Coming face to face with Demelza Poldark capped a memorable day, writes Natalie Wilson.
I was 13 when the original Poldark series screened.
Like many things from that time in one's life, it left a lasting impression. School lunchtimes were spent lost in the Winston Graham novels from which the TV series had been adapted.
Twenty years later I finally got to Cornwall on a Poldark pilgrimage, visiting Truro, Falmouth, Redruth and Penzance.
A highlight was walking down the row of miners' cottages in Stippy Stappy Lane in the village of St Agnes, the model for Graham's St Ann's.
In 2001, we moved to North Wales.
The following year my husband attended a medical conference in London and I accompanied him to the formal dinner.
The venue was the House of Commons and we were treated to a pre-dinner tour.
This included the debating chamber where we sat on the green leather benches and leaned on the beautiful wooden dispatch boxes, which I learned had been gifts from New Zealand.
The meal took place in an elegant panelled room overlooking the Thames.
Already overwhelmed by the setting and occasion, I hadn't taken much notice of our dinner companions as I sat down.
Directly across from us sat a petite, fair-haired woman next to an elderly man in a wheelchair.
She looked familiar: then it hit me.
It was Demelza!
Or rather actress Angharad Rees.
Thereafter passed a wonderful evening.
It turned out that Angharad was there accompanying her father, Linford Rees, an eminent psychiatrist.
Despite his age and infirmity, Prof Rees was engaging and charming.
When we were saying our goodbyes I bent to shake his hand but he told me I could do much better than that and insisted on a farewell kiss.
Angharad was so lovely, friendly and unassuming.
Of Welsh ancestry, she was interested that we had moved there and that I was studying the language. She had largely stepped back from acting to devote time to her family.
Tragically, her eldest son, Linford, was killed in a car accident in 1999, aged 25.
At the end of the dinner I was amazed when Angharad handed me a note with her private phone number and address for the next time I was in London.
To my eternal regret, the note was lost in transit, although I'm not sure I would have had the courage to simply phone her!
Angharad had a second successful career as a jewellery designer; her work featured in the 2007 movie Elizabeth: the Golden Age.
I sent a pair of earrings from her Knightsbridge shop back to my friend Janet, in Dunedin, who is a fellow Poldark-tragic from high school.
Angharad Rees died in 2012, aged 63.
I tried to watch the new Poldark series when it screened recently but only managed 10 minutes worth.
It didn't compare to the 1970s version at all.
All the focus and fuss seems to be on the character of Ross Poldark, as played by Aidan Turner, or rather his torso.
But for we fans of the original series, it was Demelza who had stolen the show.
I'm glad that all those years later I was lucky enough to meet and acknowledge the woman who had brought her to life and given many of us so much pleasure.
• Natalie Wilson is a Dunedin mother of four, researcher, politics and history junkie, avid reader, gym addict and enthusiastic gardener.
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