Series 3 of Poldark begins on BBC One on Sunday night, after the epic Cornish saga filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios and across Bristol last year.
Mammoth Screen has based production at the Studios since Poldark’s first series filmed in 2014. The team coordinated filming for series 3 in Cornwall and Bristol from a production base at the Studios between September 2016 and February 2017, building sets in Tank House 1 and Tank House 2 for key interiors including Ross and Demelza’s home ‘Nampara’ and George Warleggan’s house (pictured above). Construction, prop workshops and an extensive costume department were also situated on site.
Poldark Producer Michael Ray, Mammoth Screen said: “The Bottle Yard Studios has given Poldark a great home, and it has been key to our success. Fiona and the team’s support and the flexible space they offer has enabled us to expand the series each year. We couldn’t ask for a better studio base.”
Fiona Francombe, Site Director of The Bottle Yard Studios, said: “We’ve been welcoming Mammoth Screen and the Poldark crew on to site since the series began and we’re exceptionally proud to be their studio home. With each new series our relationship becomes even stronger and the team’s processes on site become more well-established. The buzz of activity – in their production offices, studio spaces, costume department, construction area and prop workshops – is always great to see and be part of.”
Two major shoots took place at Bristol locations in November 2016, supported by Bristol Film Office; at Redcliffe Caves, where the Film Office arranged access, recces, unit base and additional parking and on board the Kaskelot Ship on Bristol’s Floating Harbour, where a stunt man was used in the water. Bristol Film Office worked with the harbour office to obtain special permissions, coordinating water tests, a safety boat and divers, assisting with parking, street lighting, camera positions and coordinating filming around at the same time as Christmas events taking place on the harbourside.
Bristol Film Office’s Natalie Moore says: “Poldark is a great production to work with, made by a team that knows Bristol’s locations well. Filming for series 3, particularly on board the Kaskelot with stunt doubles in the waters of Bristol harbour, was logistically complex at a busy time of year in the city centre, but the production team were a pleasure to work with and our preparations together meant that filming was smooth and uninterrupted. We have no doubt that the resulting scenes are going to look fantastically dramatic on screen.”
Series three sees hero Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) trying to rebuild his marriage to Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), but their fragile peace is disturbed by the arrival of her deeply Methodist brothers Sam and Drake Carne, played by Tom York (Olympus) and Harry Richardson (Doctor Thorne) respectively.
Also returning are Heida Reed as Elizabeth and Jack Farthing as George Warleggan as they expect their first child and plot their ambitious rise to be the most powerful family in Cornwall. George will try to separate Elizabeth from her Poldark roots and will employ Elizabeth’s cousin, Morwenna, played by Ellise Chappell (The Last Dragonslayer), as a governess to Geoffrey Charles, played by newcomer Harry Marcus. When Morwenna meets Drake Carne, the pair will fall in love and the Poldark and Warleggan households will collide once again.
Based on the novels by Winston Graham, Poldark series 3 is a nine-part series written and created for television by Debbie Horsfield (Cutting It, The Riff Raff Element) and directed by Joss Agnew (Brief Encounters, Mr Selfridge) and Stephen Woolfenden (The Halcyon, Doctor Who). It is produced by Roopesh Parekh (And Then There Were None, The Hollow Crown) and Michael Ray and the executive producers are Debbie Horsfield, Karen Thrussell, Tom Mullens and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for the BBC.