Best Poldark Scenes
Season 5
short | 19:07 | CC
Ahead of the final season, the cast and creators reminisce about their most favorite, iconic scenes over the years.
(emotional music) - [Ross] Demelza.
- The blue dress scene is the first romantic moment between Demelza and Ross, so it's when we first realize that they do have true feelings for each other.
- What are you wearing?
- He quite fancies her, doesn't he?
And he sees her as no longer his kitchen maid.
You dare to go rifling through those things?
You get to see Demelza for the first time as this young, beautiful woman, and I think that's confusing for him and it's quite confronting.
- I thought maybe you might let me wear it.
- Take it off now!
I think that's a side of Ross's character that you see, that impulsive side.
I think he loses temper quite unexpectedly, I suppose.
It's a scary situation for him.
I shouldn't have spoken so harshly.
I think he begins to see that this could be a very complicated relationship.
It's been a hellish day, and I'm not myself.
It's a really important scene in our show.
(tender music) Of course they kiss at the end of the scene as well.
- I think it was really beautiful, and I think the way that it was shot and directed was kind of iconic for the series in so many ways.
- I didn't take you from your father for this.
- What do it matter what you took me for?
- Go to bed.
- Sir!
- Go to bed, now!
It was a fun one to shoot too, you know?
'Cause it felt like our characters were growing with that scene, you know?
- It was so important that we get it right, and we had so many factors to consider.
We had the period of the dress and how all the dresses would have done up from the front at that time, but movie magic we had to fudge it so that it would undo at the back and we could have that moment.
- They are magic moments, and they seem to come so naturally to them.
I think the two of them are such good actors, and they really care.
They are so believing that they are those characters when they're in the moment that it just, it clicks and it works and it's wonderful to watch.
- [Eleanor] And the little bit of hair that moves on the back of my neck as he undoes the dress.
It was just a very sensual, very beautiful moment.
(tender music) - The scything scene.
- Yeah, everyone remembers the scything scene.
- It was a really hot day, it was sweltering.
Probably was my idea definitely to get my shirt off.
(laughs) I do remember Phil Davis had a moment on set 'cause he was asked to stand on a box (laughs) 'cause they couldn't see him.
Not 'cause he's short, it was just that I was higher on the little hill.
- I get why it was a massive success.
I mean for me, I think it was a shame because it did overshadow parts of the series.
- I made it a point to avoid talking about that scene because it just became something else once the press got ahold of it and stuff, and I just was avoiding answering any questions.
And some of the questions I found quite tricky.
You know, you feel objectified and all these kind of things.
And I felt like other people were trying to make me feel something I didn't.
- I wanna talk about the scything scene because I think it's misunderstood.
Because everyone thinks it's all about Ross scything with his top off.
It's not.
It's about Demelza and her love for Ross, and he's idealized in her eyes.
It's about Demelza looking up at him and going oh my god, this is the man who saved me, and last night we slept together for the first time and there he is, and oh my god he's gorgeous.
- It is through Demelza's perspective, and it's the first time she's looking at Ross in this way.
That's something we all seem to have forgotten about, you know?
Or that Elizabeth is riding up in the background to have this really important scene to confront Ross.
And it all comes together so beautifully in the next scene, all of us being in the parlor and this sort of weird standoff where nobody knows where they're at or what's actually happening.
Yeah it was interesting.
It's strange to look back at it now 'cause it's five years ago, but it's still such a very poignant scene.
- Dip, one two three.
Dip, and dip, one two three.
On your tiptoes.
- She asks Verity to teach her the ways of the world and how to be a lady, and how to walk nicely and eat nicely and speak nicely.
- [Karen] Feels very Eliza Doolittle somehow.
- Behind, foot behind.
- Verity, she's just such a kind character, and I love the way Ruby played her.
There was something where you could feel her upper classness, but the warmth of her heart shone through.
- It was a lovely thing to film, because it's just a montage of Demelza trying to learn how to curtsy or do these difficult steps.
