How TV classic Poldark paved the way for Bridgerton and Rivals

As tousle-haired star Aidan Turner skinny-dipped in the second episode and waved around his manly scythe while bare-chested in episode 3, it was clear that the BBC had finally discovered that prime time period dramas didn’t have to be prim and proper literature adaptations — they could be sexy, and just a little bit trashy too.

While some viewers’ hearts may have skipped a beat when Colin Firth emerged from a lake in a wet shirt a decade before in 1995’s Pride & Prejudice, prior to Poldark most mainstream period dramas on terrestrial TV were stuffy adaptations in which the only chests on display were the ones spilling out of the heroine’s corsets. (Sorry, Downton Abbey fans - that show, which debuted in 2010, is utterly lovely, but it will never, ever be sexy.)

Poldark changed all that. It doesn’t actually have explicit sex scenes — the show was on BBC One on Sunday evenings, and we wouldn’t want granny to pass out from shock in front of the TV — but it does have sexiness at every turn.

It’s most obvious in the budding romance between Turner’s Ross Poldark and his kitchen maid Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), and also in the smouldering looks between Ross and his former love Elizabeth (Heida Reed), but flirtatious plots involving villainous George Warleggan (Jack Farthing), Dr Dwight Enys (Luke Norris) and Caroline Penvenen (Gabriella Wilde) all contribute to the general feeling that the county of Cornwall is far steamier than any travel show would have you believe.

Of course, the BBC’s delicious historical romp was made at a time when non-UK TV producers and streaming services had already realised that period dramas could be erotic and irreverent and didn’t have to be based on the classic works of literature you’re made to read for your English GCSE.

The Borgias, The Tudors (both very loosely based on historical figures) and the infamously explicit Outlander (based on Diana Gabaldon’s steamy novels) already existed, but the huge success of the British-made Poldark paved the way for even more period dramas that mixed sexiness and silliness with history, including Harlots, The Great and, of course, Bridgerton, based on Julia Quinn’s series of romance novels.

(Indeed, Entertainment Weekly’s review of Bridgerton described it as "a wonderful diversion for those who love Pride & Prejudice but wish it had more stairway sex".)

Bridgerton’s brooding leading men - from Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony and Rege-Jean Page’s Simon to Luke Newton’s Colin and Luke Thompson’s Benedict - also all owe a debt to Aidan Turner’s Poldark, a fully realised character with flaws, humour and even simmering anger, not just a tanned and muscular man who looks good with his shirt off.

It can be argued that last year’s Disney+ hit Rivals should give thanks to Poldark, too.

Based on Jilly Cooper’s 1988 ‘bonkbuster’ novel, the raunchy Rivals was promoted as a period drama because it is set in the 1980s, and it also features all the elements that made Poldark such a hit back in 2015 – it’s sexy, it’s got an interesting villain, a flawed hero (Alex Hassell’s Rupert) and plot twists aplenty. (Yes, it does have shirtless men as well.)

And let’s not forget that it has another, extra special ingredient borrowed straight from our favourite Cornish drama — Aidan Turner himself. He brings his likeable charm to the role of TV journalist Declan O’Hara in Rivals and, along with Danny Dyer, is one of the high points of the series.

Turner described the show to RadioTimes.com last year by saying: "It’s bold and it’s naughty and it’s a lot of fun."

A phrase that could describe Poldark, too.

Poldark is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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