A&E; Film Plumbs History’s Heart

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Britain’s Queen Victoria, but director John Erman’s fascinating two-part A&E; movie breathes new life into her legend.

Erman knows his way around historical drama, having directed the miniseries “Roots” and “Scarlett,” among others. For “Victoria & Albert,” Erman has teamed with writer John Goldsmith to get inside the queen’s defining relationship.

With a cast that includes Peter Ustinov, Diana Rigg, Nigel Hawthorne and Jonathan Pryce, Erman couldn’t have gone far wrong, but it’s Jonathan Firth as Albert and especially Victoria Hamilton as the queen who set this four-hour work apart.

It’s nothing short of mesmerizing to watch Hamilton’s development from an insecure teenager into a strong-willed leader and to see how Albert’s considerable influence as her husband and partner helped serve as a catalyst for those changes.

Their complex relationship and the off-balance love that grows between them are at the center of the drama, and their story is handled with deft shading and nuance. Other figures jockey for footholds within her royal orbit only to be embraced and then shunted aside as Victoria’s lingering neediness ebbs and flows. Only Albert finds a lasting place in her heart, but not without much turmoil along the way.

This one’s ripped not from the headlines but from the history books, yet the human emotions in play are fully of the moment.

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“Victoria & Albert,” filmed on location in England, debuts Sunday night at 9, with Part 2 airing Tuesday, also at 9.