Meet Poldark's New BFFs
Season 5
short | 02:58 | CC
Get to know Season 5's newest characters and real-life history figures, Ned and Kitty Despard, and how they fit into the world of Poldark.
- After the ambush in which you see Ross receive his scar, he's rescued by Colonel Despard.
A lot of soldiers who go through war together, they have a bond, they are so close.
- I think Ross has mirrored himself a bit on Ned Despard, you know I think from those early days of seeing Ned on the battlefield, I think he's always greatly admired him.
- Ross kind of hero-worshiped him, we've never seen that aspect of Ross before.
- Stay with us, friend.
- Ned Despard is a real historical figure and what happened to Ned Despard in "Poldark" actually happened to the real Ned Despard.
- We need mad fools here.
- They're both very modern men, breaking down social barriers.
He stayed on the American continent til he ended up in Honduras where he was made governor there.
He was giving slaves land, he was helping them farm their land, he took a slave and freed her and married her, and that was his wife, Kitty, but he fell afoul of the mahogany traders, they sent signals back to England that he was not good for business for the British Empire so they trumped up charges and they basically got him sent back to England and thrown in the jail.
So when we meet him for the first time in the cell he's been there for a year and he's lobbying people that he knows to try and get his freedom back and get back to Honduras so he can carry on what is the great work that he was doing.
- Will he remember?
- He'll remember.
- It must've been so hard for the real Kitty Despard, she was a black woman married to a white man who was part of the establishment.
She would have had a lot of prejudice.
- Her great love for her husband drives her.
- And I did quite a lot of research online to find out about her.
She's quite an activist, very well educated.
She became very involved with mental health, trying to reform some of the conditions within the prisons.
- Ned's wife.
- I do feel like I've got quite a responsibility playing her and play her honestly and truly, 'cause I feel like she really deserves that.
- How did you come to-- - Be his wife?
I was his kitchen maid.
- Kitty and Demelza are very similar.
They both fall in love with their master and eventually become ladies of the manor.
- The Crown, the Empire, the slave trade.
- This is one of those moments when he has to step up.
He feels indebted to Ned, I mean he's there.
- When do we leave?
- I think he sees that Ned is just a really good person.
- He stumbles into his ability to get me free.
He saves the king and Wickham agrees to let Despard go free on the proviso that Ross keeps him under his wing and keeps him out of trouble.
Because there were so many people fighting for liberty and looking for equality, the powers at be were very keen to keep the status quo.
- I think we had a great chemistry on set together, you know we just connected straight away, and I thought, "I see this, you know I can see how Ross would look up to this guy" it just made sense and we got on really well.
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