IAN HYLAND
On last night’s telly
Poldark, BBC1 ★★★★
There was a fairly low-key start to the fifth and final series of this costume drama last night. It began with a flashback to 1781, when our hero Ross Poldark was lying injured in a Virginia clearing having taken part in what looked like the smallest, cleanest battle ever.
Either that or the BBC couldn’t afford more extras and the uniforms had just got back from the dry cleaners.
We then skipped forward to the turn of the century, where Ross and his wife Demelza were busy putting the corny into Cornish with a cheesy display of love and happiness.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, it then looked like Ross and his archenemy George Warleggan were
about to reignite their long-numbing feud over a tinpot tin mine.
“Wheal Leisure will never again be a Poldark mine,” spat George. At which point I was almost ready to give up and delete the series link.
Then something interesting happened. Grief-stricken George started losing his mind.
It began shortly after he covered up his dead wife Elizabeth’s portrait with an old sheet.
Days later George started seeing her sitting in her old chair. I wasn’t sure whether this was George’s grief playing tricks with his imagination or merely Elizabeth haunting him out of revenge for the covering up the portrait thing.
Either way, it was an exciting and unexpected turn of events. It was also confirmation of something that became apparent a few series ago.
He might not look as good as Aidan Turner with his shirt off, but Jack Farthing is the real star of the show.
PS: If there are to be more hauntings, can I put in a request for Aunt Agatha? I still miss her.
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Ross and Demelza were putting the corny into Cornish