Even people who have never seen an episode of Poldark know about the scything scene: Aidan Turner as the show's title character, stripped to his sculpted waist and sweating as he works the land.
Then, in series two of the costume drama set in 18th-century Cornwall, came the tin-bath scene. Turner's glistening torso once again in the starring role, this time being sponged by Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays Ross Poldark's wife, Demelza.
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Trailer: Poldark Season 3
After returning from the American revolutionary war, Ross Poldark rebuilds his life within a small community in Cornwall.
At other periods in television history, such scenes would have been fleeting moments of titillation, discussed by the watercooler the following day, but probably soon forgotten.
Now though, they prompt a communal outpouring of lust, as viewers express their appreciation in real time. They proliferate almost instantly across the internet via an endlessly varied stream of gifs and memes.
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So, what's the big topless moment of series three? The next scene guaranteed to send viewers into a frenzy? "God, I don't know," says Turner, during a break in filming at a studio in Bristol. "Do we get sexy this year?"
On reflection, he suggests this season's steamiest scene may not involve Poldark at all. "It could be Demelza this year, actually," he says, hinting at more trouble ahead for the couple's tempestuous relationship.
Given the free publicity these scenes generate, it would make sense if they were carefully crafted with social media in mind, but Poldark's writer Debbie Horsfield says that's not how she works.
"The truth is you can't really second guess what's going to create an impact with the fans," she says.
She never suspected the bath scene would create such a stir. "Because actually, it doesn't show a great deal," she says. "Clearly our audiences are imagining more than they see.
"Those are exactly the sorts of things you can't ever predict âĤ You just make the best show you can and hope that it will find an audience."
In Poldark's case, the audience spans the globe. Fans from everywhere, from Japan to the US, send Turner gifts in the post, including knitted Ross Poldark dolls complete with tricorn hats. As season three begins in Australia, a fourth instalment has already been confirmed.
"I never really feel the pressure of it," says Turner. "I keep my head out of it. There's nothing you can really do except transform that pressure into something positive and manageable."
Horsfield says the show's popularity came as "a real shock" but it's not without precedent. The series is based on Winston Graham's 12 Poldark novels, published over almost six decades from 1945 to 2002. A previous BBC adaptation of the series in the 1970s was sold to broadcasters in more than 40 countries and, at the height of its popularity, Â attracted 15 million viewers a week.
The third series of the new adaptation covers books five and six, which include the French Revolution and a dose of derring-do on the Continent. It sees the introduction of several new characters, including Demelza's brothers, Drake (played by Australian Harry Richardson) and Sam (Tom York). For Poldark, a mine owner who has always championed the rights of the poor, this series marks the beginning of a new political awareness and desire to create lasting change.
But it's probably fair to say that most fans are more interested in his love life than his social conscience. Last season's most controversial moment was a sex scene between Poldark and the woman he once hoped to marry, Elizabeth (Heida Reed). As she prepares to wed his nemesis, George Warleggan, Poldark confronts Elizabeth and forces a kiss upon her. She resists but then seems to change her mind. The scene sparked heated discussion about depictions of rape and consent on screen.
Turner has said he thinks the sex was consensual and, when he discusses its moral implications, does so in the context of Poldark's infidelity to Demelza, who threatens to leave him after the incident. "That's when it hit home, the severity of what he did," he says. "I don't think he thought it was as big a deal as it was."
Series three finds Elizabeth married and pregnant â the child's father unclear.
This blend of period aesthetics with rip-roaring storylines might be the secret to the show's success. Before Poldark, Horsfield was known for contemporary dramas such as Cutting It. In lots of ways, Poldark has more in common with serialised soaps than it does with traditional BBC adaptations of classic literature.
"I'm a big fan of Jane Austen," says Horsfield. "I love those really delicate, nuanced drawing-room scenes that are all about looks and glances. Poldark has those, but it also has âĤ the big action pieces. It's an epic story.
"It contains things that never go out of style â you know, ambition, love, rivalry, people trying to stitch each other up, people trying to better themselves, people falling in love with the wrong person."
For Turner, the show's appeal is bound up in its central character's flaws and strengths. "He's a hero," he says. "People like a hero." That and a set of shapely abs.
WHAT: Poldark
WHEN: ABC, Sunday, 8.30pm
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