Dublin actor Aidan Turner has revealed that he did not have to audition for his star-making role in the period drama Poldark - the first time he has ever been offered a job straight away.
In an interview with UK entertainment magazine Radio Times, Turner said the makers of the show simply asked him did he want to play 18th-century heartthrob Ross Poldark when they sent him the scripts and Winston Graham's source novels.
"It's the only thing I've got offered in my entire life!" he laughed. "Everybody else must have been busy."
We believe the word is 'brooding'
Turner's comments follow Poldark composer Anne Dudley's recent revelation that she had to convince executive producer Damian Timmer that the Irishman really was the right man for the job.
"It is true. Damien did ask me, 'Do you think women will find Aidan attractive?' she told British newspaper The Mirror. "I said, 'I don't think you will have a problem'."
Thirty-two-year-old Turner had three months to prepare for the role and used the time to work on his Cornish accent, get in shape and learn how to ride a horse.
He set Sunday night pulses racing when he stripped off to the waist in the first season of the show, and he told Radio Times he decided during his preparations to keep his hair long for the role.
"When the offer came in and I read the book, there was a moment when I went, 'Let's not go to the barber's, let's keep this long, see what they want to do with it'," he recalled.
The locks were 'a lock', as they say in the business
He added: "Physically, I saw Ross in a certain way. He's strong, does a lot of manual labour - if he's not on the horse he's down a mine. He's building stuff, he's got a farm... It just made sense for him to be fit and strong.
"So I went to the gym a bit more, ate a little less, all those boring things. Unfortunately there's no little pill you can take to grow a six-pack."
While Turner's unveiling of his six-pack in Poldark's meadow-mowing scene was one of the TV moments of 2015, the actor received some criticism for his use of a scythe.
"Anyone who knows scything looked at that scene and thought, 'Oh, dear God, what is he doing?' A couple of experts criticised my technique and they were dead right to!
"There was an expert there, looking at me while I was doing it and shaking his head. I'd go back and say, 'Show me again,' just to make him happy, and then I'd get back in front of the camera and carry on swinging it around..."
Poldark is due to return to BBC Two in the autumn. To the disappointment of the show's legions of Turner devotees, it was recently revealed that his character will be keeping wrapped up for the second series as "autumn is very chilly in Cornwall".
