Confirmed: New Poldark Adaptation to Air in the US on PBS

PBS Masterpiece, which brought the original 1970s BBC adaptation of Poldark to the US, has announced that it will screen the Aidan Turner-led adaptation of the romantic saga in 2015.

Based on the novels by Winston Graham, the new adaptation of Poldark stars Aidan Turner (The Hobbit trilogy, Being Human, The Clinic) as the titular hero Ross Poldark, and Eleanor Tomlinson (Death Comes to Pemberley, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The White Queen) as the loyal heroine Demelza.

It’s 1783 when Poldark returns to Britain from America’s Revolutionary War, only to find that his country is in a meltdown from recession and civil unrest and his world in Cornwall is in ruins on all fronts. His father has died, the family mine has been closed, and his beloved Elizabeth (Heida Reed, Silent Witness, DCI Banks) has promised to marry his cousin Francis (Kyle Soller, Anna Karenina, Bad Education).

Thus begins this sweeping saga of love, rivalry, and class struggles.

Also featuring in Poldark are Ruby Bentall (The Paradise, Larkrise To Candleford) as Ross’s cousin Verity, Jack Farthing (Blandings, Da Vinci’s Demons) as ambitious banker (and Ross’ rival) George Warleggan, Warren Clarke (Red Riding, Dalziel and Pascoe) as Ross’s uncle Charles, Phil Davies (Whitechapel, Bleak House) as Ross’s manservant Jud, Beatie Edney (Inspector Lewis, Wallander) as Jud’s wife Prudie, Alexander Arnold (Skins) as Ross’s farm hand Jim Carter, and Robert Daws (The Royal, Jeeves and Wooster) as Dr Choake.

And costarring in two episodes as Reverend Halse is Robin Ellis, the original Poldark.

The eight-part series, which began filming last month in Cornwall and Bristol, will screen on BBC One in the UK and PBS in the US in 2015. Premiere dates have not yet been announced, so stay tuned.

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