Poldark

The 1975 BBC adaptation covered all seven Poldark novels that Winston Graham had written up to that point, out of an eventual twelve in the series.

Production for the first series included eight weeks of location filming in Cornwall, the setting of the novels.

Poldark became one of the most successful British television adaptations of all time and was sold to over forty countries, proving especially popular in the United States, Spain, Italy, Greece and Israel.

On home video, Poldark outsold every costume drama except the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

The series aired in the US as part of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre in 1977-78, and a 2007 PBS viewer poll ranked it seventh among the best-loved series of the previous 35 years.

The theme music was composed by two different composers across the series' run: Kenyon Emrys-Roberts wrote the score for 26 episodes, while Max Harris composed for the remaining 7.

Comedians Reeves and Mortimer referenced the series by pitching a spoof called 'Poldark on Mopeds' as a rejected comedy programme in a TV Licensing advertisement.

A follow-up adaptation of the eighth novel, The Stranger from the Sea, was produced by HTV for ITV in 1996 but was not continued as a series.

In 2008 the BBC produced a half-hour retrospective called 'The Making of Poldark' as part of its series The Cult of Sunday Night, featuring interviews with original cast members Robin Ellis, Angharad Rees, Jill Townsend and Richard Morant.

Robin Ellis, who played Ross Poldark in the original 1975 series, later appeared in a small recurring role as Reverend Dr Halse in the 2015 BBC remake starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson.