The teenager who became Empress of India

An eight-part television royal drama, Victoria, begins today on ITV, starting with a 90-minute episode which I have previewed. The drama begins on June 20, 1837, when Victoria, aged only 18, becomes Queen. She would remain on the throne for 63 years until her death, aged 82, on June 22, 1901.

So are there any clues in the character of the teenager who would become "Empress of India" on May 1, 1876?

In today's terms, she was like a spirited college girl but she was mature enough to fight off all manner of palace intrigue. In 1940, she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

"How handsome dearest Albert looks in his white cashmere breeches," read her girly diary. "With nothing on underneath."

Victoria (who was only 4ft 11in tall) is played by actress Jenna Coleman, best known for having been Dr Who's assistant in the BBC science fiction series; Lord Melbourne, the prime minister for whom the young Queen developed a crush, is portrayed by Rufus Sewell; and Prince Albert, who quickly besotted her, by Tom Hughes.

"They were a very active couple in every sense," Jenna has said. "And we certainly don't shy away from the fire and the passion."

Victoria enthusiastically recorded the bliss of her wedding night with the skill of a Shobhaa De.

She and Albert had nine children.

Years ago, to understand a little more about Victoria, I went to see Mulk Raj Anand's daughter by his first marriage, Sushila Anand, who had published an excellent book in 1996, Indian Sahib: Queen Victoria's Dear Abdul. In 1980, she had co-authored, with Michael Alexander, Queen Victoria's Maharajah: Duleep Singh (1838-93).

Victoria never visited India but it seems she did not tolerate racism and was, for her time, a radical Queen.

It is to the great credit of the people of Calcutta that her imposing statue outside the Victoria Memorial Hall was not removed after Independence. Perhaps someone should place a few marigolds there today.

Yes, Minister

The recent death at the age of 84 of Sir Antony Jay reminded us of the utterly brilliant scripts he and Jonathan Lynn penned together in the 1980s for the TV comedy series, Yes, Minister, and subsequently, Yes, Prime Minister.

They portrayed how Jim Hacker, the minister for administrative affairs, was manipulated by a Machiavellian senior civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby, aided by Bernard Woolley.

Nicholas Ridley, Margaret Thatcher's transport secretary from 1983 to 1986, turned down a Foreign Office suggestion that he should gift a box set of Yes, Minister during an official visit to India. He argued the programme gave a damaging impression of the true relationship between ministers and their civil servants.

In the very first programme we see the newly appointed Hacker tackling Sir Humphrey who has come to brief the new minister: "Who else is in this department?"

In his reply, Sir Humphrey could have been describing the layers of babudom in Delhi: "Briefly, I am the permanent under secretary of state, known as the permanent secretary. Bernard is your principal private secretary, I have a principal private secretary and he is the principal private secretary to the permanent secretary. Directly responsible to me are 10 deputy secretaries, 87 under secretaries and 219 assistant secretaries. Directly responsible to the principal private secretary are plain private secretaries, and the Prime Minister will appoint two parliamentary under secretaries and you will be appointing your own parliamentary private secretary."

Hacker risks a joke: "Do they all type?"

Sir Humphrey is not amused: "No. Mrs McKylie types. She's the secretary."

Target Tokyo

There are those in UK Sport who suggest that if India wants results, it should adopt the radical strategy of forgetting the men and sending a women-only Olympics team to Tokyo and the one after that.

UK Sport, the body responsible for ensuring Team GB wins as many medals as possible, takes the view that a certain amount of ruthlessness is necessary to achieve results. After the London Olympics in 2012, it was given £350 million, mostly from the National Lottery, to invest in elite athletes. It gave money to those who had realistic prospects of "medalling in Rio" and none to those who didn't.

Someone has worked out a very telling figure - that each of the 67 medals (including 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze) Britain won in Rio has cost £5 million. But the investment was considered worthwhile because Team GB, second behind the US, beat mighty China into third place - and boosted the national feel-good factor.

I have been following Rod Carr, the chairman of UK sport, and the organisation's chief executive, Liz Nicholl, who have been saying the same thing - the task of preparing Team GB for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 has already started. In fact, work began six months ago.

They said that special attention and money will be given to those British athletes who came fourth or narrowly missed out on medals in Rio.

Privately, the view in Sport UK is that India should dump the men and invest in the women.

Bake Off

Britain's favourite reality show, The Great British Bake Off, began a new series last week, with a vegan Sikh, Rav Bansall, 28, a charity worker, among the 12 contestants.

Meanwhile, last year's winner, Nadiya Hussain, 31, a hijab-wearing Bangladeshi mother of three, was shown visiting Sylhet in the first of a two-part BBC documentary, The Chronicles of Nadiya. She is well on her way to becoming a latter day Madhur Jaffrey and also becoming a millionairess.

In last year's finals, one of the two beaten by Nadiya was 28-year-old Bengali boy Tamal Ray, an anaesthetist, who has just been asked by Channel 4 to present a pilot for a TV programme which will help viewers "navigate a health-mad world where we are overloaded with information".

It is also worth reporting that BBC TV presenter Naga Munchetty, 41, (born Subham Nagalakshmi Munchetty Chendriam in the UK of Malayali parents), will be a contestant this year on Strictly Come Dancing. Perhaps she should do the samba while presenting world news.

Kashmir, again

On Kashmir, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Foreign Office files released from 1984 revealed Mrs Gandhi's government reacted furiously to a Channel 4 programme in which convicted hijacker Hashim Qureshi said Kashmiris would take revenge for the Indian state's execution of Maqbool Bhat, a JKLF co-founder.

The home secretary, David Waddington, told Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, that lawyers had found no grounds on which Channel 4 could be prosecuted.

Perhaps the UK government now realises that some of those in Pakistan who encourage cross-border militancy in Kashmir are the same folk who train home-grown "sleepers" in the British Pakistani community.

Tittle tattle

Remember Nicola Adams? She was the black British flyweight boxer who broke Indian hearts by beating Mary Kom in the semi-finals in London 2012. Leeds-born Adams, one of the Rio-returned heroines, won gold again by beating France's Sarah Ourahmoune in the final. But while Priyanka Chopra has portrayed Kom in a movie, Adams, the positive face of multicultural Britain, may have to be satisfied with a minor gong from the Queen.