Beyond Poldark season 4, what’s the series’ lifespan on the BBC?

Is Poldark season 4 going to be the series’ last on BBC One? We doubt it, but we do think that this is a worthy conversation for our TV Lifespans series. Throughout these articles, we’ve done our best to look at the future of a wide array of different shows that have been on the air for a little while.

Discussing the long-term future for a series like Poldark is very different and exciting for a number of reasons on its own, with one of the biggest ones behind that its ratings are so deceptive. You may look at the Aidan Turner drama getting close to 5 million viewers an episode in the UK, but that’s just a small fraction of its viewership. After all, there are people who catch up on the show later, and then there are also viewers for it in other parts of the world. It’s still finding more of an audience in America, Canada, and elsewhere — many viewers in these places are not so familiar with the history of Cornwall, the Winston Graham source material, or the original series.

Given the show’s total audience in mind, we absolutely do think that there is potential for this series to last several more series. Does that work for the story itself? That’s another interesting question. One of the biggest issues that Poldark has to combat there is that there are some massive time jumps in the source, and you have to find a way to make the show reflect that. Either you throw a bunch of makeup on Turner and the rest of the cast, you recast many of the characters, or you wait a few years and still do a little bit of makeup. We would love to have the entire series make it onto television, but there are challenges with that since it requires a lot of patience and a lot of technical proficiency.

If there is one piece of advice that we would offer to take on some of the time jumps down the road, it’s this: Look at taking more of a Sherlock model with the show, where you get some new episodes that are spaced out over longer periods of time. This offers up some opportunities for Turner and the cast to do some other things while giving them the freedom to come back and take on this show in a way that works for them. It also helps the characters age a little more gracefully. All of the man cast is still young, so there shouldn’t be a hurry to get everything on the screen now.

If the actors all love the job, there shouldn’t be all that much of a concern surrounding if they will come back. Just remember for a moment here that Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are two of the busiest men working out there, and the two of them do still find ways to return and do some further work on Sherlock.

How long do you envision Poldark being on the air beyond the already-renewed season 4? Share now in the attached comments!

Meanwhile, you can head over to the link here in the event you do want some additional news right now when it comes to the series, including our recent episode reviews.