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Victorian Values

125 years on from the death of Queen Victoria, can we move beyond stereotypes of repression and the stiff upper lip and decide which Victorian values we might value today?

What does the phrase 'Victorian values' conjure today? Matthew Sweet and guests explore what we have inherited from that formative era in relation to political ideas, civic culture, aesthetics, and social and sexual mores. How does our view of the Victorian age match the historical reality? And can we move beyond stereotypes of repression and the stiff upper lip?

AN Wilson, writer, biographer and historian

Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, crossbench peer in the House of Lords

Sarah Williams, Research Professor in the History of Christianity at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada and author of When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the Radical Pursuit of Justice for Women

Fern Riddell, historian and writer. Her latest book is Victoria’s Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen (2025)

And Matthew Stallard, Research Associate from the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

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16 January 2026