The fourth series of BBC One’s much loved drama Poldark has begun shooting, once again with production base at The Bottle Yard Studios.
Adapted by Debbie Horsfield from the novels by Winston Graham and produced by Mammoth Screen, the new eight part series will film over the coming months across Cornwall, at the Studios and other Bristol locations, and in London.
1796: Ross (Aidan Turner) must defend Cornwall from an empowered George Warleggan (Jack Farthing), and risks everything he holds dear as he embarks on a political journey which takes him to the nation’s capital. Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) finds her loyalties torn, Elizabeth (Heida Reed) tries to strengthen her marriage, Morwenna (Ellise Chappell) continues to be oppressed by husband Reverend Ossie Whitworth (Christian Brassington), and the Enyses (Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde) are tested as never before.
Two powerful new characters enter the saga, as Rebecca Front (War And Peace, The Thick Of It) is Lady Whitworth, Ossie’s formidable mother, and Max Bennett (The Hollow Crown) is Monk Adderley, an unscrupulous society figure who is on a collision course with the Poldarks. Also back for series four are Harry Richardson and Tom York as Drake and Sam Carne, Beatie Edney as Prudie and Josh Whitehouse as Lieutenant Hugh Armitage, who remains deeply in love with Demelza.
Poldark has a strong returning audience averaging 6.7m consolidated viewers and a further 1m BBC iPlayer requests per episode across all three series.
Mammoth executive producer Karen Thrussell says: “We were hugely gratified by the massive amount of love the audience felt for series three. We hope this will be our strongest series yet, with eight brilliant scripts from Debbie Horsfield, a whole new world of stories and our very wonderful cast. In this series Ross and Demelza will face new challenges and try to turn their backs on old ghosts. Ross strives to become a better man, but his dark and reckless streak is never far from the surface and will lead to him facing new enemies and suffering great losses.”
Poldark is adapted by Debbie Horsfield (Age Before Beauty, Cutting It, The Riff Raff Element) produced by Michael Ray (Poldark) and directed by Joss Agnew (Mr Selfridge, Jekyll And Hyde) and Brian Kelly (The Loch, Outlander). Debbie Horsfield continues to serve as executive producer alongside Tom Mullens, Karen Thrussell and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for the BBC.
Poldark series 4 will transmit in 2018 on BBC One.