It’s official – multi award-winning composer Anne Dudley will be creating the music for Poldark 2015.
” Over the course of a long and varied career, she has won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Brit and been nominated for an Ivor Novello several times. ”
” She has composed and produced the soundtracks for dozens of award-winning films and TV shows, and was a founding member of Art of Noise. ”
Visit Anne’s website to find out more
We’re adding another location to the growing list of Poldark filming locations, this time the 18th century manor house at St Fagans, the National History Museum of Wales, in Cardiff… Looks beautiful! And where do we think it’s standing in for, which member of the gentry lives here?
St Fagans courtesy of http://www.bbc.co.uk
The Poldark team are rounding off this series of filming in the Cotswolds once more, with a return earlier this week to Chavenage House ( standing in for Trenwith, the Poldark family home ) and, as we reported on Sunday, some filming taking place in the South Gloucestershire village of Warmley.
Photo credit from Lana Viana da Silva, Poldark Makeup Artist
Poldark filming is taking place in Warmley village we are hearing today
Warmley House photo credit Paul Towsend
Location filming appears to be taking place around the South Gloucestershire village of Warmley today we are hearing.
Warmley is a village to the east of Kigswood on the outskirts of Bristol, which was home to the 18th century metallurgist, William Champion who patented a process to distill zinc metal from calamine using charcoal in a smelter. In 1746 William constructed the Warmley Works in the village, which became the biggest metal processing plant in the world.
Warmley House, home to the Champion family and Warmley District Council, is now a retirement home – the gardens there being a rare example of an 18th century industrialist’s garden.
Warmley House photo credit Paul Towsend
Warmly House photo credit kingswoodmuseum.org
Warmley Clock Tower photo credit warmleyclocktower.org.uk
Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, English novelist, best known for the Poldark series of historical fiction, was born on June 30th 1908 in Victoria Park, Manchester, England.
A younger Winston Graham.
Credit goodreads.com
To commemorate his birthday we’re sharing the following extracts from his autobiography
” Memoirs of a Private Man ” – a hugely enjoyable read and one that we’d highly recommend. In the following extract, Graham recalls a meeting with someone who helped to fill out the details of the character of Ross Poldark, which was ” At that time, a hazy picture of the character…”
” One day, during the first year of the war, when I was still waiting for call-up, I went to Truro by train and sat opposite a young RAF officer who told me he was convalescing after a crash. He had a substantial, barely healed scar from temple to lower cheek…
A very tall bony good-looking young man with a high-strung disquiet about him that made a great impression on me. And a depth and darkness that lay behind the frivolity of his air force language language. He was not at all nervous, but one guessed that strong nerves contributed to his latent urgent vitality…
Some friend told me once that there was an element of Heathcliff in Ross Poldark. A Cornishman, Peter Pool, more perceptively, I think, saw an affinity with Captain Hornblower, at least in his capacity for self-criticism. It’s impossible for me to take a detached view of Ross’s origin and character. All I know is that the young airman, his general appearance and my perception of his character, provided the basis for what followed. ”
On the creation of Demelza, Graham says this:
” I wish I could be as explicit as that in considering the creation of Demelza. Obviously there have been borrowings, chiefly from my wife. I took her sturdy common sense and judgement, her courage, her earthy ability to go at once to the root of a problem and point the answer; her intense interest and pleasure in small things; and particularly I have used her gamine sense of humour. As for the rest, most of it seemed to come from within. A romantic man’s perception of an ideal woman? That was maybe how it began, but I have had no more than parental control over how she was developed.
Sometimes a name is a great help. While the first book was still in its preliminary stages I was driving across Bodmin Moor, and not far from Roche saw a small signpost marked DEMELZA. Until then she had no name; after that she could have no other. ”
Demelza wasn’t the only name that Graham happened across upon the Cornish moor:
” Warleggan, taken from another village on the moors, was also a help in formulating the characteristics of that clan. Incidentally it was reported to me that one evening in Pratt’s Club the doyens of two distinguished Cornish families were heard to be arguing as to which family had provided the model for the Warleggans. Each claimed it. Which is little surprising considering the character of the family portrayed. ”
Memoirs of a Private Man is published by Bello [ 2013 edition ] available here:
http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/winstongraham/memoirsofaprivateman
Winston Graham’s autobiography – Memoirs of a Private Man
We’re all very much enjoying all the news and pictures we keep seeing everyday about the filming in Cornwall. The scenery is of course, stunning and the weather spectacular also! The gods are truly smiling on this production of Poldark and we cannot wait to see the end result of everybody’s hard work.
