Warren Clarke

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

The show shows what family life is like, as you attempt to hold down jobs, raise three children and also have to deal with an irresponsible brother and a difficult dad.

Friends Maurice Riley and Syd Woolsey plan to retire from a life of crime in a quiet Devon fishing village. When retired life proves too dull for the two, they find themselves pulled back to their old ways.

Supt. Dalziel and partner DI Pascoe investigate murders, and find a bond forming between them despite their blatantly differing personalities.