Poldark: The New Downton?

Poldark made its debut on BBC1 at the beginning of March to a good critical reception and decent ratings. Sure, it was a remake and whilst I’m usually cynical about dramas being remade when they shouldn’t (the new Upstairs Downstairs attempting to be edgy comes to mind), in this case the risk seems to have paid off.

 

For those who don’t know, the saga follows Ross Poldark as he returns from the American War of Independence to find his estate ruined, his servants neglecting their duties and his sweetheart engaged to another - his cousin no less! Plenty of room for some good old-fashioned angst. If you haven’t seen the series yet and intend to, you may want to stop reading here!

 

 

From that premise, his former sweetheart Elizabeth marries his cousin Francis, setting in motion a long-running arc in which Francis becomes a complete failure of a man, cheating on his wife without even bothering to cover it up and gambling away his estate after the death of his father. And yet despite that, we can’t quite hate him because of the likability the actor injects into the character. Elizabeth too remains likable - haughty but not unbearably so - and I have a feeling she might become a tragic figure before long. There’s some good story there if she dies or something permanent befalls her. I realise I’m showing my ruthless side here!

 

As for Ross, he ends up marrying a servant he employs after a night of passion and, all credit to them, the marriage is working out so far. He and Demelza have the kind of chemistry that I’ve not seen on a television series for a long time. They feel like a real married couple - sometimes happy, sometimes arguing, always relatable. The marriage also gave us the arc of Demelza’s journey into a society that she had no place belonging to beforehand. They just need to give Demelza something else to do now for the remainder of the series to stop her coming across as perfect in the future. Character development like that isn’t good but I have enough faith in the writing for that not to happen.

 

The final major story arc concerns what I thought was initially a time-filling plot point - the romance of Francis’s sister Verity and Captain Blamey. For some reason, this doesn’t work for me as well as the other stories on this show and its all to do with Captain Blamey. He grates. A lot. The problem is we’re supposed to think that he’s a dark figure haunted by the guilt of accidentally murdering his first wife but the guilt he’s showing is of the ‘oh whoops, I forgot to buy the milk’ type, and his worry comes across as ‘I’m not worthy cos’ I keep forgetting stuff’. I don’t know whether it’s the actor (who was rather good in Bleak House) or the writing but I’d just like this arc to end now. Give the marvellous Verity (my favourite character after Demelza) something else to do!

 

 

We also have underlying story to draw upon, with Ross and his shareholders setting up their own mining company to provide their workers with fair wages, angering rich families such as the Warleggans who have been exploiting these people for years and see no reason why they should stop. Business storylines usually have potential and falter because they get bogged down in the details but this story is actually pretty interesting. We have a clear-cut good and evil side (another thing I usually detest but not in this case) and the animosity between Ross and George Warleggan in particular is delicious when they have scenes together. Most importantly, the story isn’t front and centre which helps.

 

The other underlying character arc portrays Ross as a good lord to his workers, sometimes to the detriment of his peers in high society. In the most recent episode, he breaks into Bodmin Jail to try and liberate one of his servants Jim (sentenced in an earlier episode to two years for poaching) only to discover that its too late to do anything to save him. A handkerchief moment for sure but also showing us how caring Ross is instead of just telling us like so many other dramas do. He tries to do the right thing but in the process makes a spur-of-the-moment decision that is bound to have consequences later. 

 

There are many other stories I could talk about but I feel like I’ve already given too much away so I’ll leave it there. Hopefully you’ll have got a good idea from my not-at-all-biased review about how great the story is.

 

One other thing that I will mention are the locations. I don’t recognise many of the settings used in Poldark despite being half-Cornish but on a personal note, I love that they filmed at one of my favourite places in the world. Charlestown near St Austell is a perfect gem of a fishing village, reminiscent of an age long-forgotten. I’ve been there many times - I even stayed in Captain Blamey’s house for a week as a kid! - and I recommend the place for anyone who visits Cornwall this summer and hasn’t yet done so.

 

 

So how does all this praise link in with my mention of Downton Abbey? It feels wrong to immediately dub a series ‘the new Downton’ considering that 1.) I’m comparing this to one of the biggest successes of the last decade and 2.) the series hasn’t even ended yet! However whereas most historical dramas are usually predictable (and Downton itself has been guilty of this in the past) or an adaptation of a novel in which we know the plot anyway, Poldark offers something different. We’re being thrown curveballs story-wise. The characters are believable, made likable because of their flaws. The settings as I mentioned are absolutely fantastic. And from a marketing point of view, there’s a chance at going international since I don’t think the 1970s series of Poldark was ever shown in America. The show already has strong ratings and a second series in the pipeline. If they can keep the momentum going then Poldark has a great future ahead.