Deep scythe everyone! Aidan Turner's honed physique almost cost him the role of Captain Ross Poldark in BBC's Poldark as he was deemed to be "too muscly" by the show's producers.
The 32-year-old Dubliner raised his heartthrob status when he appeared without a shirt in several episodes of the first series, and programme-makers have revealed they initially believed he looked "too well-built" for having just returned from fighting in the American Revolutionary War.
Turner, who spent a gruelling six weeks in the gym and followed a strict diet on the run-up to filming, caused a stir on Twitter when an episode of him topless with a scythe in hand on the Cornish coast was aired early on in the show.
One fan tweeted: "A shirtless Poldark wielding a scythe should be on TV every Sunday evening from here to eternity. In a good mood for work now."
"The scene of Poldark clearing the meadow shirtless is worth my license fee #happy," added a second.
"Can we have more naked Poldark please BBC?" added another.
Damien Timmer, executive producer of the BBC One drama, told an audience of Poldark fans at the Radio Times Festival that the famous 'field scene' from the series was almost left on the cutting room floor.
"We hadn't seen him with his shirt off before we cast him. It wasn't a big thing whether he was going to be shirtless.
"Then we looked at the rushes [uncut footage] and said, 'Blimey, he's so muscly.' [We] worried he was too muscly. There were discussions about whether he just looked too well-built for that moment."
Asked if there would be "any more warm weather scything" in the upcoming second series, Turner joked: "Possibly. It depends. It depends if we need the ratings. Oh dear, what has my life become..."
Poldark series 2 is set to be aired on BBC One in 2016.
