Dr. Robert Traill

Dr. Robert Traill arrives in Victoria's world as a working physician with no patience for court ceremony, more concerned with sanitation and the health of ordinary people than palace protocol. Blunt and practical, he speaks plainly to those above his station, treating rank as an obstacle to good medicine rather than something to be revered.

Compston plays him with a steady, unshowy conviction that cuts through the show's velvet and gilt — a man whose authority comes from competence rather than birth. The character works because he lets the series needle its own aristocracy: every scene he's in quietly asks whether privilege has earned the respect it demands.