This week, Victoria & Abdul sees the return of Dame Judi Dench in a role she made her own in Oscar-winning fashion in 1997’s Mrs Brown – that of Queen Victoria, probably the most renowned and celebrated female monarch in the history of the British Empire. So renowned, in fact, she has been played no less than 38 times across cinema since Rose Tapley first played her in the 1912 short silent film, The Victoria Cross.
Set The Tape thought we’d take the return of Dench and Victoria to our screens as an opportunity to pick out some of the more memorable takes on the Queen who defined an entire age of history.