she spent hidden away in Scotland.

The idea was that this would explain her absence, give the public the chance to understand why she needed to get away, and hopefully encourage them to forgive her.

(Kathryn) It's so extraordinary, I mean, if you think about it, this is the first time a monarch has written a book about their life.

I mean, we tend to think that this all started with Princess Diana and writing those books in which we got an insight into what was going on in her marriage, but no.

Queen Victoria actually writes a book about herself.

It's extraordinary!

(Victoria) It is very gratifying to see how people appreciate what is simple and right and how especially my truest friends, the people, feel it.

(mellow music) ♪ (narrator) Victoria was really proud of her book and wanted to show it off to those she admired, particularly her favorite writer, Charles Dickens.

(Kathryn) He agrees to meet her, and she very coyly gives him a copy of her book and says something along the lines of, "Mr. Dickens, I know I'm not really a patron on you, but, you know, please accept this."

And he had to do a sort of smirk through gritted teeth, but he thinks the book is-- he calls it preposterous.

(narrator) Although Dickens was not a fan of the book, the public snapped it up and it sold more than 18,000 copies.

(Victoria) The letters flow in saying how much more than ever I shall be loved now that I'm understood.

(narrator) Her book had achieved its objective.

Victoria was back, and she intended to seize this new goodwill and run with it.

(vibrant music) ♪ At the age of 68, the Queen was about to celebrate her 50th anniversary on the throne.

♪ London was transformed.

(Victoria) The crowds from the Palace gates up to the Abbey were enormous, and there was such an extraordinary outburst of enthusiasm.

(Annie) It's typical of Victoria that she thinks she doesn't want public adoration, and actually, the one thing she really does want is public adoration.

So, when the crowds came out, she suddenly realized that what she'd missed was huge crowds of people there for her and her alone.

(crowd cheering) (Victoria) The decorations along Piccadilly were quite beautiful, and there were most touching inscriptions.

(Kathryn) Victoria's always a sucker for love.

That sense of, "They like me; no, they love me," was absolutely intoxicating to her.

(Victoria) This never-to-be-forgotten day will always leave the most gratifying and heart-stirring memories.

(narrator) The Queen had fought back.

Once again, she had power and popularity.

(bright music) Following the glorious Golden Jubilee celebrations in the summer of 1887, Queen Victoria was overwhelmed with gifts from all over the world.

And something unexpected came from India: two young men to serve at Her Majesty's pleasure.

(Shrabani) They are dressed to the nines, have these grand turbans, and their sole purpose is to stand behind her and sort of represent the Indian empire.

♪ (narrator) The two new servants, Abdul Karim and Mohammed Bukhsh, arrived at Windsor Castle.

(Shrabani) Before they serve, they come and they kiss her feet.

And Abdul Karim, he's been told that you have to walk backwards, you must not look at the Queen.

Of course, what do you do when you're told, "Don't look up"?

He looks up.

(Victoria) The one, Mohammed Bukhsh, very dark with a very smiling expression, has been a servant before, and the other, much younger, called Abdul Karim, much lighter, tall, and with a fine serious countenance.

(Shrabani) She dismisses Bukhsh in one sentence and writes a lot more about Karim.

So we know, right from the start, he's got her eye.

(mellow music) ♪ (narrator) By the time Abdul Karim came on the scene, Victoria was almost 70, but despite her age, she was longing for someone to love.

(Catriona) When Abdul Karim comes into Victoria's life, she's experiencing quite a dramatic loss from John Brown, the loss of an intimate confidant and friend.

Quite quickly, as he and Victoria begin to communicate, and she-- she sees that he is somebody who's clever and educated and talented and skilled, um, but also becomes quite attracted to his personality.

♪ (narrator) It looked as if Abdul could become the latest in line of Victoria's male companions.

(soft music) To keep him close to her, she decided to take Urdu lessons from him, and she promoted him to be her personal secretary, or "Munshi" in Urdu.

(Victoria) I particularly wish to retain his services as he helps me in studying Hindustani, which interests me very much, and he's very intelligent and useful.

(narrator) She took great pleasure in learning and writing this new language from her ever-expanding empire, learning to say things like... (Victoria) The tea is always bad at Osborne House.

The egg is not boiled enough.

(Annie) She got off on the fact that she could learn something new even at a relatively advanced age, and he was someone who thrilled her with his exoticism, with his words, with his personality.

(whistles blowing) (Shrabani) He tells her about the heat and dust, the color, the festivals, the spices.

Suddenly she's transported into a different world.

(mellow music) (narrator) She lets Abdul have more and more influence over her.

♪ Following Abdul's advice, she built a grand entertainment room at Osborne House in the style of the Indian emperors known as the Durbar Room, a sort of mini India on the Isle of Wight.

(Shrabani) This room reflects this exuberance she was feeling.

Her spirits had really revived, and I think this relation with Abdul Karim added a lease to her life, and this is where she held audience, she invited guests, she showed off her mini India to the world.

(vibrant music) So, every detail from here was actually planned in India.

Every object in this room-- the lamps, the curtains, the carpet-- they were all brought from India.

♪ (Victoria) The room looked very fine with the chimneypiece finished and surrounded by a beautiful peacock with a spread tail.

♪ (narrator) Victoria used the room to entertain guests from all over the world and remind them of her status as Empress of India.

♪ (Shrabani) So this beautiful book is the ledger of all the menus of the lunches that were done in Osborne House.

So let's open it up a bit.

There we go, wow.

It's heavy.

So this is the lunch menu from Sunday, the 13th of February, and it's got lots of items listed on it.

Some are in French.

But here we have the very special item that was one of Queen Victoria's favorites, and it's Indian chicken curry, and this was served nearly every day.

The other favorite was dal, which was also served.

So she was the original curry fan.

(bright music) (Annie) Does show her interest in food, her adventurousness, and her open-mindedness as well when it came both to food and to cultures which were not her own.

(narrator) Victoria loved her food, and her new fondness for curry became a national obsession.

(Fern) We do see that real curries, that real taste, real spice, how to cook them, starts to make its way from Victoria's court out into the general public, and people like Eliza Acton, who publishes a very famous cookbook for housewives, especially for middle-class housewives, starts to include recipes for how to make your own curry.

♪ (melancholy music) (narrator) While Victoria was enjoying eating curries and spending time with Abdul, their friendship didn't go down well with the rest of the court.

(Kathryn) It crosses so many taboos.

He's much younger than her, he's very lowly born, and, of course, he's of a different ethnic background.

I mean, that is so shocking to people.

(Annie) He was hated by the court, both because of racism but also because of classism.

He was seen as having undue influence on the Queen.

In many ways, these were all the arguments that had been rehearsed with John Brown, but now added into that was this real nasty element of racism as well.

♪ (narrator) Once again, Victoria's personal life threatened her position as Queen.

Soon, even her own children joined the conspiracy and turned against her, Bertie in particular.

(Shrabani) She is treating Abdul as the son, and the real son is sort of being sidelined, and there is this letter and it shows how she is dictating to Bertie, she literally tells him, "You will be courteous to the Munshi.

You will do this.

You will do that."

And at the end of it, it's CC the Munshi, so he's copied in on this letter.

(narrator) Bertie's so furious with their relationship, he does something incredible.

He sends a letter to the Queen's doctor and asks him to write a report suggesting that she should step down on grounds of insanity.

(dour piano chord) Well, Queen Victoria was Queen Victoria.

(solemn music) She is not going to be bullied by her doctor or her son or the households, so she gives it right back to them.

(narrator) Victoria was ahead of her time when it came to racial justice.

In anger, she wrote a cutting letter to the court accusing them of snobbery and racism.

(Victoria) The Queen would wish to observe that to make out the poor, good Munshi as so low is really outrageous and, in a country like England, quite out of place.

Victoria, even in her old age, is a feisty woman.

I think she is enjoying this, um, you know, this clash she's having with her son, with the households.

It's giving her a lot of energy.

(narrator) Victoria won the fight and kept Abdul by her side for the rest of her life.

♪ (crowd cheering) To her family and her nation, the feisty Queen seemed tireless and determined, but her energy couldn't last forever.

(bright music) At the turn of the 20th century, Queen Victoria became the longest-serving monarch Britain had ever seen as she celebrated over 60 years on the throne.

Now approaching 80, she had an astonishing 42 grandchildren.

She was fully embracing the image of grandmother to her family and her nation.

♪ And she was enjoying unprecedented popularity.

(crowd cheering) ♪ (Victoria) No one ever, I believe, has met with such an ovation as was given to me.

♪ (crowd cheering) (solemn music) (narrator) Finally, she was successfully combining her roles as monarch and matriarch.

♪ (Kathryn) There's a new way of being Queen.

She's freer now as an elderly woman.

