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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 255150" data-attributes="member: 23">Victoria’s Empire Episode One - India, Hong Kong and Borneo (29th April 2007) <img src="https://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Victorias-Empire-Website-Image-800x450.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Now this documentary is a treat. A travel show with an interest in British colonisation during the reign of Queen Victoria. Or as Vic describes her:It’s a line that sums up exactly why Victoria Wood is perfect for such a vehicle. It may seem an unusual choice on the surface, but then people might have said the same of Michael Palin at one time. Vic talks about some ugly and controversial aspects of our history without romanticising, glossing over or apologising. Instead of earnest maudlin sentiment, Vic delivers the facts with her usual humorous edge, but also very much from her point of view. There’s no sense of a party line, so it’s a little like a bohemian schoolteacher who’s not afraid to include their opinion, which brings dry facts to life:Above all, it’s a human interest show. Vic is someone with an eye for small details that make people tick. Practically her entire body of work embodies this. Here we get to watch her interacting with people, establishing a genuine connection. It’s beautiful to watch because of how authentic Vic is. She doesn’t gush or patronise or lead people in certain directions. She’s interacting with people from very different cultures, and yet she doesn’t change how she speaks or carries herself. She simply is who she is which allows them to be exactly who they are. And the end result feels far more truthful and far less sanitised than it otherwise might. I particularly loved her taking tea with the plantation worker in Darjeeling and his wife. They chat and laugh, but she mostly listens. Every time she asks a question, they both respond with great enthusiasm, talking over one another. At one point Vic throws in a voiceover:There are some cracking Victoria Wood lines. With some of them you can almost hear the voices of assorted iconic Vic characters saying the lines. This could easily have come from As Seen On TV's daytime travel guru Joan:While I can imagine Jean from dinnerladies saying:There’s a lot of ground covered. From the British deliberately breaking the ban on the profitable opium trade and taking Hong Kong as a result to the Chinese eating dogs. Foodstuffs, too, are given the Victoria Wood treatment. She’s given an in-depth account of how sago is made and can’t even pretend to get excited. And she screws her face up while eating hundreds of quids' worth of birds nest soup, unable to get past the fact that the key ingredient is bird saliva. It’s all hugely endearing. </blockquote>

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