Congratulations! Poldark has received three nominations for the Royal Television Society West of England Awards 2017 in the categories Best Drama, Best On Screen Performance and Best Cinematography.
Competing against Mammoth Screen's Poldark in the Best Drama category are: Crazyhead - Urban Myth Films Sherlock, The Abominable Bride - Hartswood Films The Living and the Dead - Monastic Productions
Eleanor Tomlinson is up for Best On Screen Performance along with:
Rachael Stirling - Sixteen, Seize Films
Roger Jean Nsengiyumva - Sixteen, Seize Films
Susan Wokoma -
Crazyhead, Urban Myth Films
Cinders Forshaw has been nominated for Best Cinematography for Poldark. Others in this category are:
Suzie Lavelle - Sherlock, The Abominable Bride, Hartswood Films
Justin Brown - Sixteen, Seize Films
Matt Gray - The Living and the Dead, Monastic Productions
The RTS West of England Awards will take place on Sunday 19 March at the Bristol Old Vic. Tickets are on sale from 20 February from the Bristol Old Vic box office (tel: 0117 987 7877) price £45.
'Would women find Aidan attractive?' was one surprising revelation from the Poldark Panel at the Royal Television Society's Anatomy of a Hit last Thursday, but there were plenty of other interesting snippets to be had too. I'd expected an evening of some, now familiar, stories of the writing and production of the show, but the addition of composer Anne Dudley and actor Jack Farthing to the panel brought some new insights, of which Anne's story of executive producer Damien Timmer's question about Aidan Turner was only one. But more of that later.
As you'd expect, writer Debbie Horsfield continued to have a lot of input into Poldark as it was being made and, although she was not on set as much for the filming of Series 2 as she had been for Series 1, she was always pleased to receive telephone calls and e-mails from the actors about their characters. Jack, in particular, often emailed her. Debbie said she was looking at books five and six in case Poldark is commissioned for a third series. Interestingly, this was the third time in a week I'd heard people involved with the making of Poldark talk about Series 3 in this way - the others being Jack Farthing and Robin Ellis - and it made me think everyone was on message after Aidan's gaff earlier in the year about starting to film S3 in September.
Anne Dudley told of how keen she was to compose the soundtrack for Poldark so persuaded her agent to get the scripts, how she composes at the piano and how she finds abstract themes more useful than ones for characters. She said that, in the theme tune, the piano represents the waves and the lone violin represents Ross standing out against his upbringing.
Jack Farthing initially auditioned for the role of
George Warleggan by PoldarkTV
Francis and took some persuading to see himself as George Warleggan. He said that as George's appearance is so important to him, the actual process of make-up and costumes helps Jack get into the role of George prior to filming. Jack himself is extremely affable and I'm sure he made a few new fans in the course of the evening.
Mammoth Screen held the rights to Poldark for some time before they started to produce the show and it was interesting to learn from Damien Timmer that he was in contact with Aidan Turner's agent for several months before Aidan was offered the part.
Understandably, producing a big hit like Poldark doesn't mean there aren't anxieties about the second series and there's certainly no complacency here. Both Damien and Debbie described the thought of the new season as 'daunting' and Jack called it 'a nice scary'. Anne Dudley's story of how Damien Timmer checked with her that women would find Aidan attractive was met by the audience with a mixture of laughter and stunned disbelief but really it gives a good indication of the level of anxiety that producers of shows go through.
Photo: Poldark TV
Oddly enough, one of the highlights of the evening was the screening of four clips from Poldark S1. Almost certainly all the audience had seen the show and most will have watched the DVD - probably more than once - and yet the power of seeing the clips on the big screen was breathtaking. It was particularly noticeable with the 'let it be true' clip where, as it ended, the stillness of the audience was perceptible. I was sure everyone was holding their breath. Debbie said this scene was so important that she gave strong directions in the script for each movement and every sound. Debbie chose this clip while Jack selected the scene where Ross reveals Sansom to be cheating at cards and Anne chose 'Resurgam'. Damien's clip was Demelza singing at Trenwith at Christmas and he revealed that, admirably, this was the very first scene Eleanor shot. Such was the pleasure at seeing these clips that one can't help hoping that Mammoth Screen will put on a Poldark Marathon at a cinema and show all eight episodes on the big screen before the start of Series 2!
Finally, just to get us ready for the continuing saga, chair Boyd Hilton, said he had seen a clip of S2 and that it was 'amazing'.
Update 15 March, 2016: Jack Farthing who plays George Warleggan will also be on the panel.
If you've been thoroughly Poldarked by the BBC drama then the Royal Television Society talk Anatomy of a Hit is just the thing for you!
Writer Debbie Horsfield will be joined by executive producers Karen Thrussell and Damien Timmer and the BBC's controller of drama commissioning Polly Hill in a panel discussion about the creative processes involved in making Poldark. Members of the cast, to be confirmed, will also take part. Anatomy of a Hit is at 1 Great George Street, London, on Thursday 14 April, 2016 at 6.30 for 6.45 p.m. and, for those not able to go, a video of the event will be available the following day on the RTS website
In Best Television Drama, defined as ' ... best scripted serial drama, one off special and returning drama series filmed and/or
produced in the West of England', Poldark faces stiff competition from Wolf Hall, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies and Cider with Rosie.
Aidan Turner is a contender for Best On Screen Performance and is in excellent company with Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall), Jason Watkins (The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies) and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (Cider with Rosie) also in the running.
In addition, Poldark is nominated in the following categories:
Best Composer Debbie Wiseman
Wolf Hall
Anne Dudley Poldark Best Cinematography
Gavin Finney
Wolf Hall
Cinders Forshaw
Poldark
Mike Eley
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies Best Sound Fraser Barber, Danny Sheehan, Paul Cotterell, Matt Davies
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
Alex Hudd
Horizon
The Sound Team
Wolf Hall
Glen Marullo, Jennie Evans, Gareth Bull, Blair Jollands
Poldark
Best Editing
David Blackmore
Wolf Hall
Adam Recht
Poldark
David Thrasher
Cider with Rosie
Kristina Hetherington
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
A full list of the Judges' Nominations can be found here: https://rts.org.uk/sites/default/files/rts102_nominations_a4_3.pdf
The RTS West of England Awards will take place on Sunday 6 March at the Bristol Old Vic. Tickets are available now from Bristol Old Vic box office price £45. Call 0117 987 7877 for details.
Congratulations to Poldark on receiving two nominations in the Royal Television Society Craft and Design awards 2015.
The RTS Craft and Design Awards recognise many of the skills involved in programme making. Poldark has been nominated in the categories for Costume Design - Drama and Make Up Design - Drama according to The Stage. The nominations in these categories are:
Costume
Design - Drama
Marianne Agertoft, Poldark, Mammoth Screen for BBC One
Amy Roberts,
Cilla, Group M Entertainment/ITV Studios for ITV
Daiva
Petrulytė, The Eichmann Show, Feelgood Fiction for BBC Two
Make Up
Design - Drama
Jacqueline Fowler, Poldark, Mammoth Screen for BBC One
Natalie Pateman,
Tina Brown, Jessica Wenden & Liz Philips, Critical- Series 1, Hat Trick
Productions for Sky1
Lesley
Brennan, The C-Word, BBC Drama Production London for BBC One
