It was one of the most memorable TV images of the year: Aidan Turner half-naked and wielding a scythe in BBC1’s Poldark.
But the makers of the hit Sunday night remake have declared themselves “pretty innocent” over the much-discussed shirtless scenes which seem finally to have toppled Colin Firth’s turn as Mr Darcy as television’s most talked about romantic lead.
His role as the smouldering Ross Poldark has catapulted Turner to fame but the star, who previously appeared in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy The Hobbit, said he steered clear of the occasionally feverish viewer response.
The drama’s executive producer, Damien Timmer, told the new issue of Radio Times: “Yes, yes, the shirtlessness! But honestly, we were pretty innocent about the shirt-taking-off stuff.
“No, really. Ross does it in the book, he goes swimming, he washes himself clean. And he’s a farmer, and it’s very hot in Cornwall! Besides, we didn’t audition him with his clothes off.”
Turner said: “It was quite odd to walk into a newsagent and see myself holding a scythe with a peculiar smile on my face.
“I don’t feed it, you know. I think I could easily get addicted to Googling myself if I did start doing it, so I just stay out of that entirely. It’s better not to know, sometimes. I don’t read any press. I make it a thing.”
The drama, which co-stars Eleanor Tomlinson as Poldark’s maid, later wife, Demelza, comes to an end on BBC1 on Sunday, having already been recommissioned for a second series after averaging about 8 million viewers.
The series has been credited with boosting the tourism trade in Cornwall, where it is set and filmed, as well as – more surprisingly – a spike in interest in scything.
Debbie Horsfield, who adapted Winston Graham’s Poldark novels, said she wanted to cast Turner from the start, saying he had “certain traits, that kind of rebel/outsider element, the damaged person who’s at odds with the whole world”.
Timmer said Turner “has that integrity in the way he plays Ross, he commits to it so completely; he is Ross in all of his complex brooding”.
Turner said: “When you’re on TV, you might get stopped in the street the odd time, but I suppose it’s how you handle it yourself. If you want your life to change, it can change, but if you don’t want it to change, there are ways you can hold on to all of those things that matter.”
He said of living in Dublin: “It’s fairly calm and relaxed. There’s no mania – not that I can see.”
The drama was originally made for TV in the 1970s when it attracted audiences of 15 million and the remake has helped BBC1 to its highest share of an audience in a decade.
