Poldark’s Aidan Turner forges friendship with Parkinson’s sufferer Drew Hallam

Aidan Turner has forged a close friendship with musician Drew Hallam, while researching for his role in ITV thriller The Suspect.

Speaking to The Mirror, Drew, who has Parkinson’s, has revealed the pair still exchange messages after filming had wrapped on the show, adding their meeting has ‘helped him realise how young the disease can strike.’

In The Suspect, Aidan plays clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin who has just been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s – at the age of 42. 

Drew said:  ‘Aidan sends me lovely text messages and voice messages. They are really heartfelt, long messages. 

‘He asks after my family. I’m just really humbled by what a nice guy he is. We are both 39. I think getting to know me has made Aidan realise how young Parkinson’s can strike.

‘I said to Aidan when we first met that time, ”thank you for playing someone with Parkinson’s because no one ever does on TV”’.

Dramatic: In The Suspect, the Poldark star plays clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin who has just been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s – at the age of 42

Drew explained how he feels there is a lack of understanding of Parkinson’s, and praised Aidan for taking on the role because it’s a ‘progressive and degenerative’ disease, which is often misunderstood.

He also revealed Aidan visited him during filmed at a London hospital and recalled how the actor pulled up chairs for him and his wife.

Parkinson’s disease is a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged.

Important: Drew, who has Parkinson’s, has revealed the pair still exchange messages after filming had wrapped on the show (Aidan is pictured in character)

Over time, patients will often begin to experience involuntary shaking, slow movement, and stiff and inflexible joints.

Doctors are still unsure what triggers it, and there is currently no cure, but patients can take drugs that reduce the main symptoms.

Roofing designer Drew lives with his wife Sophie, 34, daughter Paige, nine and son Wes, five, in Cornwall. 

He recalled how the pair met last year when Aidan began researching for his latest role in The Suspect. 

His character becomes swept up in a police case, after a young woman is found murdered in a shallow grave, leaving viewers wondering whether he could be responsible for the crime.

Nope! It comes after Aidan said he won’t be taking his shirt off as he stars as Dr Joe O’Loughlin in The Suspect, after earning worldwide attention for his hunky Poldark scenes (pictured) 

Poldark, which is based on novels with the same title by Winston Graham, came to an end in 2019 but Aidan insisted that there are no plans for the series to return.

It comes after Aidan said he won’t be taking his shirt off as he stars as Dr Joe O’Loughlin in The Suspect, created by the team behind Line Of Duty and Vigil.

He told Weekend Magazine that his topless torso became such a talking point that when he was filming later series of Poldark he felt taking his shirt off again would appear gratuitous.

‘We had to be careful about some of the intimate scenes. I had to have stupid conversations where I’d say, ‘I don’t want to have to do this because it will detract from the scene, it’s going to look silly and it’s going to look like we’re doing it for a reason,’ he says.

‘I have a litmus test: if the nudity might make people laugh, then it’s not right and I won’t do it. But if it’s right for the role, then yes, of course. My top remains on in this show because it wasn’t the right choice to take it off.’