There's nothing that's expected of her, all the early battles are won, and there's a sense in which all she has to do now is relax and kind of claim that popularity.

(crowd cheering) (narrator) Some remarkable footage taken during a visit to Dublin in 1900 showed just how much she loved the connection with her public.

(cheerful music) What we have here is truly amazing.

She's an old woman, but she's still engaging with the crowds.

She's seen so many crowds during her lifetime, but their love continues to please her.

(Victoria) I can never forget the really wild enthusiasm and affectionate loyalty displayed by all.

(Fern) Those tiny seconds of moving film, they completely change how we see this monarch.

She's not dull and boring and a woman trapped in grief who has no joy in life.

(vibrant music) She's someone who loves the people that are around her and connects to them in a very human way.

(Elizabeth) By this point in Victoria's life, she has already defined an era.

She has spanned a century almost.

Even by this stage, people know it as the Victorian era.

She's an icon.

(crowd cheering) (Annie) Victoria is so fascinating because her life was so long and so much happened within it.

It was a very influential era, the Victorian era.

I mean, we went from essentially an agrarian economy with limited industrialization to something very much more akin to the modern world we see today.

(solemn music) (Kathryn) Britain found it impossible to imagine a world without Victoria because she had always been there.

So, in a sense, it's not just that she becomes part of the furniture.

She kind of is the world.

♪ (narrator) But the world was about to crumble.

♪ As the winter of 1900 approached, only a few months after her Dublin visit, Victoria started to feel ill. ♪ (somber music) ♪ (Victoria) I have not been feeling very well these last days and can eat very little.

(Annie) She was starting to lose her appetite, and that was a really big sign.

Even she recognized that something was wrong.

This was a queen who had always eaten and eaten well.

(Victoria) The sitting through meals, unable to eat anything, is most trying.

♪ (narrator) The Queen was exhausted.

She left Windsor and went to rest at Osborne House.

She continued keeping her diary until she physically couldn't.

♪ On the 13th of January, 1901, after 69 years of almost uninterrupted journaling, a diminished Victoria dictated her last diary entry to her daughter.

(Victoria) Had a fair night, but was a little wakeful.

Got up earlier and had some milk.

At 5:30, went down to the drawing room, where a short service was held.

It was a great comfort to me.

(narrator) A week later, on the 22nd of January, 1901, Victoria was lying in bed.

She couldn't believe the end was coming.

♪ (Victoria) I don't want to die yet.

There are several things I want to arrange.

She died a lot and kept coming back to life.

So in the morning, they thought they were going to lose her... as she slipped slowly to what looked like a final coma, but no, she fought her way back again.

She even signed some letters and had something to eat.

You really do get a sense of a queen who still sees that there is life to be lived and isn't willing to stop living it yet.

♪ (narrator) But that same day, at 6:30 p.m., Victoria whispered her final words.

(Kathryn) Interestingly, her last words are supposed to be "Bertie."

We don't know if that was said in sorrow, anger.

I think it's very, very telling because she knows now, this young man, now actually 59, is the way forward.

(solemn music) ♪ (Matthew) There were reporters hanging around outside the gates of Osborne House shouting that the Queen is dead.

♪ (narrator) The news of the Queen's death shook the world.

♪ (Kathryn) I think people feel that something of their own lives is gone.

There's a sense in which they have lost a family member.

(dramatic music) The nation isn't sure that it can cope without its grandmother.

The nation is asking itself, "What will become of us?"

♪ (Piers) It was a great break in history.

People were aware of it just as they were aware when 9/11 took place.

This was, I think, visible in the tributes that were paid to her.

Everybody wearing black.

Even the prostitutes wore black.

♪ (narrator) The world was in mourning, just as Queen Victoria had been for half of her life.

(solemn music) ♪ Victoria was the queen who defined herself by her widowhood.

(Elizabeth) When we think about Victoria or the British Empire or the country that she ruled over, we're thinking about this period in her life.

When we picture Victoria, we're thinking about the widowed Victoria ruling alone.

♪ The birth of this new Victoria was a difficult birth.

It took her a decade from Prince Albert's death to understand that she could separate the queen from the woman, but after that, she didn't really look back.

She became a powerful and important queen in her own right.

(narrator) But Victoria's own words revealed she was always more than just a queen.

She was a princess, a wife, a mother, and a widow, a ruler and an empress.

♪ One of the most iconic monarchs Britain has ever seen.

♪ (vibrant music) ♪