Victoria star Jenna Coleman has urged viewers who believe she is too pretty to play the monarch to look past appearances.

The former Doctor Who actress, 30, plays the young queen in the lavish ITV drama but has faced criticism she is too beautiful for the role.

She told Nick Grimshaw on his Radio 1 breakfast show: “I want to say, ‘Google young Victoria’. Portraits are subjective, the eye of the beholder perhaps, but you want people to look a bit further than that.

Jenna Coleman outside the BBC (Laura Dale/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
Jenna Coleman outside the BBC (Laura Dale/PA Wire/Press Association Images)

“In some portraits she looks very young and exuberant and others are not as flattering. When she gets older they perhaps become less flattering.”

Jenna also admitted that she felt nervous at first when people bowed before her. When asked by Nick if the part made her feel “a bit posh”, she said: “There was a period after filming of cooling off. It’s a funny thing when you walk into a room and sit on a throne. A nervous giggle happens quite a lot until you get yourself used to it.

“People bow to you but then you go to the pub with your mum and your gran and they knock some sense into you.”

30-year-old Jenna plays the 18-year-old queen as she takes the throne of England (ITV)
30-year-old Jenna plays the 18-year-old queen as she takes the throne of England (ITV)

She stars opposite Rufus Sewell and Peter Firth in the eight-part period drama, with Tom Hughes soon joining the cast to play Victoria’s husband Prince Albert.

Rufus Sewell plays the Prime Minister, whose close relationship with the Queen sparks rumours (ITV)
Rufus Sewell plays the Prime Minister, whose close relationship with the Queen sparks rumours (ITV)

The actress said she did hours of research on Victoria and became entrenched in the role. She told Nick: “I had a funny interview at Kensington Palace when I came over with a hot turn. I think it might have been Queen Victoria’s ghost saying, ‘Stop talking about me in the fist person’.”

Victoria is on ITV on Sundays at 9pm.