Lockdown, Lowdown… Ringside Report Looks Back at the TV Show Poldark

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Costume drama and British audiences…

There is something about the former which endures the latter.

During the 1970s there was an original series, based on a series of novels from Winston Graham, which was all about a man in the 18th Century who appeared to have his heart split whilst his braun was down a mine. Cue the difficulties of what he should be doing, what he was up to and plenty of opportunity to appear with a naked torso.

In the puritanical 1970’s the affairs of his heart were more prevalent though by the remake in the 21st century, naked male torsos and full dresses awaiting to be deflowered… If you can’t see what the attraction was…

Poldark was a man of contradictions and when the BBC announced it would be bringing him back in 2015, the 5 seasons and 43 episodes were eagerly anticipated – especially when heartthrob, Aidan Turner was announced as the titular character. Women, and men, of a certain age realized that shots of him with his torso on display was a guaranteed highlight of a Sunday night from early on…

The novels were mainly held to as original source material and that included some pretty heavy subject matter. The premise was simple enough, Poldark returned to his native Cornwall after fighting in the American War of Independence in 1783. Returning home after being involved in a failed military adventure is bad enough, to return to take over a tin mine which is not quite the same as a gold mine means lots of heavy dark times. That mine becomes his as he discovers, upon his return that his father has died. Worse of course is that his father’s estate is in ruins, in considerable debt and his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth, is engaged to another – his cousin, Francis. Poldark then meets and falls for Demelza Carne at a market and, though she is a maid, he falls for her, and they marry. Of course, true love will out… will it not…As well as breeding…

Part of the attraction of Poldark was that it delved into the skullduggery of the commerce of the time. Poldark’s greatest rival, George Warleggan, played by Jack Farthing plays dirty and Poldark is forced to respond in kind. Demelza, played by Eleanor Tomlinson, has to stay at home and know her place whilst growing into the mistress of her manor, and watching the love that was between her husband and another intervene and try to ruin their marriage. And as for Elizabeth played by Heida Reed, having believed that her childhood sweetheart was dead and at war, had set out a new life until he returned and ruined her emotions forever.

Jings! It was set for some drama.

The twists and turns of the time were great television and what it did do very well was not just remind us of a time when there was absolutely no technology but also of a simpler time. This was a time when our morals and motives were being held to a greater account of themselves. We, of course, failed miserably at almost every single turn to behave! But we failed with less hectoring and more romping through the tangled web of deceit. Such subterfuge is drama when you are born to be one thing but have settled for your heart instead. Then you question your choice, before pursuing your jealous desires and end up doing the worst thing you could.

It was the worst thing he could do that split people.

In a fit of pure jealousy, Poldark rapes Elizabeth.

They could have glossed over this, made less of it but it caused quite a stir when it was in the series. There were plenty who criticized it for the way in which it was done. To be fair to the series, there is very little which could be done differently to soften it or make it less than it was.

A man who believed he had power over a woman, took what he wanted from her to show that power.

The fact that Aiden Turner had done such a tremendous job in being Poldark, of capturing a nation who saw him as a swashbuckling hero who could do no wrong, made it more powerful. I disliked it at the time, but I reckon that was because I felt it was my affection for the character which was being tested. Once I had reflected upon it, I saw how powerful this was. Here was the one thing, around the time of #metoo that we were getting yet another reason as to why it was so vital that we embraced the difficult rather than dodged the responsibility.

Of course, the series was so much more than that one episode and the faithfulness with which we got the harsh conditions of the time, the structures of society that were so unfair on the poor and the working class were there as Poldark worked to support the downtrodden. Even to the point of helping a smuggling operation! It aired in the US on the PBS masterpiece network and the remake made the original look dated but it was not so glossy that you did not enjoy the whole experience.

But after 5 series time was called. Of the 12 original source books, 7 had been used for the narrative, leaving some material left should they wish to go back and revisit it. That is unlikely now, but it was the swashbuckling Sunday night treat for man and woman alike for quite a few years in the very recent past.

British television is a curious affair. Begun through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) it is funded through the universal license fee. In essence, if you wanted to watch the television, you had to pay the license fee. The BBC got it all and is state run, albeit at arms-length. Then came along commercial television in the form of the Independent Television (ITV) in 1955. Designed to bring a bit of competition to the BBC, it was paid for through advertising but still free to air… well they didn’t add another license fee to it. By the time that I was born, 1965, there was BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. And that was it. It was still years before Bruce Springsteen would moan that there were 55 channels and nothing on but here in the UK, we kept this going until in 1982, we added a fourth channel and in 1997, a fifth. With sparkling imagination, they were called Channel Four and ehm Channel Five… In between came Sky and we understood what Springsteen meant. And so, my childhood and leading up to early adulthood we had three options… But the programs made were exceptionally good. And so, here is some critical nostalgia as the lockdown has brought a plethora of reruns, new formats and platforms and old classics trying to make their way back into our consciousness as broadcasters flood their schedules with classics… or are they classics at all? Let me take you through an armchair critics’ view of what we have to see, to find out… Welcome to the Lockdown Lowdown…

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