After having watched the new "Poldark" series and read several of the books, I stumbled upon Aidan Turner's old series "Being Human," and it seemed that there was something quite Ross-like about Mitchell, Turner's character. (Although Cary Warleggan is the blood sucker in "Poldark," of course.) How's that for luck? A whole series as your audition tape.
What is there to say? After the brief flurry of controversy, Aidan has absolutely done it justice. It's easy to dismiss the talent of beautiful actors - and he's certainly beautiful - but like Eleanor Tomlinson he brings a depth of emotion to the role, you can see what he's thinking right there on his face. My favourite scenes are the one at Trenwith at Christmas, when he's watching Demelza sing, and realises for the first time that he's in love with her (we, the audience, guessed it six months ago!) and the scene where he's carrying Julia's coffin - no extravagance, just a few tiny movements of his eyes and mouth. (I just wish the papers wouldn't keep obsessing on the scything scene - it really was blink-and-you've-missed-it.)