How Jenna Coleman went from Emmerdale and topless scenes to playing Queen Victoria

February 2021 · 7 minute read

YOUNG, passionate, sexy – this is Queen Victoria as you’ve never seen her before.

With a history of raunchy roles, actor Jenna Coleman was the perfect choice to bring sex appeal to the monarch in ITV’s new period drama Victoria.

The former Doctor Who star stripped off for racy BBC4 drama Room At The Top in 2012 and says she has no qualms about getting her kit off in the future.

Jenna, who was snapped getting touchy-feely with Prince Harry last summer, revealed there are passionate scenes to come between her and co-star Tom Hughes, who plays the queen’s consort Prince Albert.

She said: “They were a very active couple in every sense.

“We certainly don’t shy away from the fire and the passion.”

Scenes from Room At The Top — in which Jenna went topless — have even cropped up on the explicit website Pornhub, getting hundreds of thousands of views.

But the TV beauty was not put off the idea of getting naked again on screen, saying: “Nudity is part of life and I wouldn’t be particularly shy about it as long as it honestly served the story.”

Her breakthrough role in Emmerdale was also racy by soap standards. Between 2005 and 2009 she played tearaway Jasmine Thomas, whose storylines included having a secret affair with her girlfriend’s dad.

I had to ride side-saddle in a corset

Since then, Jenna has had a glamorous makeover and largely moved on from her Blackpool roots. It is hard to believe she was cruelly dubbed “Miss Piggy” at school by bullies.

Victoria launches this Sunday in Downton Abbey’s old 9pm slot, immediately after The X Factor. From week two, it will go head to head with Poldark on BBC1.

Like the Beeb’s flagship drama, Victoria will have heaps of sex appeal, with Jenna cast opposite handsome Tom as the famously plain and podgy Queen Victoria.

Jenna, who was born in Blackpool in 1986, has strong working-class roots and is the only actor in her family.

Her parents Karen and Keith ran an interior decorating firm while she grew up with older brother Ben.

And her grandfather Michael Morris runs a hoopla stall on Blackpool’s promenade.

Jenna says mastering the 19th Century monarch’s ultra-posh way of speaking was the hardest thing about her new role.

She said: “The most difficult thing was getting the cut-glass accent absolutely right while still making her emotionally accessible.

“I also had to learn to waltz, speak a bit of French, play some Beethoven on the piano and master side-saddle riding while wearing a corset.”

It’s just as well Jenna is not afraid of a challenge. The straight-A student was head girl at Arnold School and won a place at York University.

But she dreamed of pursuing an acting career after joining theatre group In Yer Space and tasting fame aged ten when she played an Italian bridesmaid alongside Darren Day in a production of Summer Holiday.

Crediting Arnold School drama teacher Colin Snell for encouraging her to follow her dreams, she said:

“We operated a semi-professional theatre company. He’d take us up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

“I was lucky to fall in with him. I just moved school and he was there. The place has been bulldozed now.”

There were some bitchy comments when she put on a bit of weight once. Some loved that and started calling her ‘Miss Piggy’

Fellow pupil Sarah Williamson, now 30, recalled: “Jenna was always very pretty and some of the girls called her Little Miss Perfect, as she was head girl. I found her really nice.

“There were some bitchy comments when she put on a bit of weight once. Some loved that and started calling her ‘Miss Piggy’.” Jenna, who went up three dress sizes to a 12, said: “During exams, I was stuck at a desk and couldn’t do any dancing.

“My shape really changed. I didn’t like it. I didn’t feel like me.”

Jenna credits her family’s backing for her success, saying: “My mum and dad are amazing, laid-back people, who gave me nothing but love and support. They kept me on a long leash, making sure I was OK but allowing me to stand on my own two feet and make my own decisions.”

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But as Jenna found fame in Emmerdale, Keith and Karen were forced to close the family business, Coleman Interiors, in 2007 with debts of £250,500. And when their next business venture failed, in 2009, they had to declare bankruptcy and put their five-bedroom home up for sale.

Emmerdale co-star Karl Davies, who played Robert Sugden, was Jenna’s rock. They dated for three years before splitting in 2009.

Karl, who has also appeared in Happy Valley and Brief Encounters, said then: “On her first day she walked into the green room at Emmerdale and I just thought, ‘Wow’. I fell for her pretty quickly.”

After Emmerdale, Jenna struggled to land roles and found herself working in a North London pub to save up to go to Hollywood.

She said: “I’m northern and working-class, so people put you in a box. It’s crazy. It took a long time to get any meetings. I had to take a job at a pub in Hampstead.”

She didn’t get her big break in Los Angeles but returned home with bags of experience.

She said: “It was great because I never had a gap year or anything like that. You’d get a TV pilot that was set in a Thirties jazz bar and go and look into that, even if it wasn’t a part you’d get in a million years. I enjoyed reading different scripts and came back to England a lot more fearless.”

Back in the UK, she was cast as tough schoolgirl Lindsay James in Waterloo Road. Although she was nearly 23, Jenna is just 5ft 2in and has always looked young for her age. In Victoria, her character is aged 18.

Jenna said: “I loved playing ­hard-girl Lindsay. I initially auditioned for a part as a teacher and they told me I looked about 12.”

She was cast in Julian Fellowes’ Titanic mini-series and on set in Budapest in 2011 she met Game Of Thrones hunk Richard Madden, who was there filming war flick Birdsong. They fell in love and dated until 2015.

Romantic scenes with Tom were great

Their breakup coincided with pictures emerging of Jenna cosying up to Prince Harry at a polo match.

But she insists there was nothing romantic, saying: “We’re just friends. I don’t really want to talk about him. We’re still friends and I don’t think it’s fair.”

She visibly squirmed on Good Morning Britain this week as Kate Garraway grilled her on the subject.

Also on her CV is another period drama, Death Comes To Pemberley, plus Doctor Who — the role for which is best known.

She first featured opposite Matt Smith in 2012, later becoming the Doctor’s companion Clara full-time in 2013, taking over from Karen Gillan.

During her three years on Doctor Who, first with Matt then Peter Capaldi, she changed her screen name from Jenna-Louise Coleman to Jenna Coleman — much to the amusement of co-star Peter.

She said: “Peter has a nickname for me — ‘the artist formerly known as JLC’. The boring truth is people have never really called me Jenna-Louise and I found it very strange.

“I started to do more interviews and go to places where people I didn’t know kept calling me Jenna-Louise. It sounded odd to me.”

Since the Prince Harry rumours, Jenna has been reluctant to talk about her private life.

But she set tongues wagging when she left the Glamour Awards after-party at London’s trendy Chiltern Firehouse with co-star Tom in June.

And she has gushed about how much she loves working with him, saying of Victoria’s intimate scenes:

“Those were great to film with Tom. We had exactly the same instincts and he’s the perfect Albert.”

If Victoria is a hit, writer Daisy Goodman is keen on a second series. But first Jenna, who starred in hit movie Me Before You this year, wants a rest.

She said: “I’m taking some time off. You become boring when all you see is a trailer.

“I’m going to read, pick up my camera. I’m keeping a journal, writing stories.”

She recently bought a pad in London’s Stoke Newington and LA is off the agenda for now.

Jenna said: “I don’t think I’d live there. I’d miss friends, family. I like London too much.”

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