Poldark season 4
The Cornish heartthrob heads to Regency London
Certificate 12 Creator Debbie Horsfield Cast aiden Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson, Heida Reed, Jack Farthing, Rebecca Front Distributor ITV Global Entertainment Released Out now
The life and times of Ross Poldark are fictional, but the Georgian world he inhabits is very real. Over the course of three previous seasons, the story of a British soldier returning home from the American
War of Independence to his native Cornwall has touched on many social issues that defined the era. This has ranged from the rural poor rioting over the price of grain, the emergence of a nouveau riche bankers and entrepreneurs unsettling the old order, and the political corruption of the
‘rotten boroughs’. Even the many trysts that form the beating heart of this bodice-ripper are in line with the scandalous affairs that defined the late 18th century.
Season four of the show gets more overtly political, with the titular Poldark (Aiden Turner) heading off to Westminster, where he meets historic figures including Prime Minister William Pitt and anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. Fortunately, Ross’s role as Member of Parliament still affords him ample opportunity to return to the rugged Cornish coastline (the unaccredited star of the show, after all), picking up from the bombshell climax of season three.
First and foremost, Ross and his wife Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) are trying to pick up the pieces of their marriage after her dalliance in the sand dunes with a debonair poet. While the pair has weathered similar storms in the past, the will-they-won’t-they reunite dilemma runs the course of the season.
Meanwhile, Ross’s own erstwhile lover – we did say the show boasted many trysts – Elizabeth Warleggan (Heida Reed) rejected him in favour of her villainous husband George (Jack Farthing) last series. However, Elizabeth still needs to convince George that her baby is his and not Ross’s.
Elizabeth’s desperate remedy to prove that eightmonth pregnancies are not so unusual for her is ridiculously contrived, but the endlessly talented Reed manages to sell it and, arguably, steal the series.
Elsewhere, the vile Reverend Osborne Whitworth’s (Christian Brassington) affair with his wife’s sister Rowella (Esme Coy), has given young Morwenna (Elise Chappell) an excuse not to resume their ‘conjugal bliss’ (as the sex-crazed cleric describes it) as she continue to pine for Demelza’s brother, Drake (Harry Richardson). Again, so many trysts. Fortunately, the series also offers new characters in the form of Monk Adderley (Max Bennett), a slippery politician that is an ally of George’s, offering Ross a new enemy in the city. Rebecca Front also joins the cast as Lady Whitworth, mother of Osborne, tormentor of Morwenna.
Overall, London serves as a distraction just as Ross sailing off to Revolutionary France did in season three. However, it offers the show an chance to explore the urban workhouses as well as the rural poor.
Arguably, Poldark leans too hard into misery this series. While death and forlorn romance abound, it lacks the usual pastoral celebrations and comedic subplots to balance out the shade with the light. But the season’s final denouncement makes it clear that while life can be cruel, love is what makes it worthwhile, going some way to justifying its darker tone and its ever-more complicated liaisons.
A darker instalment in the brooding drama expands the show’s scope beyond Cornwall, without losing its way.