Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was monarch of the United Kingdom and the British Empire for a then-unprecedented 63 years. The queen was an iconic figure, both during and after her reign, in a period marked by increased colonial expansion, invention, and an often rigid morality often associated with Victoria herself.
As Dickens was a Victorian novelist, his books take place during Queen Victoria's reign, including A Christmas Carol, and it's also the period for most of the canonical Sherlock Holmes stories and many other works.
References
- After the performance of "A Teenager in Love" in episode 102 of The Muppet Show, Statler speaks wistfully of his own teenage romance. Waldorf's rejoinder is that Queen Victoria wouldn't have him.
- The Muppet Show episode 219 has Peter Sellers doing a vocal impression of Queen Victoria, even referencing Her Majesty's best-known servant John Brown. While Sellers had previously played the queen in various projects including the Spike Milligan film The Great McGonagall, his intended impersonation of her "whilst on vacation at Bognor Regis, in the year 1888" falls short because Sellers has forgotten what she looks like (donning a girdle, Viking helmet, boxing glove, long wig, and a beard).
- Gonzo sculpts a statue of Queen Victoria in the November 13, 1983 Muppets comic strip (but presents it instead as Marie Antoinette when he accidentally knocks its head off).
- In keeping with the period of The Muppet Christmas Carol, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker collect for the fictitious Order of Victoria Charity Foundation.