Dublin actor Aidan Turner unaware of ‘Turner Fever’

Irish actor Aidan Turner has revealed he has stayed relatively in the dark over his new status as TV’s biggest heartthrob because he doesn’t use social media.

Wed, 25 Mar, 2015 - 00:00

Lynne Kelleher

The Dublin star’s brooding good looks send Twitter into meltdown every Sunday night as seven million viewers tune into to watch the 31-year-old on screen.

But the former Clinic actor remains largely oblivious to his effect on the opposite sex as Captain Ross Poldark in the remake of the period drama of the BBC.

He told Hello magazine: “I don’t do social media and stuff so maybe I am slightly out of the loop to a certain degree.

“I don’t [look] and people don’t tell me a lot of it either. My friends are under strict instructions not to tell me anything so I rarely hear any of it but I get a giggle when I do.”

Reports of the Irish actor’s engagement to his long-term girlfriend Sarah Greene in recent days did put a dampener on his swooning fans.

The Dublin actor was also unaware of a new phenomenon called “Turner Fever” which has gripped his predominately female audience.

“Is that a real thing?” he asked Hello magazine, “I haven’t heard anything about that.”

He is now set for an even bigger spotlight with the release of the hotly anticipated homegrown film, The Secret Scripture in which he stars alongside Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave.

He said: “It’s a really cool job to do and nice to shoot something in Ireland with an Irish accent. It was grand.”

Since he burst onto our TV screens on RTE’s Clinic as lovable receptionist Ruairi McGowan, the actor has landed starring roles in a string of BBC series along with a role in The Hobbit.

Turner, who has joined the ranks of Jamie Dornan and Colin Farrell as the latest sex symbol to come out of Ireland, loved filming the hit Poldark series in Cornwall during last summer’s heatwave.

He said he is hoping the BBC will commission a follow-up series to their huge hit.

He said: “The books are there. Winston Graham has given us 12 novels so I guess we could do five or six.

“I think we’re all on board. We’ll just have to see how it performs and if people like it. TV is so good these days – the bar is so high. You can’t just go out there with any mediocre show.”