- Dip.
- But what I tried to do was make sure that she never loses sight of herself and her roots and where she's come from.
- Good.
- In series one, Ross and Demelza have been invited to Trenwith for Christmas and it's very nerveracking for Demelza.
It's her first time really in society and meeting the family.
♪ I'd pluck a fair rose for my love ♪ We don't film any of Poldark in sequence.
That scene where I sing to Ross and profess my love was actually the first scene I ever shot as Demelza.
And that was terrifying.
♪ I'd pluck a finger on ♪ And actually weirdly it's one of the only songs that we didn't redo in the edit.
It's completely natural.
It's as it was on the day.
- You could see there's a sort of real vulnerability in her eyes as she sings it to him.
It's so spellbinding.
♪ Wounded and forlorn ♪ - [Karen] And you can see that even Elizabeth is completely affected.
She thinks oh my god, I've really lost him now, haven't I?
- You know there's the physical part with the blue dress scene, and just that intense emotion you know, that they just crash together and their worlds change, and then there's this moment in the parlor when you kinda feel like sort of falling in love.
- It's the first time that you realize there's love there as well as lust, and you realize that it's totally reciprocated by him.
And in this world where she's felt so threatened by Elizabeth and George and not so much Francis, but I guess that class divide has really shown us how she's really had to prove herself, she's finally being accepted by these people.
And being loved for who she is and her own strength, and for me that's really special and I think it's a very key moment for Demelza because it's her time to shine, and she does so with such elegance, and it was really fun to do it and I loved it.
- I look a lot younger.
I look at lot younger.
You know I'm standing beside Kyle Soller and he just has just a baby face on him.
I saw him recently in "The Inheritance" in the play and he's so brilliant in it.
And Jack, and he looks so young as well.
I don't think anybody really expects their show to go on for five years.
I mean it's a substantial amount of time.
That's why there was a great sense of completion I think when we shot series five.
As sad as it was in many ways, there was a really sense of achievement, like we've done it.
We've made it to the end.
I am your humble servant, and I love you.
- [Debbie] It's the big declaration of love that we've been waiting for.
- [Aidan] It's such a beautiful line as well.
- And it's just the most beautiful moment.
They play it so wonderfully, and then she tells him that she's pregnant.
- I hope you have a little love to spare.
- The dialogue is so beautiful, and you really need to invest in it as an actor, like there's so much in it.
But those moments do really resound.
- In a way, it's the absolute pinnacle of their happiness up 'til that point.
It's I think probably my favorite moment.
- [Dwight] Forgive me, I cannot save her.
- I don't have any children, so I can only imagine what it would feel like to lose a child.
I will stay with her.
And the helplessness of it all, and the confusion of it especially at that time.
I would not have her be afraid.
In the space of a few hours, your life completely changes forever.
- Julia's death in the books is dealt with in a couple of lines, but obviously on screen there's no way an audience is not going to want to see the buildup to that, and the moment where Demelza finds out.
- Where's Julia?
Demelza is coming out of a fever when she is told of her daughter's death.
Debbie's writing of that scene was all on the page.
You didn't have to dig for anything, it was all there.
For Aidan and I it was an incredibly hard scene, obviously.
- It's a scene that when you go to shoot these kind of things, the atmosphere in the room completely changes, you know?
And so many of the crew would have children, or just would understand.
So there is, it's one of the few times you do get a real silence from everybody, even during rehearsals.
- But I was not with her.
- I was.
- Demelza asks the questions that I think as a mother I would ask.
- [Demelza] Could she tell that she was leaving us?
Was she afraid?
- She was peaceful.
- And they did it so beautifully.
I cry every time I see it.
- Oh Ross!
Strangely it's a gift to be given a scene like that, because when the writing is so on point, when you've got someone as good as Aidan to play opposite and to create this relationship and this sadness with, it sort of all came together.
Child deaths were very common at that time, but I think for Demelza she has this love of life, and this acceptance of the ways of life, and I don't think she feels that she's ever lost Julia.
