Poldark the rapist and the scene cut for TV
THE BBC has come under fire for axing a rape scene from hit drama Poldark.
The production team reportedly made the decision to protect Poldark’s image as a ‘romantic hero’.
Aidan Turner, who plays Cornish heartthrob Ross Poldark, revealed that the storyline – which featured in author Winston Graham’s novel and was shown in the BBC’s 1975 adaptation – has been omitted from the second series.
In Graham’s 1953 book ‘Warleggan’, Poldark – who is married to Demelza – rapes first love Elizabeth, but the new series will show it as a consensual fling.
But fans have hit back at the move, saying it is ‘PC’ and ‘wrong’ to change such an important part
‘It seems consensual’
of the storyline. Rape campaigners also said it was wrong to sweep the matter ‘under the carpet’.
Speaking at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, Turner, 33, defended the decision to turn it into an affair. He said: ‘It seems consensual, and it seems right.
‘He goes to talk. He doesn’t go to commit a crime...there’s still this spark between them, this unfinished business emotionally. Certainly, that’s how Ross feels. He doesn’t force himself upon her.’
In the book, Poldark smashes his way into Elizabeth’s home before grabbing and kissing his widowed former fiancee – who is about to marry his foe, industrialist George Warleggan. He forces her on to a bed and Elizabeth, played by Heida Reed, later becomes pregnant. Production company Mammoth Screen said they felt ‘Graham’s version of events is open to interpretation’.
But fans criticised the decision to axe the rape on social media. Lynda Breakwell wrote: ‘Wrong. The rape scene is integral to the plot of the books.’ Linda Orlomoski said: ‘What was the point in changing it to be more PC?’
Sexual abuse campaigner Ann Marie Shinkwin said: ‘You can’t sweep these things under the carpet ... because you don’t like it.’
Last night a BBC spokesman said: ‘Ross has a charged encounter with another character but it is clearly not rape either in Winston Graham’s novel or in Debbie Horsfield’s [2016] adaptation.’