Antiques expert Tim Wonnacott and chef Rosemary Shrager travel in the footsteps of Queen Victoria, our longest reigning monarch, visiting the houses, Castles and stately homes she visited throughout her life.
Using her own diaries, and other first hand accounts of her visits, they discover the extraordinary preparations that were undertaken, exactly what happened during the visits and explore the legacy of each visit - upstairs and downstairs.
In each programme food historian and chef Ivan Day joins Rosemary to recreates some of the amazing dishes that would have been cooked for the queen, in some of the most amazing Victorian kitchens in the country. From elaborately dressed spit roast meat and elaborately decorated fish to sumptuous puddings, Ivan and Rosemary reveal just how skilled the Victorian the chefs who attended to Victoria’s needs were.
In each house Tim explores upstairs telling the story of what happened when her majesty came calling. From grand house makeovers to hastily refurbished beds and from stories of the queen bursting in on unsuspecting servants to secretly using the servant’s stairs to get to her room…
Meanwhile downstairs Rosemary explores the servants’ world where the housekeeper and butler ruled. She reveals what life was like for the servants in some of the grandest homes in the land.
Broadcaster: BBC Two
TX Date: March 2011
Total Episodes: 20
Duration: 30 mins
Executive Producer(s): Jeremy Mills, Series Producers: Jane Hosking and Virginia Hill
Presenter(s): Tim Wonnacott & Rosemary Shrager