Poldark (and Handsome)

Recently I purchased a Roku player through Netflix.  It hooks up to my television and my wireless network (although you can also use it with a wired network) and allows me to watch Instant Play movies from Netflix right on my TV.  I am loving it and it would've been worth it just for the chance to watch Poldark again.

Masterpiece Theatre was a big part of my life when I was growing up.  I used to watch it fairly religiously and I especially loved it because it led me to many great books, as well - A Scot's Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, Love for Lydia by H.E. Bates, Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey books, To Serve Them All My Days by R.L. Delderfield - the list is nearly endless.  I loved the Duchess of Duke Street and was terribly sad that it wasn't based on a book.  Then there were Upstairs, Downstairs and Shoulder to Shoulder (which dramatized the lives of the Pankhursts).  Best of all, loved above all others was Poldark!

The series ran across 2 seasons and starred Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees and it was my absolute favorite.  I loved everything about it, but especially the stars who seemed so romantic and wonderful to my 12 and 13 year old self.  My father teased about it by calling it Poldark (and Handsome) and Robin Ellis was definitely a hotty, but I think I liked Angharad Rees even more.  In fact, long after watching these my name on LambdaMOO and DhalgrenMOO (two text-based virtual reality online communities) was Angharad in homage to Ms. Rees.  Perhaps best of all about the series was the fact that it was associated with multiple books - 12, in fact - and they were also wonderful.

Demelza Poldark (Angharad Rees) and Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis)

Poldark is the story of Captain Ross Poldark, who returns home to Cornwall from the American Revolution to find that his father is dead, his fiancee is due to wed another, and his childhood home is in ruins.  Captain Poldark sets about reopening one of the family's mines, setting his estate to rights, and finding true love in an unexpected place.  The story is hugely romantic, but also covers a lot of history, is filled with information about class struggle, has plenty of comic elements, and centers around a world-class feud between the Poldarks and the Warleggans.  I can't recommend these books and this series enough.

For many years this was available on VHS, but it wasn't released on DVD in America until this year - Series 1 in March and Series 2 is due out in October.  This was a huge boon to the series' many fans who have waited long and faithfully for its arrival.

This is one of the first things that I watched on my new Roku player and it was pretty fabulous - just as romantic and wonderful as I remember.  Thank you Masterpiece Theatre for being such a big part of my reading adventures!  I found many great books I would've missed otherwise through your program.