Poldark season 5: when is it on TV? Plus everything we know so far about the final series
After a heart-rending series finale for Poldark's fourth series, fans are already looking forward to the period drama's next outing. The stakes will be higher than ever, as the BBC One drama's fifth series is "going to be the last", according to writer Debbie Horsfield. Here's everything we know about it so far:
When will Poldark series five be on TV?
The series will premiere in the UK on BBC One on Sunday 14 July at 9pm, and will air on PBS on Sunday 29 September.
Where will series five be set?
In the fourth series, Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) ditched the mines of Cornwall for the House of Commons, becoming a Member of Parliament. But the fifth series will certainly see a return to Cornish soil.
The National Trust submitted a planning application to build a temporary outdoor set at the West Wheal Owles engine house, a key shooting location for the series in Cornwall, for six weeks of filming.
What will happen in series five?
The first four series of Poldark closely followed the plot of its source material, the series of historical novels by Winston Graham. On average, each series of the BBC drama has covered two novels by Graham.
So far the show has covered the same ground as the previous TV adaptation, which aired from 1975-77 and starred Robin Ellis. The Seventies version adapted the first seven books in the series, from Ross Poldark (1945) to The Angry Tide (1977).
The next novel, Stranger From the Sea, begins in 1810, over a decade after the events of series four. So rather than jump a decade and age Aidan Turner’s Ross Poldark to 50 years old, the fifth and final TV series will fill in the missing events. Horsfield has mined real history to follow the lives of the Poldarks and the Warleggans for two years (1800 to 1802).
Season 5 synopsis is as follows:
"It is a new century and with it comes the promise of a hopeful future, but the past casts a long shadow over Cornwall. Following the death of Elizabeth, Ross Poldark resolves to put Westminster behind him and spend more time with the people he loves. However, when an old friend emerges with a plea for help, Ross is compelled to challenge the establishment again. As the Enyses (Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde) rally to join the cause, Demelza must contend with dangers close to home, while George (Jack Farthing) courts corrupt powers whose influence spans the Empire."
Jack Farthing, who plays George Warleggan has also spoken about his character's heartache after the death of Elizabeth.
"We find him at the beginning of this series apparently back to normal - prolific, working hard, getting down to it. But obviously, avoiding [Elizabeth’s death], I think, is the thing. Totally avoiding, so taking down pictures of her, not wanting anyone to say her name, getting on with his job," he revealed.
"There's a great chunk of this series that is about him dealing with grief and about how hard that is. It’s profound, it’s significant," he said.
There will also be some new characters, two of which are highly significant to storyline and are mined from real history. Vincent Regan and Kerri McLean play Ned and Kitty Despard (Edward and Catherine), a Colonel and his wife, a strong-willed former slave. It is imagined that Ross fought with Colonel Despard in the Revolutionary War.
When Despard finds himself in a London prison, he gets his wife to go to his old comrade Captain Poldark for help. As it happens Despard’s wife Kitty hits it off with Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), perhaps because they were once both humble scullery maids.
How will the show deal with the time-gap?
Winston Graham's epic series covers several decades of the Poldark family's story, with Bella Poldark ending 37 years after the initial events of the first novel.
The eighth book in the series, The Stranger from the Sea, is mostly set a decade after The Angry Tide, and much of the storyline follows a middle-aged Ross's teenage children Jeremy and Clowance.
As for the possibility of reviving the show in 10 years time...
Turner has expressed reservations about trying to cover the novel's events straight away. "The jump is huge," he has said. "But I'm not putting grey in my hair [for the next series] or anything like that. I'll come back in 10 years and revisit it the right way."
Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays Ross's wife Demelza, expressed similar doubts. “We’re about to take on our last series, who knows if it will go further?" she said.
"There’s a big time jump in the book, so we need to look after that and look after the book, and either find a way of bridging that gap or perhaps having a little break and coming back later... We don’t know quite yet what we’ll do."
Stranger things have happened - last year, Twin Peaks brought back its original cast for a third series more than 25 years after the show was cancelled, while US sitcom Full House was revived as Fuller House in 2016, two decades after the show left the air.