My baby blues fed scripts for Poldark plots
POLDARK writer Debbie Horsfield says her experience of post-natal depression helped her to write about the issues which affect the BBC One show’s main characters.
In previous series both Ross and Demelza Poldark and Dwight and Caroline Enys have had to deal with bereavement following the loss of a child, while Dr Enys also had posttraumatic stress following his ordeal as a prisoner of war.
Now Morwenna Carne suffers from trauma brought on by the sexual assaults of her first husband while Ross’s arch-enemy, George Warleggan, succumbs to psychosis brought on by grief following the death of wife Elizabeth in childbirth.
Mother-of-four
Horsfield, 64, says the issues raised by Winston Graham, the author of the Poldark historical novels, are still “utterly relevant”. She said: “After the birth of my first child, it didn’t occur to me to talk about the permanent ‘fog’ I was wading through, let alone consider it a form of postnatal depression.”
Writing in Radio Times, Horsfield added: “It gave me an insight into the challenges involved in acknowledging and addressing the stigma and fear surrounding the subject.” George is thought to be suffering from possession or lunacy and is given brutal 19th century treatments before Dr Enys steps in to offer a kinder, more enlightened approach. Horsfield added: “If Poldark can explore with honesty and compassion a subject that is very much of contemporary relevance, perhaps it will strike a chord with those who have hitherto hesitated to open up.”
●●Viewers have complained about too much politics and too little romance in the final series of the Cornish saga. People on social media said it had diverged from the original books.