If you cannot wait until the fifth season of The Crown, then Royal Mob: Four Sisters (Sky History) could be a good stopgap. Through a combination of dramatisations and interviews with historians, it tells the story of the Hesse sisters, Queen Victoria’s favourite granddaughters, the daughters of the Queen’s third child, Princess Alice, who died of diphtheria at the age of 35. It keeps flashing up a family tree to explain who is who in the tangle of offspring the Queen nicknamed “the Mob”, which is useful, but given that she had 42 grandchildren, and the branches are interconnected to say the least, I need it to be a permanent fixture on the screen.
It is a hugely dramatic story told with a keen awareness of its excesses and follies. The eldest sister, Victoria (played by Josie Dunn), narrates the saga from 1922. At this point in history, obviously quite a lot has happened in the world. Her hair has greyed and there are a few more lines etched on her face as she explains how they got there, and what role her sisters had to play in it all. It begins with the four young women being put through the rigmarole of the marriage market, as royal daughters and sons are paired off for political, tactical and dynastical gain. The formidable Queen Victoria (Michele Dotrice) makes it known that she feels as if her valuable counsel is being ignored, and the Hesse sisters defy her and choose their own matches. Hindsight suggests that it might have been worth listening to their grandmother, and steering clear of the Russian families, for example. As each of the girls is married off, the sense of foreboding grows; when the young Alix makes eyes at 16-year-old Nicky Romanov from across the pews at her sister’s wedding, her fate is sealed.
