Fifth series of Poldark will be last, BBC confirms

Filming for the last instalment of the Cornish-set BBC1 series will begin this week and new details have emerged about where the storyline will go.

The new episodes will follow the cliffhanger that ended the fourth series with the death of Elizabeth Warleggan, played by Heida Reed and follow events that happened in the years in between the books penned by Winston Graham.

After the seventh novel, The Angry Tide, on which series four was based, Graham left a gap of 10 years before the eighth novel, The Stranger From The Sea, begins.

Writer Debbie Horsfield, who has penned every episode of the four series, has said she will draw details for the new episodes from references made to previous events in the eighth book.

She said: “In The Stranger From The Sea Winston Graham made many references to developments that happened in the ‘gap’ years.

“Much can also be inferred. There are, of course, also historical events and people of the time, both in Cornwall and in London.

“Series five will draw on all of these to follow the lives of the Poldarks, George Warleggan, the Enyses, and the Carnes in this intervening period.”

The fifth series will be set after the turn of the century and after the death of Elizabeth.

It will see Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) resolve to put Westminster behind him and spend more time with the people he loves.

However he is compelled to challenge the establishment again when an old friend makes a plea for help and as the Enyses, played by Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde, rally to join the cause, Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) must contend with dangers close to home, while George (Jack Farthing) courts corrupt powers whose influence spans the empire.