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Poldark will avoid rape scene

Minor Spoiler: BBC drama reflects changing times in a shift from original plot in Poldark novels.

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Minor Spoiler:

Violence against women in dramas is a hot talking point in America lately, particularly in light of shows such as Game of Thrones and the upcoming Westworld (but let’s just overlook those extreme Outlander’s male rape scenes…?).

Meanwhile in the UK, Poldark‘s second season will avoid a rape scene written in Winston Graham’s novels in which Poldark forces his former love Elizabeth onto a bed and has sex with her.

In the book Warleggan, written in 1953, Elizabeth accuses him of treating her “like a s***.” He replies: “It’s time you were so treated”, then a sexual assault occurs.

The scene was also depicted in the original BBC Poldark production in the 1970s.

But in the second season of the Aidan Turner drama, the scene has been portrayed as an affair rather than an attack.

 “It seems consensual, and it just seems right. He goes to talk. He doesn’t go to commit a crime,” Turner told The Sun.

“They talk and it seems like there is still this spark between them, this unfinished business emotionally.

“Certainly, that’s how Ross feels. He doesn’t force himself upon her.”

“Ross is a hero and times have changed since the 1950s and 1970s,” a source said.

“The new series reflects that in a way that keeps Ross Poldark as the romantic hero that fans want.”

A spokesperson for Poldark producers, Mammoth Screen, said: “Winston Graham’s version of events is open to interpretation. Ours is not. Many fans haven’t read the books and don’t appreciate spoilers, so we invite all viewers to watch the episode when it comes out and then make up their own mind‎.”

Season 2 is due on ABC later this year.

4 Responses

  2. They could have alluded to it so that viewers knew what happened without showing it. In the original novel Wake In Fright (1953), Kenneth Cook describes the rape of the lead character John Grant by another man with the condemnatory language used for homosexuality in the 1950s. When the restored film was premiered at the National Film and Sound Archive in 2008 I was in the audience, and when the scene came on (which stopped short of showing the actual rape) everybody in the audience knew exactly what had happened. A skilled film producer and writers can often portray a lot more by not showing something rather than actually putting it on screen.

  3. The scene in the book is quite ambiguous, and it has been a source of discussion amongst book fans for a long time. Personally, I always read it that while initially resistant, Elizabeth is a willing participant, and it is not rape. Of course, rape or not, the whole incident is one of those “I wish it hadn’t happened” moments, similar to the Wentworth scenes in Outlander.

    Comparing the two shows, it would have been impossible to put any other spin on Outlander, it had to be an act of violence without consent. The incident in Poldark occurs with a history of relationship between Ross and Elizabeth and is open to being slanted one way or the other.

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