Pick your fave in duel of the bodice-ripping TV hunks as Aidan Turner and Rufus Sewell go chest-to-chest
Sunday night showdown as tri-corn hatted hunk Poldark goes up against Victoria’s toff totty Lord Melbourne
TOMORROW night TV viewers will be spoilt for choice as Poldark hunk Aidan Turner goes chest-to-chest with Victoria’s charming star Rufus Sewell.
Since the launch of ITV’s Victoria last week, Rufus has set pulses racing as the chiselled Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, opposite Jenna Coleman’s young Queen.
But this weekend muscly Aidan Turner, 33, returns to inflame smouldering passions in BBC1 smash hit Poldark, with TWO topless scenes in the first episode alone.
Both shows air at 9pm, so viewers will have to choose between the tri-corn hatted hunk and the toff totty.
Aidan first wowed female fans with a famous topless scything scene in the first series of Poldark last year.
But Rufus, 48, has been a pin-up far longer, playing lusty Will Ladislaw in 1994 telly series Middlemarch before moving into movies.
But who is the hottest historical hero? JEN PHARO compares our two bodice-ripping studs.
Fitness
AIDAN: With two topless scenes in the first episode, Aidan had to keep trim.
He said: “I can’t put on a pound. I’ve got to stay in shape. It’s got to be done because I see Ross Poldark in a certain way. Seven months of that is boring – no pasties and loads of press-ups.
“I hate it but it’s got to be done. I work with dialect coaches to get his accent right and physically I want him to look a certain way too. That was important.”
Poor Aidan has no time to pig out – series three starts filming on Monday.
RUFUS: You might think all that horse-riding would keep Rufus in shape but he credits his Hercules co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for his muscles.
Rufus has always been a gym addict, but when he met wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne on the 2014 film it became a full-time lifestyle.
He said: “We were all eating our own versions of the Dwayne Johnson diet. I was so sick of salmon by the end of that job!
“But now I’ve got a protein habit I just cannot control. I was standing next to Dwayne every day thinking, ‘My arms are so spindly’.”
Leading ladies
AIDAN: In Poldark, Aidan is spoiled for choice with his gorgeous leading ladies Eleanor Tomlinson and Heida Reed, who play his love interests Demelza and Elizabeth respectively.
Fans love the chemistry between Ross and Demelza, while Aidan says Eleanor’s beauty makes acting easy.
He revealed: “She’s amazing – you can’t fake that sort of chemistry. We brought a lot of ourselves to the characters . . . and she’s beautiful. It’s simple to fall in love with her.”
Being surrounded by beauties is an occupational hazard for Aidan, who starred with Zoe Tapper, Amy Manson and Jennie Jacques in Desperate Romantics.
When he starred in Being Human he dated his sexy co-star Lenora Crichlow, and the pair remain close friends today.
RUFUS: Jenna Coleman is grabbing all the attention in Victoria but Rufus has appeared opposite some of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars.
He starred with Angelina Jolie in 2010 movie The Tourist and appeared with supermodel Irina Shayk in 2014’s Hercules. Before that he played the “very charming t***er” who breaks Kate Winslet’s heart in rom-com The Holiday.
Other beauties he has worked with include Catherine Zeta-Jones in The Legend Of Zorro and Emilia Fox in TV mini-series Helen Of Troy.
But he admits Jenna, 30, is one of his favourite co-stars, saying: “It was a great relationship and Jenna is so good. We had such a laugh.
“To spend time with someone and have a relationship with someone as nice and as talented as Jenna was a real treat.”
'I WAS SWEPT WAY BY AIDAN'S DARK, BROODING LOOKS'
BE still my beating Poldark. From his first swagger on to our screens in 2015, I – like the rest of the UK’s female population – was swept away by his brooding, dark looks and stormy demeanour.
The obsession reached fever-pitch on a holiday in Cornwall.
While he was there filming scenes for the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, I found myself standing right next to him in a beach cafe. Rendered a giddy, gibbering idiot without the confidence to ask for a selfie, I settled for simply staring at him like a creepy stalker. I spent precious days of holiday merrily ploughing my way through the Being Human box set.
And you know what? I’m not even ashamed to admit it.
Even finding pictures for this feature gave me a hot flush.
And now it is time for Aidan’s return to our screens. It is P minus one day and counting.
The clocks might be falling back but autumn has never been so welcome.
By AMY READING, Associate Picture Editor
Growing up
AIDAN: He might sound English in Poldark but Aidan is a Dublin lad who almost ended up being an electrician like his dad Pat.
His mum Jo is an accountant. Aidan attended a local community school but admits he was lazy with his studies.
He has said: “I was sort of a messer. I wasn’t a bad student – I just didn’t have the temperament. I got really bored.”
He enrolled on an apprenticeship to be an electrician but soon found, in his words, he “couldn’t change a lightbulb”.
Aidan got a job at his local cinema and that prompted him to try acting.
He successfully applied to the Gaiety School of Acting aged 19 . . . and he never got bored there.
After graduating from the school in 2004 he landed a run of theatre roles before breaking into TV.
RUFUS: Despite his posh vowels, Rufus, whose middle name is Frederick, did not have a privileged upbringing.
