As Emilia Clarke and Jenna Coleman vie for Victoria role here are other actresses played the queen

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Casting has begun for 8-part ITV drama, reports Radio Times
Game of Thrones and Doctor Who actresses in the running for role
Chloe Moretz and Cara Delevingne are also being considered
FEMAIL remembers Emily Blunt and Judi Dench as Mrs Brown
Filming for 'Victoria' starts September for broadcast in 2015

By Deni Kirkova for MailOnline and Luisa Metcalfe For Mailonline

Published: 07:56 EST, 26 June 2015 | Updated: 09:23 EST, 26 June 2015

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One is used to playing a dragon-keeping warrior queen in a fantasy fiction while the other portrays a Time Lord's travelling companion.

But both Emilia Clarke and Jenna Coleman could be taking a break from their day jobs at Game of Thrones and Doctor Who for a very different role - that of Queen Victoria.

Casting has begun for a hotly anticipated eight-part ITV drama and both acclaimed actresses are in the running to play Britain's famous monarch.

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A portrait of Queen Victoria, who will be portrayed in a new eight-part drama on ITV

Game Of Thrones' Emilia Clarke (left) and Jenna Coleman (right) have been named as possible stars of the new televised drama of Queen Victoria's life

Lily James, Chloe Moretz and Cara Delevingne are also said to be in the running for the role that will follow the new queen from her accession to the throne at the age of 18.

Made by the production company behind Poldark, Mammoth Screen, the drama will be written by author Daisy Goodwin, who told the Radio Times, 'I've been fascinated by Victoria since I started reading her diaries at university.

'She's a woman whose personality leaps off the page – a tiny 4ft 11in teenager who overnight became the most powerful woman in the world, and her candour and spirit makes for an irresistible heroine.'

As speculation mounts over who will play 'the first woman to have it all', FEMAIL looks back at the other actresses who played the queen on screen (and the comedians who had fun at her expense).

EMILY BLUNT

Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend, who portray Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in The Young Victoria (2009)

Emily Blunt who played the young queen opposite Rupert Friend as her beloved Prince Albert in the 2009 film The Young Victoria.

The beautifully crafted movie directed by Jean-Marc Vallee received rave reviews.

It explored the fascinating behind-the scenes strategies involved in Victoria's ascension to the throne and her courtship with the German prince who would become the love of her life.

But while Homeland star Rupert appears a dead-ringer for the German aristocrat who became the Consort, Emily's Hollywood beauty appears to outstrip the real queen's own.

Emily Blunt starred as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria

JUDI DENCH

Judi Dench is not only the queen of Britain's thespians, she has played both of UK history's most iconic female monarchs - Queen Elizabeth 1 and Victoria.

She played Victoria in her latter years, as she mourned after the death of Prince Albert in the 1997 British movie Mrs Brown.

As a virtual recluse living in Balmoral with her Scottish servant John Brown, played by Billy Connolly by her side, Judi plays a twinkly-eyed queen who was rumoured to have embarked on a sexual relationship with the kilt-clad ghillie - and even secretly married him.

Unlike many of the actresses who've taken on the historic royal and don sashes, crowns and jewels to do so, Dame Judi is dressed in sober black growns throughout.

Judi Dench stars as an older Queen Victoria in mourning in the 1997 British movie Mrs Brown

PAULINE COLLINS

Shirley Valentine star Pauline Collins popped up as the woman dubbed the Grandmother of Europe, in one of the stranger places to feature her - Doctor Who.

Fans of the show noted that it was in fact Pauline's second appearance on the cult series after playing Samantha Briggs in 1996 episode The Faceless Ones.

However, in her more recent 2006 appearance she meet the tenth doctor played by David Tennant travelling with his companion Rose (Billie Piper) when the Tardis takes them to Scotland in 1879.

The pair are then thrilled to encounter Queen Victoria on her way to Balmoral, however they are all taken to the Torchwood estate where mysterious hooded monks and a werewolf-like alien reveals his plans to bite the monarch and take over her body.

But this feisty royal needs no help from the Time Lord and she's seen firing her own revolver at one of her enemies as he calls her a 'woman' and she corrects him with a shot, 'It's Your Majesty!'

In a 2006 episode of Doctor Who Rose is delighted to meet Queen Victoria (played by Pauline Collins)

KATHY BATES

She's best known as the psychopathic superfan in Misery, but in in 2004, American actress Kathy Bates pulled on her sash and diamond-studded jewellery to play the epoch-defining queen in Around The World In 80 Days.

