New Poldark hits America

Poldark remake airs Sunday in the US on PBS Masterpiece Theatre

In the 1975 dramatization of the Winston Graham novels, “Poldark” the BBC Masterpiece series premiered with Robin Ellis as “swoonable” Ross Poldark.  I think most of the women who watched it—including me—had a TV crush on the elegant, ruggedly handsome and, yes, even flawed—but for the right reasons--Ross Poldark.  Ross and his mischievous waif of a wife Demelza amassed a fan club of watchers, and we hoped it would never end—even after 29 episodes spanning several years.  Will the new series deliver the same high drama and mesmerized following?

The new remake by Masterpiece will air on Sunday June 21, and my sensibilities are torn between loyalty to the original series and the poised possibility of being swept away by Aiden Turner as the new Ross Poldark and a cast of both endearing and despicable characters.

An early review of the series is positive in Variety. “…[T]his sweeping period drama, whose picturesque landscapes and glorious soundtrack will make many linger to book passage to Cornwall.

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Much in the vein of “Wuthering Heights,” the series mixes class distinctions and romance, offering the kind of classy soap that should help keep Anglophiles’ cockles happily warmed between now and more “Downton Abbey,” writes Brian Lowry.

The story has everything one could ask for in a period drama: Love lost and found; returning British war veteran from the American Revolution—fighting for the “other side”; class struggles; feuds between the Poldarks and the Warleggans with intervals of aristocratic pride and prejudice.  

With all the dashing about of handsome men and lovely women, the books and the 1970s version had a fair amount of comedy.  The most delightful and tantalizing is between the young Demelza and Ross as they banter about manners and the expectations of a lady in an 18th century British household.  Indeed, their relationship and Demelza’s devilish personality captured American audiences then.

The new series is 8 episodes versus 29 in the original series, so the telling will be greatly abbreviated.  We will have to wait and see if characters are developed as well and sweep us away to the cliffs of Cornwall and the beloved characters we cared about in the 1970s.

Resources
http://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/tv-review-poldark-1201516898/