Overview: Acclaimed drama 'Victoria' returns for a third season as revolution sweeps across Europe, and Queen Victoria (Jenna Coleman, Doctor Who) must scrutinize her relationship with her public, while Prince Albert (Tom Hughes, The Game) is filled with visionary plans for social change.

The love between Victoria and the Prince is tested like never before. How far can their marriage withstand the pressures of constitutional crises, scandals at court, and the birth of ever more children?

Blu-ray Verdict: In truth, if this lushly shot series achieves anything, it's to show what a great drama the real Queen Victoria's life was.

The writers and directors are given a broad canvas, and they are expert at selecting the many fascinating incidents in Victoria's long life.

They must love getting to explore this intelligent, inquisitive creature's many diverse facets. The locations, sets, costumes and lighting are all impeccable - down to earth while still gorgeous.

The acting is excellent, too, but I think sometimes Victoria is presented as too virtuous. An episode about the Irish famine had her showing personal concern over her poor subjects and taking quick action - whereas I frankly cannot believe she was really that sympathetic.

I've enjoyed the first and second seasons greatly and now here in season three Victoria is, well, Queen of England, of course. However, like any young person she is out of her depth and does not have a very supportive family.

Politicians try and support her and to obviously curry favor. That is something which would happen to a King just as easily, especially a young King.

And therein lies the problem, everything that happens to Victoria is presented in a way that suggests it is because she is female.

Plot lines aside, the early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18 to her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert is simply divinely brought forth here in the excellent 'Victoria'.

Jenna Coleman is always amazing, Tom Hughes as Prince Albert is excellent as well, but what's more entertaining than them both is us being transported back into a sumptuously shot cinemascope of "history".

In fact, I've yet to see Victoria as having any faults. I enjoyed watching the great chemistry between Victoria and husband Albert. Their children are handily tucked away, but you could argue that they probably were brought up by nannies in real life.

Here in the third season, the fact that the UK almost joined Europe in revolution in the mid-19th century has been largely swept under the royal red carpet of history.

However, the new series thrusts that plotline front and center. Victoria rebuffs a Karl Marx-reading Prince Albert with "Mr Marx should be told that the English will never unite with foreigners", while cannily conceding that the Chartists, campaigning for the right for workers to vote, might have a point.

Again, Coleman and Tom Hughes are perfectly cast as the royal couple and there’s good fun in the addition of Lord Palmerston (Laurence Fox), a randy rake of a foreign secretary played as Boris Johnson with cheekbones.

But best of all is how it makes history feel like it’s happening now as previously noted.

In closing, I could watch this over and over again for it's such a great series that hasn't taken many liberties with the truth.

It's an intelligent and very interesting story of a young woman who becomes the most powerful, richest women in the world. Yet her most endearing quality is her love for her husband Prince Albert.

Great acting and magnificent writing has produced a must watch series. Definitely well worth your time. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Bonus Features of:

Feodora: A New Dynamic in the Palace
Lord Palmerston: The Foreign Secretary
Rosalind Ebbutt: Costume Designer
Boxing in the Park
Louisa & Laurie: Showdown on Waterloo Bridge
Interviews with daisy Goodwin, Sabrina Bartlett, Neil Hudson, Lily Travers & David Burnett and Anna Wilson-Jones