Jilly Cooper's Rivals on Disney - episode 1 discussion thread WITH SPOILERS! Open the Pouilly Fume & curl up on the sofa with a lurcher puppy here!

[TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack]

Exciting!

I am disappointed they didn’t do the whole book. While I am pleased that it does mean we will hopefully get more, I’m not sure there’s enough of the book left to make a full second series so I’m worried this means they’ll start adding more stuff in/changing things.

I would love them to do Polo but do it in its own right, not as part of Rivals series 2. While the two books do overlap in time, there’s very few Rivals characters that appear in Polo so I can’t really see how you could merge them without changing things quite a lot which will be annoying (well, it will annoy me anyway).

So i think what they can do is to follow Rupert and Taggie's story up to the time they adopt Bianca and Xav and Rupert and Marcus reconcile.

I also think the Maud arc was really well done- she was more unhappy and less selfish than in the book , it was really clear that the person who wrote it had spent a lot of time thinking about these charactarcs over the last 40 years.

Surely the actor who plays RCB will be ancient by that point?

Now that someone has posted the Jaws shot, I can’t unsee it. R has the most strange long face - I was very confused at all the lustful gazes he was getting on the plane.

@virgocatlover - what I meant was take the end of Rivals and then the bits on Polo through to Appasionata that finish Rupert and Taggie's story without doing all of the other stories

This is exactly what I think - rcb and taggie have small parts in a lot of other books - put all those small parts together into one storyline, and add in some of the best characters/storyline along the way.

But the other stories are an integral part of the Rupert and Taggie story, it would not be possible to separate them.

Well this thread has made me realise that I have never read Polo! I don't know how I missed it as I used to buy them all as soon as the paperback came out. I stopped after Wicked as I was no longer enjoying them so much, Anyway, somehow I went from Rivals to TMWMHJ, skipping Polo. So excited to discover an unread Jilly!

This is exactly what I don’t want them to do! If they’re going to do the other books I want them to be done properly.

I guess I'm just not such a fan of the later books. They're slow in places, it's too obvious when people are making "wrong" decisions, and the characters are more one dimensional than riders/rivals. Apart from Score, which is a total masterpiece, and could be easily dramatised as a stand alone <ducks for cover!!>

I love Score too - my second fave after Rivals.

I always felt like Jilly got RCB and Taggie together too early and if we had known what a success the rutshire chronicles were going to be I think she would have held off.

Maybe it will become like Bridgeton with certain couples/storylines taking the focus in each series?

Bring on Lysander and Rannaldini!!!!

It depends what you mean by ‘the later books’.

I want to see everything up to Score! adapted properly (so Riders, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Appassionata and Score!). I love all those books. And yes I know there have already been adaptations of Riders and TMWMHJ but I would like to see them redone Rivals-style.

While I still like all the books from Pandora onwards, I’m not bothered about seeing those adapted so yes for those I wouldn’t care if they somehow merged them all into one story.

If anyone is interested I did find this playlist on Spotify which has a lot of the songs from the soundtrack on - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7lFCFUV74qbuYx66Yuc5d7?si=yAb8cPZiTGOBjtf9Pc3k4Q&pi=e-I3dqxANeT9ej

I was in my late - mid teens when I started to read all of the Jilly Cooper (I’m now 44 😀)

I absolutely loved them and I think rivals is one of my favourites, it’s certainly the one I’ve read the most.

I thought the series was really true to the books, when I first saw the actor that played RCB I just thought nooo that’s not him, but actually he grew on me 😂 they got Declan spot on

I can’t wait for series 2

I'm now listening to the audio book and it is gripping but I'm a bit at some of it! I know it was the 80s so there will be outdated attitudes, but some of the descriptions are a bit disturbing. And Freddie's description of Valerie's body during his 'lonely act' had me do a double take. Also the relationship between Taggie and RCB seems even more creepy, as someone thought she was his 14 year old daughter.

I think the ages are all over the place. Having finished the series I've started reading the book again, and while I understand aging up Taggie by a couple of years, when the book started Tony B was 44. Rupert apparently went to school with Bas, who was ten years younger than Tony, making Rupert late thirties at most. There's no way David Tennant looks 44, and Alex Hassell looks far too old.

oh aiden turner and david tennant!

Rupert is 39 by the end of the book - same age difference as Sarah & Paul. Sarah moans about having a much older husband to Rupert.

@BartsPooch Polo is my favourite book of the whole lot, you’re in for such a treat!!

I've just finished a reread of Rivals and Rupert is 37 at the start and Taggie is 18.

I think AH is 43 so not that much older.

I think DT was excellent in it but he is a bit older and very different looking to Tony.

I'm intrigued to know what they do about that ending if they do make another series. Won't say more for spoilers - maybe we need a total spoiler thread for those who have read the books and finished the series!

Ahhh but Paul is old old , he wears corns plasers and picks his nose behind the Financial Times . Sarah is young and vibrant .

RCB never grew up , he was adored by his fans , lusted after by his "Rupies" (Ruperts Groupies) had a priviledged career though a sad childhood banished off to boarding school.
He'd never hide behind the FT

Just finished watching. Intrigued by where they’ll take it, from memory of the many times I read this as teen I don’t think there’s much left for a full 2nd series, just Taggie getting to know RCBs kids, Declan filming in Ireland and Maud doing her play (plus the extra marital reveals at the end). The ending surprised me, I don’t remember that happening in the book?

Anyway. I did love it. Characters were spot on, though Cameron was softer than I was expecting and Monica a little older than I imagined in my head, she didn’t seem to match Tony’s age. 80s looks, references and styles were fantastic. Poor Daisy, that was a lot harder to stomach than the book version though.

I’ll definitely watch the next season. Good excuse to re-read the books in any case.

I always visualised a young Douglas Henshall type for Declan, very disappointed in Aidan Turner, lovely as he might otherwise be but that moustache!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just finished it, utterly brilliant ❤️ “I’m Cilla fucking Black” 🤣🤣🤣

Now to watch again from the beginning to catch all the bits I probably missed and properly wallow in it!