The spectacularly staged cliffhanger ending of last night’s 8th and final episode of the First Season of the new Poldark left us and poor Demelza on the edge of the abyss–literally.
The audience with a 12-month wait and Demelza looking at a precipice of worry and uncertainty.
WOW!
Poldark‘s explosion into the nation’s consciousness in the UK is phenomenal. (I’m enjoying riding on the coattails, albeit with a feeling of déjà vu!).
Poldark is referenced daily in the British zeitgeist–in cartoons, radio, TV print and online–sometimes with a political twist and even academic papers discussing its historical context.
The ancient art of scything is experiencing a re-examination; Colin Firth is getting some free publicity and the British Chancellor George Osborne—at the height of an unpredictable election campaign—finds time to be a fan!
It seems the time was right for Captain Ross Poldark to gallop back into the national psyche and turn up the temperature on Sunday nights.
Aidan Turner has done just that with nobs on–if you’ll pardon the expression, supported by a wonderful ensemble.
His passionate performance as Ross is at the epicenter of the storm over Poldark and it’s exciting to watch him take the thing by the scruff of the neck–literally in the case of the wretched Matthew Sansom. (Good riddance, I say, he was intolerably impertinent to Rev. Dr. Halse at the card table).
Spoiler alert–skip the next paragraph if you have not yet seen all of the first new series.
Eleanor Tomlinson as Demelza–losing her first born and husband at a stroke–matches Aidan, playing Demelza with an honesty that anchors the piece firmly within the truth-telling universe created in the novels by Winston Graham.
She and Aidan have established the emotional heart of the piece–and it’s that that attracts the audience back each week.
As Meredith has just said, it is certainly not my wigs!
Robin Ellis 