I think she just feels that she's gone elsewhere and they'll meet again.
There's this very kind of powerful strength within Demelza that enables her to get up, and get herself, and get Ross through this unbearable tragedy that they've had to face in losing their precious child.
(people shouting) - Francis is a wonderful character.
(gun fires) The fact that he'd been driven to suicide was really heartbreaking.
- Flint went down, but the powder did not ignite.
And since then I've been trying to decide whether to do it again.
- Kyle did it so brilliantly, and just once again Dr.
Dwight there to talk him down from his madness.
- Francis, you are young.
You're propertied, you're respected, you have a beautiful wife, a healthy son.
- Stop.
- Kyle Soller, wow what a tour de force he is, and losing him was so heartbreaking.
- I can't believe that Kyle was only on it for a season and a half.
Why would you not have come home, Francis?
We're still in touch, he's a very dear friend.
Been incredibly lucky with my main two partners.
Kyle at first, and then once he left, Jack.
They're both just impeccable actors with incredible work ethic and you know have made me better in every way just through osmosis.
- You had nothing for Christmas, not even my attention.
- You know it's nice, kind gifts.
Generous, he's saying sorry.
It's kind of a bit for you too though that gift, right?
It's not completely selfless.
- [Karen] Amazing what you can do with a silk stocking.
- [Aidan] It's a very Ross gift as well, isn't it?
And I'm sure he didn't even see that side of it.
- It's quite racy really, and yet you don't see anything particular.
It just feel so emotional and gorgeous and like a reconnection between them.
(emotional music) - We do have this chemistry that works on camera.
I don't think either of us can really define it.
- We very easily tapped into each others' frequency you know, and we just got each others' vibe.
- So I am not to be rid of you, my love.
- Demelza giving Ross a good swipe when he comes back.
- That's one of my favorite scenes, actually.
- It was something I cannot explain.
- He was really annoying in that moment.
I couldn't help it, it's like yeah he deserves a good punch for that one.
- You must see I had no choice.
- Debbie felt that Demelza should stand up for herself and just be a bit modern for once, and so she wrote this punch and I turn around and I smack him.
And everyone went yes!
- Yeah, she hit me hard.
- Aidan sold it so well.
We had such a laugh shooting it.
Finally she was standing up for herself.
To think I did always look up to you, respect you, revere you as my master long before you were my husband.
- That speech that I've given Demelza there, it doesn't exist in the books but what does exist is her internal thoughts.
So I just thought, well I'll have her say it to Ross.
- You were not like other men.
- [Debbie] She just played it so amazingly.
- So I think she did it when she was age 24.
Incredible acting.
- So now to discover that you are so much less than other men.
- Do you know what?
I watched that scene recently, god it's gutting.
- Or are fallen so low because so far.
- It's like when you get pulled up by your mom.
I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.
- It is not my pride that is wounded, Ross.
It is my pride in you.
- She really takes him out, doesn't she?
Those words!
Yeah, she's so right you know?
And it's devastating for him.
There's nothing else she could have said there, and that's one of those moments for Ross when you do feel like there's a shift, there's a gear shift that things won't be the same after that and he feels he really needs to get things right and not allow anything like that to happen again.
- [Dwight] Is Demelza well?
- Ross owes everything to Dwight because it was Dwight's intervention that saved Ross, but it cost Dwight Caroline, because they were going to elope that night.
And so Ross feels that he has an obligation to bring them back together.
- What, so Caroline is, where is she?
- Standing just behind you.
(emotional music) - [Debbie] And there she is, and she looks such a vision.
The look on his face is just adorable.
- My abiding memory of it really is the enormous cloak that Gabriella is in, because she's so heavily pregnant.
- And very quickly cut to being sat behind a table.
We've had a lot of fun.
We've had a rollercoaster of a relationship through this.
Loved working with Luke.
- [Luke] Gabriella and I have a relationship that will endure beyond Poldark.
- Cursed he be.
