Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2016: 20 to 11

12. Poldark (BBC1)

The first series of the Winston Graham reboot made stars out of both Aidan Turner and the Cornish coastline, so there was no reason for writer Debbie Horsfield to mess with a winning formula. But there were more talking points in series two than just Turner taking a dip in a tin bath. There was the pointless death of Ross Poldark’s cousin Francis, the increasingly dark vengeance of George Warleggan, the on-off romance between nice doctor Dwight and flighty aristo Caroline, not to mention the stormy waters of Ross and Demelza’s own marriage. And there was controversy: Ross’s jealous bedding of his first love Elizabeth potentially crossed boundaries of consent. Some cried “rape”, others referred queasy viewers back to Graham’s original text. Gill Crawford