Poldark series 3: BBC confirms new season as Aidan Turner favours Cornish moors over possible James Bond role

Turner will return with Eleanor Tomlinson, leaving James Norton to overtaken him as 007 favourite

Natural beauty: Aidan Turner stars in the new series of Poldark (BBC)

Be still your beating hearts, for Aidan Turner will be returning as Poldark for a third series.

The BBC has confirmed that the popular period drama, which returns for a second run soon, will continue for at least a further ten episodes with writer Debbie Horsfield again adapting her script from Winston Graham’s historical Cornish novels.

Filming for the third series will begin shortly across more stunning south west England locations, ahead of transmission next year. It will be cover Graham’s fifth and sixth books set in 1794, when “Ross must traverse a new family, new loves and new battles as the French Revolution casts a shadow over life in Cornwall”.

Poldark’s debut series peaked with 9.4 million viewers across TV and iPlayer before winning the Radio Times Audience Award at this year’s Baftas.

Fans have been promised “a fantastic rollercoaster ride” for series two, with “yet more twists and turns”, as Turner is once more joined by co-star Eleanor Tomlinson as his wife Demelza. Hugh Skinner (W1A) Gabriella Wilde (Endless Love) and John Nettles (Midsomer Murders) are new cast additions.

Rumours had been swirling that Turner would relinquish his role to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond, but the next 007 is yet to be announced and it seems the Irish actor is committed to seeing Poldark through to its conclusion. Following the show’s recommissioning, War and Peace actor James Norton has overtaken Turner as favourite to play the secret agent.

Poldark returns in September (and, in the interest of controlling expectations, Horsfield has already disappointed fans by insisting that as “autumn is very chilly in Cornwall”, there will be no more topless scything).

So who will be the next James Bond?