Some news of more Cornish locations expected to be used over the coming days. Here’s a little list in photo form:
St Levant and Pednvounder beach
Levant Mine, nr Pendeen
Gunwalloe Cove
Lizard Point
Thanks to http://www.geograph.org.uk
http://www.cornwalls.co.uk
http://www.thebeachguide.co.uk
http://www.englandthisway.com
When we came across a post about The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol ( home to the Poldark production team as they film the interior shots of the 2015 remake and base as they spend June and July filming in Cornwall & other locations nearer to Bristol ), it did make us chuckle.
The post, from http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk which gives details on another TV production currently being filmed there ( the sitcom Trollied for Sky 1 and starring Stephen Tompkinson & Miriam Margoyles ) mentions briefly the previous use of the studio space. Apparently the big old tank houses ” once contained 70ft tall vats of sherry “.
One of the tank houses was actually home to six, one million litre vessels of fortified wine! Oh the irony of a show entitled ” Trollied ” now being filmed in that same space…
And of course, the fictional characters in Poldark were some of them, no strangers to the temptations of the demon drink. Have you noticed just how frequently the canary & the port gets quaffed? Not to mention the barrels of smuggled French brandy. Watching the 70’s original recently, we were struck at how often someone walks into a room & immediately just helps themselves to a glass or two of something…
Fancy a small glass of canary?
Oh go on then! It’d be rude not to…
I’d prefer a glass of port…
Don’t even bother with a glass…
Here’s the rest of the article about the Trollied filming if you’d like to read more
Let’s hope the current cast are drinking in the atmosphere and history, of their surroundings when they come to those more ‘ sociable ‘ scenes… The word ‘ imbibed ‘ springs to mind!
The Cannes Lions Awards are the world’s biggest annual awards show and festival for professionals in the creative communications industry and the festival runs this year from 15-21 of June.
Poldark’s very own William McGregor has been short listed for no less than 4 awards – the main one being for his work on directing this campaign for Google – ” Front Row ” http://vimeo.com/m/90473354
You can check out the full list of work, short lists and winners here http://winners.canneslions.com/2014/index.cfm
and follow all the latest news from the festival @Cannes_Lions on twitter.
We wish Mr McGregor all the very best of luck for the results, which are due tomorrow we believe!
News that the Poldark Mine, near Helston in Cornwall, was put up for sale in March of this year after entering administration, was saddening, even more so since we were all enjoying the anticipation surrounding the news that Aidan Turner had been cast as Ross and that filming of the reboot was imminent. It seemed a cruel twist of fate that the mine and tourist attraction, which was re-named in the 70’s to reflect it’s connections to the series, was to close, just as Poldark-fever was beginning to spread it’s way throughout the public’s consciousness.
And yet, maybe this was the life-line the mine needed and the timing actually couldn’t be more perfect. Celestial forces might just be casting their spells in everyone’s favour, for just as the mine found a buyer, so did the production crew have a need for an authentic mining location.
On the 9th of June, Director for Block 2’s episodes, William McGregor posted a photo on Instagram of a Cornish half penny which he’d received as a gift from the ” gents ” at the Poldark Mine! And yes! – that does mean that the crew will be filming there soon!
William McGregor’s Cornish Half Penny
Given the rise of so-called ” TV Tourism ” ( which existed for Poldark already in the 70’s, but which is gaining momentum even more nowadays ), we would expect a surge in the number of visitors to all the Poldark locations, old and new. People are already flocking to the filming of the new series and if they’re not fortunate enough to be in Cornwall at the time the filming takes place, the very next best thing is to visit the places where everything was filmed and to experience the unique atmosphere of these special locations for themselves.
We don’t know what the future holds for the Poldark Mine as a tourist attraction. There hasn’t been any indication from the new owner that he plans to open the site again, but perhaps fate and fortune have combined at just the right moment for this particuar mine…
Steps leading down into the mine
Find out more about the mine’s history here: http://www.poldark-mine.co.uk/poldark-wendron-mining.php
Credit for the photo used above to tripadvisor.co.uk
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