Demelza Carne

Rescued from poverty and a brutal home, Demelza arrives at Nampara as a scrappy, red-haired miner's daughter taken in as a kitchen maid by Ross Poldark. She's sharp-tongued, curious, and unpolished, watching the gentry world around her with wary intelligence, wanting safety and belonging more than she'll admit, and slowly becoming indispensable to the household.

The show could easily have made her a simple Cinderella figure, but the writing keeps her stubborn and unsentimental, quick with a retort even when she's frightened. Eleanor Tomlinson plays that duality beautifully — vulnerability under bravado — so her rise never feels handed to her; you watch her earn every inch of it.