The weekend on television Gerard O’donovan A heartstopping, breathtaking finale for Poldark
As series finales go, last night’s (BBC One) had it all. Birth, marriage and death. Romance and reconciliation. Joy unconfined and grief unfathomable. Extremes everywhere. Just what you want from your Sunday night slice of swashbuckling melodrama.
We’re used to big emotions in Poldark and if they were lacking earlier in this fourth series – leading man Ross’s (Aidan Turner) growing older and marginally more sensible didn’t help – recent episodes have steadily built the pressure up to the point where something devastating had to happen. And it did.
The ground was laid in a clever opening vignette that flashed back two decades to the series’ origin in three men’s desire for one woman: Elizabeth (Heida Reed). Seconds later, the current moment’s biggest crux came sharply back into focus as a heavily pregnant Elizabeth visited a London quack to obtain a potion to bring on the birth early. Nothing good could come of that, we thought. And so it proved. But not before hope was raised high again, only to be dashed all the more savagely on the rocks below.
It all seemed so positive when the action moved back from London to cosy, scenic Cornwall. Yes, nasty George Warleggan (Jack Farthing) was in an absolute bate of jealousy and resentment. But even he couldn’t blot out the sunshine that lit up the episode when poor benighted Morwenna (Ellise Chappell) was at last induced to marry Drake (Harry Richardson).
Ross and Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) were back on an even keel in the wake of the duel. Dwight and Caroline Enys (Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde) were emerging from their own dark night of the soul. Elizabeth’s confinement went so well even George was convinced, and happy. Then the inevitable tragedy happened. Fate demanded its pound of flesh. All of the emotion that could be wrung from such a moment was there, palpable in George’s agonised, embittered, response. Elizabeth’s death left the series drenched in a grief so dark even the closing nuptials couldn’t dispel it.
It made last week’s announcement that next year’s Poldark will be the last all the more bittersweet. Undeniably, this consummate costume drama at times this series felt like it was already running out of steam. But when it’s been on form, as here, there’s still nothing like it for heart-stoppingly, breathtakingly big drama.
There are some things you never, ever want to see again. Ed Balls in a leotard is certainly one. But, aesthetics aside, the former shadow chancellor’s venture into the howling, moronically fake sport that is American wrestling for Travels in Trumpland with Ed Balls (BBC Two) made its point well. Especially when juxtaposed with footage of a chestthumping Donald Trump hosting a TV wrestling bout in 2007, long before his presidential ambitions were evident.
Comparing Trump’s persona then with his Twitter feed now, Balls was in no doubt: “It’s the language of the wrestling ring – macho and divisive and childish. It’s a crazy way to behave as a president.” Not even Ball’s fellow wrestlers, almost all avowed Trump supporters, disagreed with that.
Until that moment, Balls had been circumspect in his criticism of Trump. He was in the Deep South, he said, to find out how this privileged East Coast billionaire had won over America’s working class so comprehensively. He visited a “redneck” festival in Georgia and met a selection of the ordinary, decent-seeming, predominantly white voters who put Trump in office, and would readily do so again.
He went to Atlanta to see how the immigration police have become “emboldened” by Trump’s policies, and met military veterans who, to a man, were Trump voters. Trump’s biggest achievement, it seems, was not in making America great, but proud, again.
All of which was fairly convincing, not to say a little scary. It definitely made for absorbing viewing. Balls is a likeable, matey TV presence. His politician’s ability to put people at ease and get them talking transfers well to the small screen. But like most politicians, too, he was a mite too easily pleased by his own argument. And he was a touch too keen to agree, to people-please instead of challenging.
As Balls amply demonstrated on Strictly Come Dancing, he has an instinct for entertainment. It’s that rather than any searing political insights that made Travels in Trumpland such an enjoyable watch.
Poldark ★★★★★
Travels in Trumpland with Ed Balls ★★★★