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!

Love it love it love it. Love how rampantly horny it is (like, not anodyne sex with perfect bodies but actual enthusiasm and, um, rutting). Love how perfect the design is. Even feels like it's been shot with cameras/film from that era.

Can't remember the books well enough to talk on the casting but Alex H has exactly the right energy for Rupert; also love it when David Tennant plays a wrong 'un.

On the attractiveness of the cast - I mean maybe? But surely the point of the 80s (and 80s horniness) is that confidence, charisma, swagger, and lurid colours go a long to making someone attractive (horny), not frosted tips. Also I do think part of genuine sexiness is imperfection.

Anyway, love it, feel I should be watching with a few tins of cocktails on the go.

I should add that I’m absolutely loving it! I know what people mean about AH having the right energy but to my mind, the only way RCB gets away with being such a cad and blunder is by being smoking hot. So the actor should be very attractive too or it doesn’t quite work for me. I do accept that in real life someone with bags of charisma can get away with not being conventionally attractive but it’s harder to portray that kind of pure animal magnetism on screen.

Also, rather shallowly, I’d quite like to have more eye candy!

Also I adore Claire Rushbrook, have loved her since Secrets & Lies, always happy to see her in work.

I always thought of Declan as Bob Geldof.

Can you confirm whether it covers the whole of the book?

Loved episode one even if Rupert looks un-RCB. Episode two tonight and cans of cocktails are a must!

It is my fave JC of all time! If they can dye Victoria Smurfitt red to play Maud, why can't they dye the girl.playing Taggie black hair and the Rupert one blond? Other than that, love it! And I love Danny Dyer as Freddie!

All these years I've persevered with MN, through the rashes, and the goady trolls, and the competitive cleaning, and it was worth it all for this moment- I hadn't even realised this series existed! That's my weekend sorted 🍿🍿🍿

@BartsPooch I haven't read any of JC's books but the other thread had loads on saying RCB was meant to be a ride so I'm a bit disappointed now.. ah well at least I love DD now 😆😆

I don't have Disney+ so can't watch but I have a question.

While not exactly a JC "fan" I remember reading the serialisation of Riders in my mum's Woman Magazine in around 1983ish and my teen self getting tingly over Jake.

IIRC Riders is the first book, so why have Disney chosen to make Rivals first?

Edited to clarify that by "not a JC fan" I just mean that I haven't read many of her books.

I’d imagine because filming anything with horses is more difficult? Riders has also been done in the early 90s and was a great adaptation so maybe worried about comparison?

Marcus Gilbert was a perfect RCB.

Riders is quite, er, rapey. It would have been even harder to tone down for a modern audience.

Thanks.

Aren't there horses in Rivals then? I thought it was mostly the same characters.

Just Googled that 90s adaption of Riders, Michael Praed as Jake. Be still my heaving bosom.

@bookworm14

No!

It's many many years since I read Rivals so I might be wrong but from my recollection they've moved away from the book storyline very slightly in terms of the franchise bid - it's an addition not a change and doesn't take away from the book one bit - but it's clever in that it leaves a sense of satisfaction if the series doesn't get renewed - but there's a story for season 2

But a lot of the character stories are definitely still to be wrapped up...!

Same characters but it’s later on, after the dizzy heights of Riders and Polo. Barely any horses iirc. Someone might have had a pony in an orchard?

Just had to get up and shut the curtains incase the neighbours thought I was watching porn!

Ha I was secretly watching in my home office and had to do the same!

Yes! He is a perfect RCB.

I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my love for the book, but (apart from rupert not being blonde and Taggie not being dark) I bloody love it.

Very fun article here from Caitlin Moran from the set of Rivals - too many quotable bits to mention! archive.ph/TNx7p

Interesting - thanks!

Taggie isn’t waif like enough. Also someone posted Rik Mayall and he is the absolute perfect RCB!

Danny Dyer has a total touch of the John Thomson's about him, loving his character so far

NO where near handsome enough