Poldark S03E09 (Possible Spoilers)

I'm old enough to have seen the 1975 version of Poldark a few times and I'm really impressed by the spin jack Farthing has put on George Warleggen. He's still a delightfully petty, mean, spiteful man; the banker you love to hate. But Ralph Bates played him as a cocky Napoleon, confident to the point of hubris. For him, Trenwith and Elizabeth are just objects to be acquired and added to his collection of pretty things he can afford because of all the new money his family has made. The idea that Valentine might not be his son makes him angry as if his pedigree poodle had been impregnated by the neighborhood mongrel. Bate's George is secure in the knowledge that he is better than old money gentry like the Poldarks and each of their slights make him angry.

On the other hand, Farthing's George is a roiling mass of insecurities barely contained in his thin skin. For him, Elizabeth is an ideal, living in an old manor house is an ideal, living the life of gentleman is an ideal, his nightmare is that someone will tap him on the shoulder and take it all away with the words, "you've not good enough, you don't belong here".