Poldark, BBC1, Sunday, 9pm
Ellise is still in awe of her latest role
tain qualities that they’re just like a jigsaw puzzle, they just kind of fit,” she notes.
As fans of the show, her parents couldn’t have been happier to hear her news.
“My mum just hysterically laughed for about five minutes. She couldn’t believe it. She was just like, ‘Oh my god’. That’s all she really said and was so over the moon, as was my dad.”
Chappell doesn’t deny she felt “nervous” at the thought of joining an established cast such as Poldark’s “but everyone was so wonderful”.
“It’s a cliched thing to say but I really did feel so welcome straight away and everyone was just brilliant and relaxed.”
Chappell only has two other professional acting credits to her name so far - New Blood, alongside Anna Chancellor, and The Last Dragonslayer, opposite Matt Berry, which both aired last year.
“Poldark’s a massive contrast, which is so amazing. I’m so lucky to have got these very different roles in one year – and very grateful,” says the actress.
“It’s really scary but also part of the excitement. I’m just thinking what amazing opportunities these are.”
WHAT a difference a few months in the world of Poldark can make, as the sweet and innocent Morwenna’s discovering to her detriment.
One of a number of new faces introduced at the beginning of the current run, we’ve witnessed Elizabeth’s cousin and former governess fall in love with Ross Poldark’s brother-in-law Drake Carne.
The pretty pair even promised to marry before Elizabeth’s dastardly husband George ensured that plan was put to rest. As Debbie Horsfield, who’s adapted the story from Winston Graham novels, has said: “They inadvertently got mixed up in the Warleggan and Poldark feud and they’re innocent casualties of that. It’s very much Romeo and Juliet in that they’re from warring families.”
When it looked like Drake would hang by the noose, Morwenna allowed herself to be blackmailed, as she tells her sister, “to save the life of the man I loved” and now finds herself pregnant and wed to the gruesome Osborne Whitworth.
“Her struggle comes from what her heart is telling her and her duties,” explains actress Ellise Chappell.
“She’s become a pawn in George’s constant games and he uses her to further his own aspirations, which is sad because as much as she has the courage to try and take control of her own life, ultimately that is taken away from her.”
There are two more episodes before the final credits roll on series three on Sunday August 6 and it’s unclear whether Morwenna and Drake (Harry Richardson) will enjoy a happy ever after.
“Morwenna has certain qualities and Drake has cer-