THE CAPTAIN'S TABLE

Robin Ellis made his name as the original Captain Poldark but a diabetes diagnosis led the Tarn-based actor to add cookbook writing to his CV, as Richard Webber learns

- Richard Webber

It was love at first sight and within five hours of walking through the door, I’d bought the place,” smiles actor and writer Robin Ellis, who made his name as Captain Poldark in the original 1970s TV series.

We’re sitting in the garden of his 18thcentury stone-built home, a former rectory a few miles from the picturesque village of Lautrec in Tarn. Late afternoon sun casts shadows across the undulating meadows and hills stretching before us. With views like this on your doorstep, it’s easy to see why Robin, now 78, and American-born wife, Meredith, are enamoured of their life in France.

The couple were visiting friends in 1990 when they bought the property. “We didn't set out to buy a place in France, it just happened. Our friends told us about a lady who was selling so we decided to take a look. The moment I stepped inside I had a very positive feeling,” explains Robin, who used it as a holiday home until moving lock, stock and barrel in 1999.

RURAL BLISS

When he was younger, Robin was a self-confessed ‘townie’ and could never envisage living in the countryside. Now, he wouldn’t swap rural life for anything.

“As the years passed, it was increasingly difficult to head back to London,” he says. “It’s strange, when I was living in the capital, I’d visit my parents – who had retired to a Buckinghamshire village – for Sunday lunch. Although I liked where they lived, I couldn’t wait to return to London in the evening. So, eventually finding myself wanting to live in rural France was a real surprise!”