Lust, barbs and subtlety replace Poldark’s dark times
Signs that Poldark (BBC One) is lightening up a little continued in a third episode where, unusually, good consistently threatened to win out against bad. Even as Ross risked life and limb on the streets of Roscoff, in the grip of a revolutionary reign of terror, there was much to lift the spirits back home.
Screenwriter Debbie Horsfield has always been careful to ensure some comedy undercuts Poldark’s fraught onslaught of heaving pectorals and breathless plot twists. For two series, the relief was largely provided by Ross’s resentful and entertainingly sly servants Prudie (Beatie Edney) and Jud (Phil Davies). But, with Davies currently on secondment to Sky One’s even more gloriously coastlined Riviera, that’s no longer an option.
Happily, Aunt Agatha (Caroline Blakiston) is filling the gap. Her acid-tipped barbs regarding the paternity of Elizabeth’s (Heida Reed) infant son and George Warleggan’s ill-breeding always raise a smile. Add in the cheeky presence of Elizabeth’s firstborn Geoffrey Charles (Harry Marcus) and there’s now an undertow of subversive humour in the Warleggan household. Though not quite enough to puncture George’s (Jack Farthing) nastier moments in an episode that saw him, predictably, go all hangin’ and floggin’ now he’s been called to the bench.
Yet, even in a wig and gown, Farthing’s portrayal of George has a subtlety that shows the neediness beneath his villainy. So much so, Elizabeth’s recognition, at last, of the depth of George’s venality seems to be driving her headlong into a laudanum bottle. Meanwhile, Ross’s (Aidan Turner) crown as Poldark’s principal totty continued to wobble as his refusal to even flirt, let alone go sans culottes, with a smouldering revolutionary landlady got him into all sorts of trouble across the Channel.
That said, his lusty flame did flare up briefly on his return in a chest-baring reconciliation with Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), but this felt more like a sop to the fans, the ember of a dying fire. Especially as the really torrid romance was taking place elsewhere, in the feverish hearts of Drake (Harry Richardson) and Morwenna (Ellise Chappell), who together offered as alternatively chaste a vision of young love as it is possible to conceive.
All of which left this episode feeling a mite underwhelming, despite Ross’s swashbuckling in France. Still, at least Dr Dwight (Luke Norris) remains mouldering in prison, with the prospect of very dark times to come. Bring them on, I say.
Gerard O’donovan
After a ratings-winning return to Channel 4 last year, and an incredibly popular live interactive game in London and Manchester, it was inevitable that the beloved Nineties game show would be back. Last year’s charity edition was presented by Stephen Merchant, who said he would not be returning for a full series. So, for The Celebrity
Crystal Maze, the duty passed to Richard Ayoade who, thankfully, hadn’t followed Merchant’s decision to wet shave his head as a nod to the great former host Richard O’brien.
Still, every moment was filled with nods to the past and an overarching silly self-awareness. “This must feel like déjà vu. But that’s television for you. Same thing, slightly different faces,” said Ayoade at the outset.
The people that society had – as the host put it – “accorded celebrity status” and were taking part in the opening edition were Strictly champion Ore Oduba, The Last Leg host Alex Brooker (who was also the team captain), I’m a Celebrity… 2015 winner Vicky Pattison, choreographer Louie Spence, and The Only Way Is Essex star Lydia Bright.
The team got off to a strong start, with a victory for Oduba, but then challenge after fiendishly difficult challenge went by without a crystal. Spence, who appeared temporarily deaf while his team-mates bellowed for him to get out, got locked in.
But then at the fifth challenge, a mystery in the Aztec Zone, Pattison had her first go. She figured out exactly what to do and executed it quickly and calmly, grabbing the crystal with 50 seconds to spare. Brooker wisely sent her straight back in to do another and lo-and-behold a second crystal followed. Pattison, it turned out, is definitely a woman you want on your team.
Without Richard O’brien, any version of The Crystal Maze will always feel inferior to its predecessor. But the wonderfully deadpan Richard Ayoade was a funny and engaging guide and its contestants as entertaining as you could want. It seems there’s still life in the old format yet – and the £10,000 going to Stand Up 2 Cancer was the icing on the cake. Catherine Gee