Episode 2
This second episode kicks off as King George III and Queen Charlotte enjoy the high-life in their royal home – and ends in the Victorian era, when a new teenage queen takes over the palace.
We begin in the 1780s, as Raksha Dave investigates how the royal residents kept themselves from stinking by taking a bath, Queen Charlotte-style: bizarrely fully clothed. Meanwhile, JJ Chalmers investigates how tough life was for the hidden army of 200 servants toiling "below stairs".
But in 1788, tragedy struck Buckingham House. King George's health took a devastating turn for the worse, and his behaviour spiralled out of control. Alexander discovers how the king's "madness" made life at the royal residence intolerable as it tore his family apart, ending with his devastating death in 1820.
George III's son, also called George, stepped up to the throne. The new King George IV was an arrogant, drunken womaniser and the party-loving monarch splurged millions enlarging "Buckingham House" so massively that the press began referring to it as Buckingham "Palace" for the very first time.
But the showy King wouldn't live to see his grand designs fully completed. Weighing in at 20 stone and having developed a taste for opium, his body finally gave up in 1830. His successor, the straight-talking William IV, hated Buckingham Palace – leaving it uninhabited and unwanted. But Britain was about to get a new queen – the teenage Victoria – who adored the palace from the moment she set eyes on it.
Raksha investigates the filth and squalor that greeted Queen Victoria when she inherited the place, while JJ discovers how the kitchens coped with hosting her lavish wedding breakfast, which included a surprisingly unappetising dish of braised calf glands.
This episode draws to a close in the 1850s, as Victoria cements the importance of Buckingham palace by declaring it the official headquarters of royal business. But soon, heartbreak would cast a shadow over the Palace, throwing its very existence into doubt once again…
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