The much anticipated new royal television series Victoria is set to fill the void left by The Crown. Take a look at how the cast matches up with their royal counterparts—and what they look like when they're not in character.
Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria
Before playing the leading lady, Coleman appeared in the films Me Before You and Doctor Who and in television shows like Waterloo Road and Death Comes to Pemberley.
Tom Hughes as Prince Albert
Before his role in Victoria, Hughes starred in the film About Time.
Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne
The young Queen and her Prime Minister were quite close, though the series posits that their connection might have been romantic. In reality, Lord Melbourne was more than 30 years Victoria's senior and she saw him as a father figure.
The busy English actor is perhaps best known for his role in A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger.
Alice Orr-Ewing as Lady Flora Hastings
Alice Orr-Ewing as Lady Flora Hastings, lady-in-waiting to Victoria's mother. A pregnancy scandal involving the young aristocrat was a low point early in the Queen's reign.
Before her role as a lady-in-waiting, Orr-Ewing appeared in the movies The Theory of Everything and Atonement.
Peter Firth Ernest Augustus as the Duke of Cumberland
Firth is best known for his appearance in the hit BBC One show Spooks, he has also appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Catherine Flemming as Victoria's Mother, Duchess of Kent
Catherine Flemming as Victoria's mother, a German-born princess who became the Duchess of Kent.
In real life, the German actress is also known for her work in Simone's Labyrinth, Hunger: Longing for Love, and No Place to Go.
Ferdinand Kingsley as Charles Elme Francatelli
Ferdinand Kingsley as Charles Elmé Francatelli, the household chef and a culinary celebrity in his day.
British actor Kingsley, whose father is Ben Kingsley, has appeared in The Hollow Crown, Ripper Street, Agatha Christie's Poirot, and Dracula Untold.
Paul Rhys as Sir John Conroy
Paul Rhys as Sir John Conroy, comptroller to the household of Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent. The young Queen detested him for trying to control her.
Rhys is no stranger to the royal scene; he appeared in the 2009 British miniseries The Queen in the role of Prince Charles.
Nigel Lindsay as Tory leader Sir Robert Peel
Nigel Lindsay as Tory leader Sir Robert Peel. Though Peel and Queen Victoria were initially at odds (and their early disagreements led to a scandal involving the household staff known as the Bedchamber Crisis), she came to admire and respect the venerable MP, in no small part because Peel and Prince Albert liked and admired each other.
Lindsay became an actor relatively late in life, after starting his career as a financial analyst in London.
This story originally appeared on Townandcountrymag.com.
* Minor edits have been made by the
