Aiden Turner in Poldark
With the eagerly awaited third series of Poldark just around the corner, actor Aidan Turner chats to Yours about playing the flawed hero
Watching actor Aidan Turner arrive at an event at the British Film Institute in London last month was a bit like witnessing Beatlemania. He was practically mobbed by crowds of adoring fans who clearly can’t get enough of watching him as dashing Captain Ross Poldark in the BBC costume drama. How ironic that this extremely easy-on-the-eye, softly spoken Irishman, isn’t too keen on watching himself. “I love the show,” he says, “but I don’t find it easy watching myself. I’m constantly thinking, ‘Should I have done that scene this way or that way? Could I have done it differently? Why did the director choose that take instead of another?’ I’m my own toughest critic. I think it’s true of most actors.” Aidan, however, isn’t most actors.
Since first appearing in Poldark two years ago, he’s become major heartthrob material. There are countless fan-sites on the internet and his ponytail even has its own Twitter account! It was ‘that’ scene in the first series that did it... Aidan as a shirtless Captain Ross working on the land. Voted the top TV moment of 2015, images of his perfectly toned torso graced many a front page. “That scene was never a big deal for me and when we filmed it, it felt like any other,” he explains. “It was certainly never meant to be the crux of the scene. Dramatically speaking, it made sense for Ross to take his shirt off as he was working on the land on a
hot day. I didn’t know it would blow up;
had I known, I wouldn’t have changed anything but there was a mild hysteria about it and that was surprising.” Was he also surprised how quickly the series became must-see viewing? “I wanted to play Ross as soon as I
read the scripts,” he says. “I could sense
and feel him very early on. Then when we started filming, everything just felt right with the scripts, production and other actors. There was a quality to it from the start.” So what can we expect from series three, which is inspired by books five and six of the original novels by
Winston Graham – The Black Moon and
The Four Swans? “We’re several months down the line,” Aidan (33) reveals. “Elizabeth is pregnant and, after what happened between her and Ross, there is a possibility that he is the father of her baby rather than her husband, George
Warleggan. It’s a very delicate situation.
Demelza’s brothers, Drake and Sam, join Ross’s household and we also see Ross as more of a man-of-action as he rallies the troops to help find his friend Dr Enys, who went off to war but has gone missing off the coast of France. As a military man, Ross is very comfortable in this role. He’s better at making decisions on the battlefield than dealing with emotions; as a soldier, he’s clear and measured. It was interesting to play that side of him.” Each series of Poldark takes seven months to film so for more than half the year Aidan is, in effect, Captain Ross! “Yeah – I wear his boots more than my own,” he laughs. “But that’s fine because he’s great to play. He’s far from perfect and I think people can relate to that. He makes wrong choices and bad decisions at times but he’s a decent man and has a good soul – unlike some of the other characters. He looks after his workers, cares for people and is an advocate of workers’ rights, equality and fairness. On the other hand, he lives on the edge, is a gambler, a rebel and a risk taker. He’s a flawed hero and a very real person to me.” But how will Aidan continue to play Poldark? There are 12 Winston Graham books in total and it was rumoured he was contracted to the drama for five years when the series went out in 2015. “We’ve already planned series four and start shooting in September. I’ll look forward to it. Cornwall is beautiful and the people are lovely and welcoming. Poldark could probably go on and on .... ” Here’s hoping! Poldark is due to return to sunday evenings on bbC1 in mid-June
‘Poldark is far from perfect and I think people can relate to that’