The Poldark phenomenon

With Poldark about the hit our screens again in 2016 for a 10-episode series, here's a nice pic of Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays Demelza.  Poldark and Demelza are very well portrayed.  The latest news is that the BBC is committing £50 million to a five-year Poldark project -- with one series each year until 2020.  That's an enormous financial gamble, given that the first series of 8 episodes was not an unmitigated success -- quite a lot of people (including me) didn't like it very much, and the reviews were not exactly full of gushing praise.  I thought the series was packed with cliches and entirely lacking in subtlety -- and many of the characters were crudely drawn.  A lot of the CGI was very naff indeed -- so the production company was trying to save rather a lot of money.  Somebody described the series as "historical fiction for Sun readers" -- and I can sympathise with that view.

There's a lot of very good drama on TV, so it's a pity when a landmark series like this is dummed down much more than it needs to be......