He was born in Twickenham, South West London, in 1967. His parents, Jo and William, separated when he was five. His father had a link to showbusiness – he was an Australian animator who worked on the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine cartoon. But he died when Rufus was just ten. Rufus studied at the Central School of Speech & Drama in London and Dame Judi Dench, who directed him in a play, helped him get an agent.
He once revealed: “My childhood was late-Seventies suburban. We lived in council-assisted accommodation. So I was a little bit posh and a little bit free school dinners. We were poor but had a piano, arty but Mum worked in a pub.”
Real life romance
AIDAN: Just like Ross Poldark, Aidan is a hit with the ladies in real life.
He is currently single but has left a string of broken hearts in his wake, many of them actresses. He split from Irish actress Sarah Greene last November after five years together and before that dated Being Human co-star Lenora Crichlow for two years.
Before her came actresses Charlene McKenna, who he lived with for more than two years, and his fellow drama school student India Whisker.
Aidan insists he is not always the heartbreaker – and has often been left to pick up the pieces.
He has said: “I don’t know anyone on this planet who hasn’t had their heart broken. It’s happened to me.
“Love is love. It’s the purest and rawest thing we have in life.”
RUFUS: For a time Rufus dated actress Helen McCrory, who is now married to Homeland star Damian Lewis.
He then went on to have two disastrously short marriages. The first – to Australian fashion buyer Yasmin Abdallah – lasted a matter of weeks. They wed in 1999 and were formally divorced in 2000.
He had son William with girlfriend Amy Gardner in 2002 and they married in 2004 but divorced in 2006.
He has since become very private but is thought to have been dating hairdresser Ami Komai, who is 17 years his junior, since 2009.
In the Nineties he was linked to pop icon Madonna and actress Patsy Kensit – and was also reported to have been spotted snogging Kate Winslet in the posh restaurant The Ivy.
'RUFUS IS ALWAYS DASHING AND DANGEROUS'
RUFUS is always cast as a brooding romantic hero or a suave super-villain – both roles that drive women wild.
Whether wearing stiff white breeches atop a galloping black stallion or planning world domination, he always looks dashing, danger– ous and devilishly sexy.
He is 48, but with those stunning sharp cheekbones and green eyes, Rufus never ages a day for me.
He doesn’t get his kit off in Victoria but watch his appearance in Hercules and you will see he is every inch as primed as Poldark.
And unlike Aidan, he exudes sophisticated charm and one of the sexiest qualities of all – intelligence.
Rufus is almost the perfect celebrity crush, with just one tiny fault – his name.
Can you really imagine having anyone in your life who is called Rufus? Except maybe your dog . . .
By JEN PHARO, TV Features Editor
Acting roles
AIDAN: Has taken his fair share of period roles, starting with The Tudors in 2007.
He had just two lines in the first episode but his stunning good looks got him noticed. He later starred as a long-haired lothario, playing artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in BBC2’s Desperate Romantics. Pre-Poldark, his biggest role was as a vampire in BBC3’s cult hit Being Human.
Aidan said: “I love fantasy and sci-fi but I was slightly fearful of being typecast. I was getting a lot of offers for vampires.
“When Poldark came along it was everything I wanted. He was such an earthy, grounded, real character.”
He played the dwarf Kili in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies, wowed in BBC Agatha Christie drama And Then There Were None and is in the frame to be the next James Bond.
RUFUS: After bursting on to TV screens in Middlemarch and starring in Cold Comfort Farm, stage star Rufus’ dark curls and brooding good looks left him drowning in period drama offers.
He despaired: “When I played Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch it was secretly a big experiment for me to see if I could play a young romantic my own age.
“But after that, I was fighting NOT to play those roles for the rest of my life. The chances are that when I get sent scripts, a few pages in it is going to have a lone figure on a horse.”
No sooner had he shaken off the period drama tag than he found himself typecast as villains, thanks to his menacing turn as Count Adhemar in A Knight’s Tale. He played wicked Count Armand in The Legend Of Zorro and a Nazi in Amazon series The Man In The High Castle.
Secret vices
AIDAN: He claims to be “quite a lazy person and feckless”. But that aside, he doesn’t appear to have any obvious vices.
However, he does have a surprising secret.
The Irishman used to represent his country in Latin and ballroom dancing. He competed internationally in both disciplines for TEN YEARS.
He ultimately had to give it up because his parents could no longer afford the cost of him taking part.
He has said: “I did have a flair for the creative.”
Aidan might also like to erase from his CV an Irish telly advert for eggs, in which he ogled women’s bottoms in supermarkets before taking one lady home for a slice of quiche.
RUFUS: In the Nineties Rufus was known as a party animal. But after moving to LA he has put his wildman days behind him.
He no longer drinks alcohol and has admitted in the past that his boozing was “compromising everything”.
Now he lists lattes as his biggest vice, saying of the milky coffee: “I take a sip then don’t touch them again. I forget and they go cold. I spend about £30 a day on the things.”
On giving up booze, he has said: “I suppose the idea of myself as clean-living scared me. The idea is that just because you’re full of toxins you’re more rock’n’roll.
“But my best work has happened since. Smoking went great with lager but take lager out of it and I could feel it all.
“Since I went to America I have got healthier – and maybe that’s LA. The people who sneer can f*** off.”