The Daily Telegraph - 27.08.2019

An unapologetic dose of high romance

a fitting farewell for Poldark... or is it?

W

ell, bless my soul.

George Warleggan

has a heart, or at

least a conscience,

after all. Even more

unexpectedly, the

final episode of Poldark (BBC One)

proved to be a gut-tugging emotional

rollercoaster that, happily, waved

goodbye to this hugely popular drama

series on an appropriately high note.

After a distinctly sub-par fifth series,

and an absolute mess of a penultimate

episode, it was almost as much a relief

as a joy to see it end so well. At the

close Ross (Aidan Turner) and

Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), having

survived everything the world could

throw against them, again, reiterated

their lifelong commitment to each

other high on a windy Cornish clifftop,

before he marched off, coattails

flapping, to board a ship for France

and who knows what further

adventures.

“I swear to you, my love, I will

return,’ were Ross’s final words. No

doubt causing many a heart to beat

quicker at the prospect of a series

revival further down the line. Even

now it seems only sensible to take the

BBC’s repeated insistence last week

that this would be Poldark’s “last ever”

episode, with a pinch of salt. In a world

of Netflix, Amazon and other rival

streaming platforms, a well-loved

drama can find all sorts of ways to

survive a broadcaster’s axe. Especially

with five of Winston Graham’s novels

still left to be adapted. Even Debbie

Horsfield, the series’ driving force and

screenwriter, has said “Never say

never”. For now, though, Poldark is

overdue a rest after a fifth series that

Male nudity

is too much

to bare, says

Sanditon star

By Hannah Furness

ARTS CORRESPONDENT

VETERAN actress Anne Reid has de-

clared that too much male nudity on

television is “unnecessary” after the

first episode of new period drama Sand-

iton featured a naked seaside skinny-

dip.

The 84-year-old, who plays the for-

midable Lady Denham in the ITV

show, said the modern trend for writ-

ing mild male nudity into prime-time

drama was a sign of the times.

Joking it was the fault of James Bond

actor Daniel Craig and the scene in

which he emerged from the sea in Ca-

sino Royale, she said: “It’s just a thing

now – if you’ve got the sea and you’ve

got a bloke, then he has to take his kit

off and get in the water. There are a lot

of naked males around and I think it’s

unnecessary. Look at Poldark. But I’m

old and it’s what people want nowa-

days,” Reid told Radio Times.

Sanditon, Jane Austen’s unfinished

novel, has been adapted by Andrew

Davies, who has become known for

writing sex into his TV period dramas.

The first episode featured scenes of

three male leads striding nude across a

beach as well as a sex act in the woods

and hints at a storyline about incest.

The beach scene represents some-

thing of a triumph for Davies, who

originally wanted Colin Firth to be na-

ked when he had him take an im-

promptu swim in his 1995 BBC

adaptation of Austen’s Pride and

Prejudice.

Commenting on the beach scene,

Kris Marshall, who plays 19th-century

developer Tom Parker, said: “I don’t

have a problem showing my bum. The

simple fact was female nudity was a lot

more hidden away in those days, and

male nudity was kind of natural. So it’s

historically accurate and Andrew

Davies isn’t sexing Austen up at all.”

The show was watched by an aver-

age of 3.3 million viewers on Sunday

night, peaking at 3.6 million. It was

beaten by the BBC’s Peaky Blinders,

which pulled in an average audience of

3.7 million and topped out at 4 million.

News

Television

Poldark

Season five finale

★★★★★

By Gerard O’Donovan

despite a promising start often seemed

as exhausted of ideas as it was of

spirit, spinning out a dull,

repetitive tale that seemed

more concerned with

wagging a finger at

21st-century

concerns than

doing its job and

sweeping aside our

cares with some

timeless

romance. As a

result, the

final episode

felt like a

separate

event. Here

heroic Ross

was back

again, doing

what he does

best. Not running

around like a

puppy behind a

ranting pub bore

• but out there,
  risking his life and the love
  of his beloved wife in an
  irrational act of high
  loyalty and courage.
  Namely, secretly
  infiltrating a dastardly plot
  to support a French
  invasion of England and,
  despite the best efforts of
  naysayers, cowards,
  traitors and worms,
  eventually winning
  through after some
  nail-biting moments of
  jeopardy.
  Admittedly, the jeopardy
  veered closer to parody on
  one or two occasions.
  Notably in Demelza’s
  implausible
  efforts to
  convince a
  French
  general to
  kill her
  husband by
  means of a
  of sword
  rather than a
  pistol. Even
  the normally
  flawless Tomlinson
  couldn’t make such
  absurdity work, and it
  almost killed the
  episode stone dead.

Happily, though, it was quickly

cancelled out by the life-affirming

sight of Ross’s enduring arch-enemy

George Warleggan (the fabulous Jack

Farthing) coming to the rescue, saving

the day with his newly discovered

conscience and a pair of smoking

guns. A moment for fans to savour,

especially the subsequent exchange in

which they agreed not to get too

sentimental over the favour, and to

“revert to our usual animosity”. Nice.

Of course, it wasn’t all about

derring-do. There were lashings of

what the series originally won so

many viewers’ hearts with:

winningly written, beautifully

acted, totally escapist romance.

Long in the tooth fans of the

BBC’s vaunted Seventies

Poldark even got to enjoy

their own special moment

when Turner and Robin

Ellis (who back in the

day, and without ever

removing his shirt,

won as much fame

for his portrayal of

Ross) engaged in a

face-to-face

moment of actorly

mutual tribute.

Not everyone

will miss Poldark.

For many it

clogged up

Sundays for

weeks on end with

hopelessly

old-fashioned tales

of swashbuckling

and over-egged

emotion. But there

were millions of us,

too, who

appreciated the

occasional respite it

offered from TV’s

sometimes relentless

diet of gritty thrillers

and gloomy cop

dramas. And the

opportunity it offered

to be swept up, and

away, by the scenery,

the stout-heartedness

and the unapologetic

high romance of

it all.

Feature: Page 22

Editorial Comment:

Page 15

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Here heroic Ross was back

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the love of his beloved wife

Seaside skinny-

dipping in the

first episode

of Sanditon

The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 27 August 2019 *** 3

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