Mark Shelmerdine obituary

Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark and Angharad Rees as Demelza Carne outside St Winnow’s church, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, during the filming of the BBC’s 1970s adaptation of Poldark, a co-production set up by Mark Shelmerdine. Photograph: Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy

Mark Shelmerdine, who has died aged 78 after suffering from cancer, started his career as a producer for film and TV as an accountant. An opportunity that he spotted in that role led to the production of two of the biggest TV costume series of the 1970s, Poldark and I, Claudius.

The realisation came to him while working as financial director of the Taylor Clark group, run by the Scottish businessman Robert Clark, whose assets included the dormant London Films, founded in 1932 by the Hungarian-born British film-maker Alexander Korda.