POLDARK AND HANDSOME
WHO’S THAT GUY ON Brit TV’s latest costume drama, the one that all the ladies are swooning over? Yes, Ross Poldark, that’s the one. Where’s he from?
Cornwall, England. And Cornwall maintains a residue from back in the day, beyond the Poldark period, when the citizens did not consider themselves English but, rather, Cornish. Ever the rebels, there are a few holdouts preserving the local Cornish language, as evidenced in some place names – port (harbour, not the wine), for example, is porth in Cornish.
Poldark, the series based on the books by the late Winston Graham, follows a long tradition of British literary adaptations for the small screen. Adding to the bodice-ripping mojo: in one scene, Ross, the darkly brooding titular character, whose emergence from the…