OT: Aunt Agatha's Tarot cards

[Gothick]

Fans, I was alerted by a "blog" entry I perused this morning that (to me iconic) Sixties actress Caroline Blakiston (who I have enjoyed in everything from THE AVENGERS to SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY to the Alec McCowen series MR PALFREY OF WESTMINSTER) acted in the role of Aunt Agatha in the new POLDARK series which is about to unveil its fourth season.  Aunt Agatha was written out last year, but you can see clips of her reading her Tarot cards (it looks as if the same deck was used as seen in 1795 in the hands of the Countess du Pres) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1Qjvd7dKU

Historically, someone like Aunt Agatha would have read ordinary playing cards, by far the commonest tool for divination in early modern Europe. It wasn't until the 1960s that Tarot cards began to be popular, partly because Tarot decks were not at all widely available before that time. The books of Eden Gray popularized Tarot in the US during the Sixties, and soon after Gray began publishing, others followed in her train.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I own the first three seasons of this version of Poldark on Blu-ray. But something that will surprise no one, I haven't watched any of them yet. But this new info will give me an added incentive to watch sooner rather than later... 

[Gothick]

This is the article I read about the show. There are spoilers, but really rather mild ones, particularly if you watched the original series from the Seventies:

https://www.room207press.com/2017/06/we-dont-go-back-683-that-one-episode-of.html

Some of this descriptive blurb made me think of DS, particularly the brooding on the cliff part:

Set across the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth, POLDARK is a saga of generational rivalry, tangly passion, jealousy, love, hate, social transformation and terrible financial decisions. People stand on windy cliffs brooding and ride across windy cliffs. And stand looking into the wind so it catches their hair fetchingly. And punch beaches on their knees when they're sad. [end quote]

cheers, G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And if one can judge by the PBS promotions, they look absolutely gorgeous while they do all of that!    And some command attention more than others depending on what you're into... 

[Josette]

While I'm enjoying the current version, I really loved the previous one and still prefer it.  I had mixed feelings about the first season, as, while the new actors fit the parts, they just didn't seem to measure up to my memories of the other.  By then I got used to the new ones and have forgotten a lot of the details of the plot, so I'm really enjoying it now, but for a lot of the characters, I still miss the originals.