Phil Davis turned down Poldark for Riviera

Phil Davis had to choose between starring in \'Poldark\' or the new drama \'Riviera\' - but "plumped" for the latter because it had a bigger role on offer.

The 63-year-old actor turned down the chance to reprise his role as lovable scamp Jud Paynte in the BBC show for the third series in favour of playing British art fraud investigator Jukes in Sky Atlantic\'s TV thriller because it had more lines for him.

Speaking on \'This Morning\' on Tuesday (13.06.17), he said: "It wasn\'t possible to do them both. \'Poldark\' were very frank with me and said there wasn\'t much of a storyline for me and they wouldn\'t need me for the whole eight episodes so I plumped for this."

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Although he decided against returning to \'Poldark\' this time, Phil has admitted he never expected his scene with Aidan Turner - who plays the titular character - to go "viral" after the handsome actor whipped his shirt off.

He joked: "It\'s a mystery to me and they refused to let me take my shirt off in case I put him to shame. No idea at all, it was the stills from it that went viral."

Phil got to spend a large chunk of the summer last year in the South of France shooting the forthcoming show and has admitted it was "wonderful" to be abroad.

Poppy Delevingne loved the glamour of Riviera

He said: "I didn\'t the full seven months in the South of France. It was a wonderful job because I would go there for a week and then I\'d come home for two weeks and then another week. It was just the perfect way to spend the summer."

However, the show\'s lead Julia Stiles - who plays an art curator called Georgia Clios - couldn\'t say the same as she had to spend the full seven months out there.

She explained: "It was a fantastic place to work and spend seven months but winter came and we still had to pretend we were in summertime so we had fake tan and skimpy dresses and we were freezing but this private jet that we shot in - you don\'t realise that they have to turn the air off because of sound so we were trapped in this titanium box in the sweltering heat that ended up being an airless sauna."