Aidan Turner at London MCM Comic Con

MCM Comic Con Panel  Photo: Evie Bowman

 'I ride a horse in the other show, so I can hang out on a horse all day,' says Aidan Turner grasping at straws.
I'm backstage in the Press Room at MCM Comic Con and Lenora Crichlow has just put Aidan in the awkward position of choosing between filming Being Human and filming Poldark. The banter between Aidan and his fellow Being Human cast mates Lenora and Russell Tovey means, if there's a joke to be had, they'll find it.
'You love a horse, don't you?', says Russell.
'Oh I love a horse,' says Aidan, ' I can just saddle up and ride away. There's not much to it really.'
'He does love a horse,' Lenora joins while Russell can't stop laughing.
'Because they're well behaved,' Aidan explains, 'They train them up good and I'm a pretty decent jockey. Did you ever do it?' he asks Russell, 'Did you give it a shot in Banished? Oh, you didn't have horses in Banished.'
'We didn't, no we had kangaroos,' quips Russell, 'They're tough to ride.'
'There'll never be a second season,' mutters Aidan.

MCM Comic Con Press Room Photo: Evie Bowman

The press event is for Being Human but inevitably it touches on Poldark and the coming series.
'We pick it up exactly where we left off... so it's a sad state of affairs,' says Aidan, 'And yeah, there's so much story in it, and all the characters have massive arcs in the next series.'
Never missing a queue Russell asks, 'Have you a massive arc?'
'Yeah, huge. That's what people say,' retorts Aidan.
'Are you in it?' asks Lenora.
'I'm in all of them, all of the episodes. I'm in all the deleted scenes,' Aidan says to much laughter. 'It's going to be huge this year, yeah. I mean, it was big the first year, but with all the support and the fanbase that we've accumulated? It's gonna be amazing.'

A couple of general questions are thrown in.
Does Aidan ever watch his own shows? 'Whoah! No, no,NO!'
Does he relate to his characters on a personal level? 'I don't know how you don't get involved emotionally. You have to make those connections all the time then, before you know it you're so far in, it's hard to decipher which bit is you and which is the character.  Yeah, I would think you have to give a lot to it, yeah.'

It's also established that Aidan's beard is not for a new role.

Photo credit: Evie Bowman

Which leads us nicely from the press conference to the photo shoot later in the day. Aidan had so many people wanting pictures with him that, with a hundred photos to go (according to staff), the session was in real danger of overrunning. But Aidan refused to be rushed and, in the session I was in, greeted every woman with a kiss, every man with a handshake and did his best to slow the photographer down.  And, yes, his beard is very soft!

Photographs over, Aidan had a final autograph signing session which was due to end at 4.45 pm but, when that time arrived, there was still a huge queue snaking through the hall. Groans of disappointment went up when staff warned us that the queue might be capped but then word came from Security that Aidan said he would stay until every autograph was signed. As it approached 6 pm announcements went out that the hall was closing and still Aidan signed, still he gave people time. And by 6 o'clock, he'd done them all!  What a star he is!

Photo: Evie Bowman

You can watch the MCM press interview here: