Poldark star Aidan Turner has said he can’t believe his luck that he gets paid to gallop a horse along the Cornish cliffs.

The 33-year-old plays Ross Poldark in the BBC period drama currently in its second series and one of the staple shots of each episode is of his character riding along the beautiful coastline of Cornwall.

He admitted: “You finish a take and think, ‘This is my job? How lucky am I to do this?’.”

Poldark is very horsey (BBC/Adrian Rogers)

But Aidan’s favourite scenes of this series take place in the courtroom, where Poldark is defending himself against murder charges.

He said: “These days, you don’t have a lot of time to learn the lines and prep. You might give yourself a week ahead or a few days. I gave myself a month or five weeks of learning the dialogue and playing with it.

“I was quite happy with how it turned out. It reminded me of the old theatre days, with four or five pages of really chunky stuff.”

Aidan and Eleanor play Ross and Demelza (BBC)

Aidan added that he enjoyed the domestic scenes in which Poldark and his wife Demelza, played by Eleanor Tomlinson, simply talk.

He said of his co-star: “She’s such a wonderful performer. She’s so real, so truthful.”

Poldark continues on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm.