Aidan Turner gives brooding, charismatic men enough feeling to be worth watching. Rivals is a good reason to look beyond the leading-man image: he holds his own in an ensemble with plenty of competing attractions.
Fi1m perspective
In Rivals (2024), Aidan Turner's Declan O'Hara has David Tennant's Tony Baddingham to contend with for our attention. Tennant's villainy remains the programme's strongest attraction, but Turner gives him substantial competition without needing the story to stop and advertise his appeal. We laughed because the ensemble, Turner included, takes this adult soap's nonsense seriously enough to make it work. He understands the level of commitment the material needs, and we never feel that he is apologising for being in it.
His route to this crowded ensemble passed through roles built around a more brooding presence. Being Human (2009–2011) brought his breakthrough as the vampire John Mitchell; Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), with Turner as Kíli, brought international exposure. The title role of Ross Poldark in Poldark (2015–2019) then made him a major television star, with physically demanding, emotionally driven scenes that suited him. It also left him with a heartthrob image that can crowd out discussion of the acting.
For Declan, Turner has described borrowing his father's speech, tone and way of holding himself. It is a useful account of the practical choices behind a performance, and a better starting point than another discussion of his looks. In Rivals, Tennant keeps a threat beneath the comedy, while Alex Hassell gives Rupert Campbell-Black the charm needed to make dubious behaviour watchable. We would not single Turner out above them all, but he is a substantial part of why the ensemble makes the programme's indulgence worthwhile.
The morally ambiguous Philip Lombard in And Then There Were None (2015) also belongs in any account of his ensemble work. Turner has spoken of deliberately seeking different work after Poldark, and we are more interested in following that choice than in seeing him repeat an established success. Rivals gives us good reason to do so, although its crowded plotting sometimes becomes tiresome. Start there if a funny, unabashedly adult soap sounds like an evening well spent.
Biography
Aidan Turner is an Irish actor born on 19 June 1983 in Clondalkin, Dublin. He trained at the Gaiety School of Acting and began his career in theatre before appearing in the RTÉ series The Clinic (2008–2009) and the BBC series Desperate Romantics (2009).
He gained attention for his role as John Mitchell in Being Human (2009–2011) and as Kíli in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014). Turner starred as Ross Poldark in the BBC adaptation Poldark (2015–2019).
In 2024 he played Declan O'Hara in the Disney+ series Rivals.
