Poldark: Controversial scene toned down in second series

WARNING: This story contains spoilers

Aidan Turner plays Ross Poldark in the BBC's adaptation of Winston Graham's novels

A scene in which the hero of BBC drama Poldark apparently commits rape has been toned down for its second series.

Both Winston Graham's fourth Poldark book, Warleggan, and the 1970s TV adaptation saw Ross Poldark force himself upon an old flame.

However the new series will rework the liaison between Ross and Elizabeth as "a charged encounter".

"It seems consensual," star Aidan Turner told The Sun. "He goes to talk, [not] to commit a crime."

"Graham's version of events is open to interpretation - ours is not," a spokesperson for Mammoth Screen, the production company behind Poldark, said.

"We invite all viewers to watch the episode when it comes out and then make up their own mind."

The passage in Graham's book describes the Cornish mine owner "pinioning" Elizabeth's arm and kissing her "with intense passion".

It goes on to describe him taking "no further notice" of her demands to stop, and he subsequently "lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed".

The second series of Poldark begins airing on BBC One next month, while a third is currently in production.