His smoulder is older but our hero is no less bolder...
It’s dark, it’s stormy – yes, Poldark’s back on our screens
The black moon is a-hanging in the night skies above Cornwall, a portent that makes Aunt Agatha’s mob cap quiver with dread.
‘Tis a bad omen, mark my words,’ she cries, as the storm clouds gather over Trenwith house. Upstairs elizabeth is with child, but whose child is she with?
hush. Let us not speak of these things now, for she is in the final stages of labour, and her screams would put Fay Wray in King Kong to shame.
Outside the rain falls, the sea churns and urgent hooves gallop back and forth across windswept cliffs. What does all this mean? That Prudie is on her way back from the shops with a jigger’s worth of rum and a jellied pilchard? No, my friends. It means that the mighty Poldark is amongst us once more – and not a moment too soon.
The third series of BBC1’s hit period drama began last night and wasted no time in establishing the usual dark ’n’ stormy mood. Within short order there was a bolting horse, a curse by candlelight, two deaths and the arrival of the brothers of Poldark’s wife Demelza to beef up the hunk quotient.
Sam and Drake Carne were left behind when their big sis fled their abusive father way back in series one. Now they have come to join her near Captain Ross’s manor Nampara, and (eventually) to pose topless in the traditional Poldark rite of passage. Both men somehow managed to keep their crumpled linens on in this episode, although it won’t be long before they are skinny-dipping.
All we have discovered so far is that sallow- skinned Sam (Tom York) is a Methodist preacher who puts soul-saving at the top of his CV, while younger brother Drake (harry Richardson) is more of a free spirit with an eye for the ladies. It wasn’t long before he was giving new governess Morwenna (ellise Chappell) lingering looks. And no wonder, for she has sweet nature, an excellent straw hat and a really nice blow dry.
Should I mention that Sam, Drake and Demelza look absolutely nothing like each other, with a physical family resemblance reminiscent of Sooty, Sweep and Soo? The opening scenes found heroic Poldark (Aidan Turner) saving elizabeth (heida Reed) from certain death, when her horse bolted. No wonder it took fright – the poor creature was probably stressed out at having a ninemonths-pregnant woman riding side saddle on its back. evil George Warleggan (Jack Farthing) refused to thank Ross, who slunk back home to continue thatching the barn. Still, these are good times for our favourite Cornishman. For once, Mr Pascoe (Richard hope) of Pascoe’s bank, he of the Cornish Toby Jug face and the kindly twinkle, has good news for Poldark. For on this fine day in 1794, the Poldark mines do prosper, the Poldark lands thrive, the Poldark f family are well and the Poldark a accounts are like the quintessent tial Poldark soul – deep in the black. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ wonders Pascoe.
WhAT
indeed? Demelza (eleanor Tomlinson) warns her husband that he works too hard and worries too m much. ‘everyone has shadows,’ he sa says. ‘The trick is to outrun them.’ O Or ignore them, she adds. Meanw while, Dr enys (Luke Norris) has jo joined up and is on 24-hour shore le leave from the French Revolution. At some point, he also clearly left the front for Paris, where designer John Galliano appears to have rustled up his splendid uniform on a theme of Little Boy Blue meets Thunderbirds, with buttons supplied by Adam Ant.
enys has returned to marry bighatted heiress Caroline Penvenen (Gabriella Wilde), the only woman in Cornwall who can afford lipstick. everyone else must pout with nowt, but not her. ‘I do,’ she said at the altar, her lips melting under three coats of raspberry glaze. Demelza and Prudie did the eats for the wedding breakfast. The menu appeared to consist of Waitrose cranberry-topped pork pies, a giant drum of pastry, strawberries and what appeared to be a platter of Aunt Agatha’s teeth.
‘Since Judd moved away, Prudie has had time to perfect her puddings,’ said Demelza, and nobody tittered. Is Prudie (Beatie edney) missing her husband? ‘Like a ruptured spleen.’
Poldark made a welcome return to form, with rather less of the depressing porridge of poverty that sluiced through the last series. The Warleggans are even ghastlier, Demelza is tougher than ever, Aunt Agatha ( Caroline Blakiston) has become a comedy turn but, most importantly, Ross has lost none of his charm.
Is there anything this man cannot do? Last night found him thatching, damsel- saving, provisioning and tin-mining, whilst organising a wedding and (perhaps) becoming a father again.
After all that, the Poldark boy band curls are still a- bobbing under the Poldark hat, the Poldark smoulder is older but no less bolder, and the Poldark scar still scythes that handsome cheek. have you noticed that it grows fainter, like a gossamer teardrop, like the shadow of a hurt from a woman he once loved? Does that mean he is healing on the inside as well as the outside? Doubtful.