Victoria v Poldark ...now it gets really steamy!

AMOROUS ALBERT HE TAKES HIS TIME... BUT BOY DOES HE GET GOING!

SUNDAY nights will never be the same again – because a TV ratings war is about to get very steamy indeed. Rival costume dramas Victoria and Poldark go head-to-head in the schedules tonight, each hoping that a heady mix of bare flesh, illicit sex and romantic intrigue will give them the edge in the battle for viewers.

Irish heart-throb Aidan Turner will go topless within minutes of the second series of Poldark beginning its run on BBC1 at 9pm, and his character Ross is later seen making love to wife Demelza, played by Eleanor Tomlinson.

The scenes are far racier than anything so far offered up by ITV’s Victoria. By the end of tonight’s third episode, which also starts at 9pm, the young Queen will not have shared so much as a chaste kiss.

Her unconsummated love for her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne – played by a smouldering Rufus Sewell – is the closest the drama has come to anything approaching sexual intrigue.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Queen’s luck in the love stakes is about to change, when she meets her future husband Albert.

Our exclusive pictures from episodes four and five show that the producers of the ITV drama are pulling out all the stops to ensure their programme beats Poldark to become TV’s sexiest show. Among the highlights are Albert and his brother Ernest in a sauna, with just towels to cover their modesty.

The feature-length opening episode of Victoria last Sunday, starring Jenna Coleman, drew 6.1 million viewers. It easily beat the BBC’s remake of Are You Being Served? – 5million tuned in to watch the Grace Brothers sitcom.

ITV has ploughed a huge sum into the eight-part period drama about Victoria, starting from her ascending the throne aged 18.

Kevin Lygo, director of television at ITV, said he hoped that by starting a week before Poldark, audiences would be more likely to tune in to the tale of the young Royal.

He said: ‘It was important for us to get in before Poldark. I would have felt very nervous about going headto-head.

‘Ours is new, and they’ve got a bit more momentum, but we’ll steal their thunder by coming out a bit earlier.’

Poldark was seen by more than nine million viewers during its first series, and BBC executives will be hoping that Turner’s toned torso will help the latest outing repeat that success.