Steve Coogan plays Phileas Fogg, assisted by Jackie Chan, in the big screen adaptation of the Jules Verne's classic novel. Jim Broadbent also starred.

While looking the part, Kathy also drew plaudits for mastering a convincingly cut glass royal accent.

Kathy Bates in the 2004 American action-adventure comedy family film Around The World In 80 Days

PRUNELLA SCALES

From Sybil Fawlty to the Widow of Windsor, Prunella Scales, 83, displayed her acting chops in a television adaptation of her play A Evening With Queen Victoria in 1991.

In Queen Victoria: An Evening At Osborne for Thames Television, Prunella donned a black late 19th century gown, a lacy headpiece and a layer of prosthetic to reminisce and relive key moments in the monarch's life.

Prunella Scales is famous for her one-woman stage show Queen Victoria: An Evening At Osborne in 1991

Prunella, who now has Alzheimers, played the Empress in her one woman show more than 400 times.

And just last year, the actress, also became the voice of a statue of the monarch in Manchester, giving passersby the chance to hear her monologue as though the bronze itself was talking.

VICTORIA HAMILTON

The Toast actress played her namesake in a two-part drama, Victoria And Albert on BBC1 in 2001.

Starring opposite Jonathan Firth, resplendent in mutton chop hair pieces, the 44-yera-old portrayed the young monarch falling love with her dashing husband and becoming accustomed to her new role as queen.

Like many Brit stars, Hamilton is no stranger to corsets having appeared in Mansfield Park, TV series Lark Rise to Candleford, the Merchant of Venice and Auntie Cora in the Wide Sargasso Sea.

And like other working thesps, she's done her time on Misomer Murders, popping up in the violent English village.

Jonathan Firth as Prince Albert and Victoria Hamilton as Queen Victoria in a two part drama on BBC One

THE OTHER 'DAMES' TO PLAY QUEEN VICTORIA

While she was a figure of great historical significance, the Empress of India has been exploited for her comic potential in time and again.

In Blackadder's Christmas Carol, in 1988, a hilarious parody of Dicken's heartwarming tale, Rowan Atkinson is the sarcastic hero who is incredibly rude to Queen Victoria and Albert - played with great comic gusto by Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent - when she appears at his shop's door.

The royals, who speak in heavily German-accented English, appear at Ebenezer's door to award him £50,000 and the title of Baron Blackadder for being the nicest man in England, but he sends them packing to their royal horror.

Jim Broadbent and Miriam Margolyes play the German -accented Albert and Victoria in 1988's Blackadder's Christmas Carol Dickens parody

But comic actress Margolyes' depiction of the queen followed on from Michael Palin's hilarious turn as the regal mother-of-nine in a Monty Python sketch.

Dressed in full regalia including a black dress, her blue sash and white headpiece and veil, Palin enters the scene to be greeted by bowing and scraping courtiers, in a typically surreal sketch about 19th century romantic poetry.

He addresses his audience: 'My loyal subjects, we are here today on a matter of national import. My late husband and we are increasingly disturbed by recent developments in literary style (developing a German accent) that have taken place here in Germany ... er England.

'There seems to be an increasing tendency for ze ent... the ent... the ant... to become the dominant ... was is der deutsches Entwicklungsbund...

'We are not ... amusiert? (an attendant whispers) Entertained. From now on, ants is verboten. Instead it's skylarks, daffodils, nightingales, light brigades and ... was ist das schreckliche Gepong ... es schmecke wie ein Scheisshaus... und so weiter. Well, we must away now or we shall be late for the races. God bless you alles.'

Michael Palin plays Queen Victoria in a surreal Monty Python sketch about English poetry

Peter Sellers (left) plays Queen Victoria in 1974's surreal biopic The Great McGonagall which also starred Spike MIlligan (right)

Meanwhile, Peter Sellers dressed as the monarch in the surreal 1974 comedy The Great McGonagall, which also starred Spike Milligan.

The comic biopic of the Scottish poet William McGonagall includes his pilgrimage to Balmoral Castle and the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria by Roderick McLean.

Sellers, who had starred in slapped on the white facepaint and make-up to play a 'sexually voracious' Victoria.

But the film was panned and he reached a career low - before rebounding with the Pink Panther movies in 1975.