Exhibition Excitement: Victoria & Albert: Art & Love @ The Queen's Gallery

It's not often I get really excited about exhibitions in the same way I get really really, excited about musicals.

But from time to time something catches my eye, and heads into the "time to get obsessive about" pile.

And here's one example.

I can remember precisely when I became more interested in Queen Victoria. It was 2001, with the BBC drama: Victoria & Albert.

The comments on amazon laughably describe it thus: 

Recasting history as a particularly lavish soap opera, Victoria and Albert sets the story of the relationship between the queen and her consort against a background of family strife and political wrangling. Sticklers for accuracy might be disappointed, but the strong cast and lavish production values make for an entertaining film.

But I thought it had a great cast (Victoria Hamilton, Colin's bro Jonathan, Diana Rigg, Penelope Wilton, Nigel Hawthorne, David Suchet, Jonathan Pryce, Richard Briers) and really enjoyed it aged 20ish. I loved it.

Up until then, Victoria had been the fat old girl in statues, part of the Victorian fear of piano legs, and mum to 100s of kids, determined to wear black All. The. Time. And a blurred, inconsequential backdrop to the frankly scary politics of A Level history: the Corn Laws, Disraeli, Peel, Ireland, and something about too many of her chambermaids having liberal husbands...

I haven't seen the latest film, and really want to. But ahead of me finding a suitable JC-occupied space to watch the film in, there's this exciting-sounding exhibition coming to London. And I'd really like to see it.

Victoria & Albert: Art & Love focuses on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's shared love of art, and it's at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace from March.

It's going to show more than 400 items from the Royal Collection, many of them gifts between the Queen and her husband. How lovely?

Now, I've never (knowingly) been to Buck Palace. But this might just be a must-see for me. I wonder if I can get my twitchy fingers on a preview viewing...