Aidan Turner’s Shirtless Scything Scene is the Reason People Watch ‘Poldark’

Sometimes I’m shocked that Poldark has lasted as long as it has. After all, it’s a period drama set in the not-so-sexy coal mining industry, starring a reckless and selfish protagonist, and featuring characters with names like Demelza, Clowance, and Morwenna. Weekly episodes feature subplots about smuggling, impoverished workers getting scurvy, and an abusive clergyman who likes to suck prostitutes’ toes. It’s a quirky show that — honestly? — doesn’t quite measure up to the title of “Masterpiece Theater.” And yet, there it’s run for five years and it’s managed to claim countless ardent fans.

So what is it about Poldark? What makes it so darn persistently popular? How did it survive for five full seasons?

I think Poldark‘s appeal comes down to one short scene in the show’s first season wherein the show’s hero, Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner), scythes wheat shirtless.

Taken on its own, it is a moment of pure visual decadence. After all, there’s no real reason for the character to be shirtless (and in fact it could be argued that this level of male nudity in the daylight is potentially scandalous in the 1700s). There’s even some controversy about the way in which Turner is scything, as he is technically doing it wrong. But there he is: angry, sweaty, heartbroken, frustrated, confused Ross Poldark, and his glittering pecs.

The scene is so infamous, that the actor and the show’s producers have been interviewed about it countless times (including an official PBS feature). The British public, who saw it before it hit stateside, went bananas for Turner’s bare chest. Subsequent seasons have opened or featured similar gratuitous scenes, but none have stuck in the psyche of Poldark fans quite like the scything scene.

A major reason for that has to do with what the scene narratively represents for Poldark. Yes, it’s a moment that lets the audience blissfully reduce its hero to man-meat, but emotionally, Ross is facing a major turning point. This is the scene immediately following his first time sleeping with Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), a girl he saved from the streets and is now falling in love with. Their sex scene is consensual, but dirty. She’s just been fired for putting on his mother’s gown for fun, and now she comes to him, still wearing it, and they proceed to have passionate, lust-filled sex.

The scything scene also represents the character being stripped of his own ideas of himself. He can no longer see himself as a noble and benevolent lord saving an urchin from the evils of living on the street. He’s slept with an unwed servant! But he’s still in love with Elizabeth! But he’s got to do the right thing! What is the right thing to do? While Ross simmers with all these conflicting feelings, the camera cuts to Demelza, framed in a hazy golden light, watching him from a bed of flowers. She’s clearly in love with him and the fact that she’s ogling him only invites the audience to do the same.

Poldark is a show that invites the audience to partake in its characters’ passions, be they rash displays of heroism or simply enjoying the sight of a handsome man’s physique. There’s no real deep significance to these entertaining moments, except as they relate to the emotions driving the concerned characters. It’s simple, decadent, pulp storytelling: a soap opera that a viewer can get lost in.

Poldark isn’t trying to win Emmys or save streaming platforms. It’s just trying to entertain the audience on the basest level with a frothy soap opera starring a guy who looks good shirtless. It’s no more and no less, but Poldark knows what it is and celebrates it.

Poldark is that show with the hot British guy who takes his shirt off to work in the fields, and that’s why people love it.

Where to stream Poldark