Poldark
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Poldark
One of the most successful drama serials in the history of British telly, Poldark managed to attract a whopping five million viewers for its first episode alone. Soon the nation was hooked on the juicy period shenanigans of this hugely ambitious show. But it almost turned out very differently, as our behind-the-scenes report reveals...
The man behind Poldark
The man who gave us Cornwall’s most famous hero was actually born in Manchester. However, Winston Graham did spend his early years in Cornwall, and decided to celebrate it with his Poldark series – the first volume of which was published back in 1945.
He had originally intended it to be a trilogy focusing exclusively on the love triangle between Poldark, his cousin and Elizabeth. But as he began writing it, Graham found himself delving into the world of 18th Century Cornwall, and sinking his teeth into the social issues of the period. Extra characters kept adding themselves out of the blue, and the saga became a far longer, richer work.
The film that never was
It was in 1969 that the first efforts were made to adapt Poldark for the screen – the silver screen, that is. A film company bought the rights to Graham’s novels, with the idea of making a vast, four hour epic – a kind of Cornish Gone with the Wind.
Yet, just as plans for this began to develop, the company was swallowed up by a larger corporation and the Poldark movie was scrapped. But then another company came to the rescue, snapping up the rights and approaching the BBC with the idea of making Poldark into a TV series. And so it came to be...
Robin the Rider
Robin Ellis was a fairly obscure actor until Poldark changed his life. He had received some exposure thanks to Fawlty Towers (see him in the first ever episode as the undercover policeman sneered at by Basil), but he was nervous about auditioning for Poldark.
He also had to fib. When asked if he could ride horses well, he confidently replied "Absolutely", despite being frankly scared of the animals. On getting the part he immediately joined a riding school for a literal crash course in riding!
Luckily he had a true professional to work with on Poldark – a horse named Dennis that used to run the steeplechase. Ellis’s fear never quite went away though. So when you see him in the series, looking every inch the dashing 18th Century rider, just bear in mind his approach (as he later confessed) was to "just grit my teeth and hang on!"
Writer on set!
Even though Winston Graham had worked with filmmakers before (Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Marnie was based on one of his stories, after all), he was kept at arm's length by the crew during the making of the first series of Poldark.
A team of writers had been recruited to adapt Graham's books, so he was regarded as rather irrelevant to the production – and was even warned that if he did turn up near the crew, he'd be treated as just another member of the public.
The massive success of Poldark changed all that, though. Graham was suddenly the toast of the BBC, and producers began to beg him to write more books for them to adapt. Ah, revenge must have been sweet!
Method Acting
Poldark was filmed all over Cornwall (even for the scenes supposedly taking place in France), and real Cornish villagers were hired as extras for the crowd scenes. It didn't always go according to plan, though.
One scene involved a shipwreck which sends supplies of food and booze floating across the water and duly inspires a stampede among the hungry 18th Century locals. Dozens of villagers were hired for this set piece, but they took their roles a bit too seriously.
As Robin Ellis later recounted, "hordes of perfectly normal 20th Century men and women went out of their minds and rushed into the sea shouting and screaming!"
Such was the ferocity of the scene that the crew were forced to shout out reminders that it was just a film scene, and not a real scramble for food! De Niro himself could have learnt method acting from these plucky extras!
The Winston Graham and Poldark Literary Society
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