- The curses of Aunt Agatha.
It's just Poldark at its best.
- He was born a Poldark.
- [Karen] Carol brought that acerbic and playful side of Aunt Agatha out.
- She's like some great old theatrical dame which didn't care what she says about anyone.
- George, tell them to put me down.
- George and Agatha had constant beef.
Both brilliant actors, so they did it beautifully every time.
- There will be no party.
- [Woman] Aunt Agatha's death was an amazing piece of drama.
- You are 97, not 99.
- It's a most brutal scene.
He is horrible, and so is she.
- Little Valentine, the so-called Warleggan heir, or is he?
- It's fun playing scenes of such vitriol with someone who you love very deeply.
- Or maybe somebody got there before ye.
- [Jack] Beautifully written, and Carol was amazing throwing a kind of poison dart in my back.
- There's no way she would want to hurt Elizabeth by that revelation, but George has just been so unnecessarily vile that she lashes out.
- I should not have told him.
- Told him what?
(suspenseful music) I cannot abide it.
I will not abide it.
Any kind of big scenes with Jack were a joy to work on.
Is love unkind?
Is your-- One of them is definitely when Elizabeth makes George swear on the Bible.
- It will cease from this moment.
So will my jealousy, so my suspicions.
I thought Heida was brilliant in it.
It's a very difficult scene.
It goes from nought to sort of a million within about a page and a half.
He'd never even contemplated the idea that Elizabeth might leave him, that he'd be without her.
- You will never again speak, or even harbor such vile suspicions about your wife and child!
- I will not.
I swear it!
There would be nothing stronger at the time than swearing on the Bible, so in the face of that, he's just presented with the reality that this is his fault.
(emotional music) - Elizabeth finally has the upper hand.
We hadn't seen her rise in power in such a way.
- You know that she's lying.
And she has to do this though to save herself and to save her child.
- I forgive you.
- It's such a wonderful, powerful moment.
It's another absolute Poldark classic.
- It's been five years of favorite scenes.
It's the simple ones that I love.
When I've had those one-on-ones with Aidan, I quite liked the filming of it.
It was unusual, and I was basically on this beach thinking about that scene with Elizabeth where she swears on the Bible.
- [Debbie] Ross finds him down there, and he's so shaken from that encounter.
- [Jack] And he covers everything that he's been through.
- Feeling the need to get the upper hand with somebody, having lost it.
- I believe I have a devoted wife, a thriving son, a fine estate, and a parliamentary career which has barely begun.
What is it you believe, Ross?
- That belief is a beautiful thing.
- What does he mean by that?
Is he taunting George?
He's not, there's no way he would want to expose Elizabeth.
Is he talking about himself?
It's a wonderfully enigmatic line, and again a great moment between the two of them.
- [Jack] George is reminded that actually, the ground isn't steady beneath him at all.
- Why is it so dark, George?
- She was wonderful, and it was very still and contained and close.
Kind of interesting, clever thing about it is you don't really see the character of Elizabeth die.
No, Elizabeth is dead.
It's as it is in the books.
You know, suddenly as a reader you're like whoa, she's dead.
- That was a tough scene to shoot.
It's such a huge moment, so devastating for him.
- It was so heartbreaking.
- Go, see what we've brought her to!
- [Jack] He's totally shocked.
- Fans have sort of been through the ringer with how they feel about Elizabeth.
I wasn't sure what to expect.
I had such a lovely response from people.
- [Aidan] You know a loved character and certainly on set with all the actors and everybody just adores her, so I just remember being very sad and devastated that Heida's leaving the show.
And shooting that scene in particular when Ross goes in and kisses her on the lips I'm thinking god, this is it you know?
- There's the moment where he comes back downstairs having seen Elizabeth, and they kind of look at each other and I remember that being a moment that we thought about and we talked about.
- It was really sad.
That was one of those moments when you don't really need to act much, you know?
- That was just one of my favorite moments in the whole of series four.
The whole thing actually.
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