Masterpiece Studio

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Five of Season Five of *Poldark. During his time living with his sister, Demelza and his brother-in-law, Ross, Drake Carne has come close to death many times. After years of struggle and strife, however, things finally seem to be looking up for the earnest blacksmith. Actor Harry Richardson sees his constantly optimistic character as most similar to a well-meaning, but utterly inept labrador puppy. He defends his quasi-canine counterpart in a new interview.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of Season Five of *Poldark. Prudie Paynter might be the world's most ineffective housemaid, but she's a loyal friend and a true source of humor, both on screen and off. Actor Beatie Edney has made a name for herself on the *Poldark *set as one to drive her fellow castmates into laughter mid-scene. Edney might pretend to be serious, but her interview proves she can make anybody laugh.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of Season Five of *Poldark. Jack Farthing's Sir George Warleggan is the obvious villain in Poldark, and he brings his share of villainy to this final season of the series. But for Farthing, Sir George's complicated response to personal trauma has lent his portrayal a surprising human layer that the actor reveals in a new interview.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Two of Season Five of *Poldark. Actor Heida Reed played Elizabeth in the first four seasons of Poldark, but her character's early death in childbirth was a tragic ending to the fourth season. So her spectral appearance in Sir George Warleggan’s grief-stricken mind this season was a welcome surprise for Elizabeth's fans. Reed joins the podcast to discuss how it felt to return to set as an idealized and imaginary Elizabeth.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of Season Four of *The Durrells In Corfu. Simon Nye, the creator and head writer of The Durrells In Corfu, doesn’t see Gerald Durrell’s books as necessarily sacrosanct, but his fictionalized family is awfully similar to the Durrells’ actual four years in Greece. Now, as the fourth and final season begins, Nye joins us for a conversation exploring the family’s journey from page to screen, with a special preview of what remains for everyone’s favorite Bournemouth Britons in sunny exile overseas.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of Season Five of *Poldark. For the last five years, every season of Poldark has adapted at least one of Winston Graham's original novels. For the fifth and final season, however, series creator and head writer Debbie Horsfield was forced to fill in a gap of 11 years between Graham's book, The Angry Tide, and the next novel,' The Stranger from the Sea. It's a challenge she took to, and she explains what she learned in creating this season's plot in a new interview here.

On this very first episode of Poldark, we meet all the key characters who will come to shape the series — Ross, Demelza, Elizabeth, Francis, Verity, Aunt Agatha, George, Prudie. We also meet our Mining Poldark podcast hosts — Robin Ellis, who the original Ross Poldark in the 1970s adaptation of Winston Graham’s novels, and Barrett Brountas, a MASTERPIECE staffer and Poldark superfan. Come along on our journey as we explore the entire scope of this beloved series, episode by episode! The full first season drops August 26, so be sure and subscribe to Mining Poldark wherever you find your podcasts so you don’t miss an episode!

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Six of Season Four of *Grantchester. When Grantchester star Al Weaver was in drama school, his future Grantchester co-star, Tessa Peake-Jones, was his designated mentor. On screen this season, Weaver and Peake-Jones had a falling out, with their characters, Leonard and Mrs. C, nearly splitting after Leonard's relationship with Daniel came to light. But in a new joint interview, the actors reveal that the hardest part of their fictional fight was not having scenes together.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Five of Season Four of *Grantchester. Detective Geordie Keating’s put-upon wife, Cathy, has faced marital betrayal, a growing family and a murder-obsessed husband with quiet grace, but this season in Grantchester, Cathy has her own career to worry about. Actor Kacey Ainsworth talks about working with Robson Green, the pleasures of a lived-in fictional marriage and how Cathy will deal with her ongoing workplace harassment in the upcoming season four finale.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of Season Four of *Grantchester. The heavy burden of replacing Grantchester lead James Norton in the village vicar’s pulpit falls to none other than Tom Brittney, and it’s a role he’s thrilled to take up. With a warm welcome from fans and the on-set Grantchester family alike, Brittney reveals how it felt to motorcycle in to the sleepy village, and previews what secrets await viewers for the rest of this season.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of Season Four of *Grantchester. With the recent departure of his friend and castmate, James Norton, from the fields and dells of Grantchester, Robson Green is quick to reassure fans of his series that his character isn’t going anywhere just yet. As the fourth season continues along, Green describes what it meant to say goodbye to Norton, what new changes await his Geordie Keating beyond a new parish priest, and how it felt to team up with Al Weaver’s Leonard Finch on a confusing murder investigation.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episodes One and Two of Season Four of *Grantchester. After a two-year gap, the crime-solving Rev. Sidney Chambers of *Grantchester *is back on the case — only to leave the village in pursuit of love and social justice abroad. We speak to series creator, head writer and executive producer Daisy Coulam about James Norton's final day on set, Robson Green's tearful goodbye to his on-screen partner and how it felt to write in Tom Brittney's new main character, the Rev. Will Davenport. Coulam also gives a preview of the mysteries still to come on this upcoming fourth season.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Two of Season Six of *Endeavour. In this sixth season of Endeavour, series lead Shaun Evans slips behind the camera for a change in a dramatic second episode. It’s a move that Evans found easy — and one he hopes to have the opportunity to continue elsewhere in his career. He explains how he did it — and how his Endeavour Morse continues to crack complicated cases — in our new interview.

You already know the story…boy meets girl, pride meets prejudice, all in a beautiful wrapper: the dramatic Cornish cliffs and dazzling sea. And as we get ready for the final season of Poldark, we here at MASTERPIECE are starting a new podcast we’re calling Mining Poldark, so you can relive the romance, the adventure and the exploits of our flawed hero all over again. Hear co-hosts Barrett Brountas and Robin Ellis — the original Ross Poldark from the 1970s adaptation of Winston Graham’s classic novels — preview the new podcast. Full episodes launching soon — subscribe now! You can subscribe to Mining Poldark wherever you find your podcasts.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Six of *Les Miserables. After six dramatic episodes and several decades of on-screen struggle, Andrew Davies' masterful new adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables has ended. In a special episode of MASTERPIECE Studio, we hear from Davies and series stars Dominic West and David Oyelowo about how it felt to bring the story of Jean Valjean and Javert to a close.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Six of Season Three of *Unforgotten. Alex Jennings is already a MASTERPIECE regular, with his role as the suave King Leopold in three seasons of Victoria. He's become known for his ability to fully inhabit royal personas, like as the Duke of Windsor in Netflix's The Crown. As Dr. Tim Finch in the third season of *Unforgotten, *however, Jennings got to create an entirely fictional character. But Dr. Finch wasn’t exactly the easiest of characters to play.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of *Les Miserables. Screenwriter Andrew Davies has been a true master of modern television adaptations, bringing such iconic works as Middlemarch and *Little Dorit *to the MASTERPIECE screen for decades. Now, as he looks ahead to the end of his critically-acclaimed recent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Davies also previews his charming new adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished final novel, Sanditon, set to appear on MASTERPIECE in 2020.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of *Les Miserables. Actor Lily Collins tried her best to not lose herself in the devastating role of* Les Misérables*' Fantine. Collins explains how she stayed grounded on set, where she found inspiration for her iconic tragic heroine and why her onscreen injury was all-too painfully real.

*Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Two of *Les Miserables. In Victor Hugo's landmark epic, Les Miserables, the Inspector Javert is a hard, cold man with a unflinching pursuit of his own personal justice. But in the critically-acclaimed new MASTERPIECE adaptation of the novel, actor and series executive producer David Oyelowo brings a subtle, sophisticated nuance to his performance, adding layers of context to this memorable villain. He joins the podcast for a preview of the villainy still to come in this this critically acclaimed series.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of Les Miserables. After a career of playing notable villains,  actor Dominic West says he’s ready to turn a new leaf. So his role as the tortured thief, Jean Valjean, in the new MASTERPIECE production of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les Misérables, is a helpful bridge to be a better man on screen. In an interview, he talks about what it means to play Valjean, how his character seeks personal redemption and what the rest of the series has in store for the repentant former prisoner 24601.