Victoria Actress Nell Hudson on Why She Didn't Want a Fairytale Ending for Skerrett
If you haven't watched the fourth episode of Victoria's third season, proceed with caution. Major spoilers ahead!
For three seasons, Nancy Skerrett has served as a through-line between the worlds of the upstairs and the downstairs on Victoria. She's connected the emotional lives of the staff of the royal household and the royals themselves, but the past few episodes have teased what Skerrett's life could be beyond the Palace walls.
We see her long-awaited marriage to Victoria's chef, Charles Francatelli, and with it, Skerrett's difficulty in leaving the Queen's side. But just as she and her new husband begin to build their life together, planning for a family, and starting a new business-"rocketing towards their future" as actress Nell Hudson put it-Skerrett succumbs to cholera after drinking tainted prenatal tonics and dies a painful, gruesome death.
Her exit comes as a major shock, given how economic the show's writers have been about slowly doling out the "Skerratelli" romance. But as sad as Hudson is to leave behind Victoria, she's glad her character didn't get an unimaginative fairytale ending.
T&C spoke to Hudson about Skerrett's arc this season, from her wedding day to her dramatic exit from the series, below.
Before we get to the tragedy of episode four, let's talk about Skerrett's highly anticipated marriage to Francatelli. What was it like shooting those wedding scenes?
It was so sweet, but a little bizarre shooting the wedding scene because it was the first scene that we shot of all of series three. We got back to set after six months off, and day one, scene one was Nancy and Francatelli’s wedding. So it was very much hitting the ground running, but we’ve been playing the characters for long enough that we can slip into them easily. And it was so lovely to have Tommy Knight, who plays Brodie, with us there because he's always very funny on set.
What was your first reaction when you found out what was going to happen to Skerrett this season?
I was having dinner with Daisy Goodwin, the show's writer, and she broke it to me over supper, a few months before we even had the script. Obviously, I deeply love Skerrett as a character, so I felt very sad hearing what was going to happen to her, but on an acting level I was quite excited for the challenge of filming it. When I signed on, I knew I was going to do three series, so it’s a bit more exciting for her to die than it is for her to...I never felt like she was the kind of character who would just run off into the sunset and that would be the end. In a odd, tragic way, it’s a more exciting ending than that.
The scenes between Francatelli and Skerrett on her deathbed are so emotional. What was it like on set that day?
It’s really rare in filming that we ever get to do anything chronologically; it’s normally just based on location. But it was somehow wonderfully arranged that we could shoot all of Francatelli and Skerrett’s final scenes together. So, Skerrett finding out that she’s pregnant; and then Skerrett getting ill; and all the scenes of Skerrett on her deathbed and her death were all shot in sequence, which was so helpful because we really got to live and breathe the journey that these characters are going through.
And it was quite intense. Cholera is not a very nice death at all. It’s a very, very aggressive illness, and a lot of what I had to do in those final scenes involved me portraying how much pain she was in to the point that she was delirious. It was physically exhausting and of course it was very emotionally taxing as well.
But it was also quick. I think literally it was something like on Monday we shot the scene where Skerrett comes home and tells Francatelli that she’s pregnant and by the Friday she’s dead. And it was a very respectful set. Everyone was kind of aware of the nature of what we were filming. Normally, it's a low key set with people giggling, but that day it was more of a chaste atmosphere.
What do you think of this as an ending to Skerrett and Francatelli's love story?
It’s very deeply tragic. I think it’s going to be a deep shock for the audience seeing what happens this season because we’ve been so sparse dishing out Skerrett and Francatelli’s love story, and it’s really taken such a long time for them to finally get together. Tragically, as Skerrett says on her deathbed, "I should have married you sooner." It’s really heartbreaking.
I think in episode four what I was most struck by is Skerrett’s loyalty to Victoria even after leaving the Palace, and even as she's dying.
Jenna [Coleman] was so stunning in that scene and so generous. She had this brilliant kind of reserve that the Queen would have, of keeping those emotions held just under the surface, but almost bursting at the seams. You could really feel it. It was such a generous performance. And it’s all just too late.
Skerrett’s not mentally there, but she musters up the strength to say “Do you want me to fix your hair, ma’am?" She's not even sure where she is because she’s so ill. And then, she tells Victoria if it’s a girl that she’ll name the baby after her, and of course we know that there’s not going to be a baby because Skerrett’s not going to make it. It’s devastating.
What do you think the fan reaction will be to Skerrett’s death?
I think it’s going to be a big shock for people. I hope they'll be be sad, but I imagine there might be some anger along with the upset. I do think that it’s a pretty mean ending after all we see Francatelli and Skerrett go through. For them to finally be off on their own, starting their own business and expecting a baby, and then, for Skerrett to go in this way is pretty cruel.
What will you miss most about the show?
Definitely the people on the show. I made such good friends on Victoria, and luckily I’ve forced them all to stay friends with me, and I make them all hang out with me a couple of times a month. [laughs]
I really couldn’t have been around a better bunch of people. It was such a privilege, going to set everyday and hanging out with a bunch of brilliant people, who were also so talented.
Did you take anything from the set?
I did. They don’t know about it, but they haven’t called me about anything yet. [laughs] I took one thing from upstairs and one thing from downstairs because Skerrett sort of floats between both worlds. I took a candlestick from upstairs and a couple of really lovely hand-carved wooden spoons from downstairs. And then on my last day of filming, Jenna [Coleman] gave me an antique hairpin to commemorate Skerrett doing Victoria’s hair that was really, really lovely.
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