Sir John Conroy

Sir John Conroy is comptroller of the Duchess of Kent's household, a smooth and ambitious operator who has spent years positioning himself as the power behind the young Princess Victoria. He wants control of the regency and treats the princess as a means to that end, all charm and calculation with the Duchess, all pressure and condescension with Victoria herself.

Paul Rhys plays him without cartoonish menace, which is what makes him unsettling: the manipulation is patient, domestic, delivered in reasonable tones across breakfast tables. The writing gives him a real motive — status denied him by birth — and Rhys lets you see the wounded vanity under the control, so his scheming feels human rather than merely villainous.