Jilly’s Rivals, where we discuss the ending of episode 8 SO obviously there are SPOILERS

[TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack]

Omg

Tbh if there's another series I wouldn't care if Cameron isn't in it!

I’ve just started rewatching. I’m on episode 2. Equally marvellous second time round.
Also going to re-read Polo.

Am I the only person who didn't love the Fred and Lizzie storyline? They do have a connection and her husband is absolutely horrible so fuck him, but Valerie doesn't deserve to be cheated on.

Valerie in the series is much nicer than Valerie in the novel iirc. In the book she's very much a social climbing snob, but the series portrays her as bit more insecure

Yes in the book Valerie is all about social climbing. She patronises Taggie and Lizzie and undermines Freddie. The series has definitely softened her character.

Although I suspect Valerie's real crime in Jilly Coopers mind was that she bought a Tudor house and then stripped out all the period features and that she doesn't like dogs or sex!

That makes it sound a bit better! If they both had unhappy marriages then I could see their affair as being something to root for. In the series it just seems like Fred regrets settling down with the first woman he slept with, which isn't her fault.

Ha ha, totally agree. Jilly is fine with real posh people but can't stand social climbers and Valerie is one.

I’m betting Tony has been hit hard enough that it’ll be touch and go and he’ll be in hospital for a while, but will recover.

I’ve loved this series and I think AH has made a great Rupert, despite not being blond. I am slightly discomfited by the Feelings I’ve been having for Danny Dyer off the back of it, though.

A pedantic question for those who know the books better than I do (I have read them, but only once almost 20 years ago):

In the TV series, Tony says 'lounge' and went to grammar school. Is this a change they've made from the book to explain his chippiness? I find it hard to believe that a lounge-having mother would have the wherewithal to have an affair with an Argentinian polo player and produce an illegitimate child so brazenly!

He did go to grammar school in the book. Growing up Tony’s family wasn’t well off but then his father made a fortune and got ennobled and presumably it’s after that that his mum had the affair, because the book says about Bas being sent to Harrow instead.

@ChessieFL thanks, I wasn't sure!

I agree. He marries Monica partly for her class, she’s proper posh and he isn’t, despite being a Lord. I don’t think Jilly explains his family that much but in my mind Tony’s mother is maybe posh (affair with Argentinan polo player, doesn’t care) and his father isn’t as posh, he’s known as Lord pop pop IIRC

I’m off to look it up!

Ah, here you go!

Thank you @TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack I have been puzzling about Tony, as a complete newcomer to JC. He was obviously not as posh as his wife, but he was a Lord, it didn’t make sense. How did he get the Lord title, I would have thought his father’s title would be a life peerage not a hereditary one? Not that I understand these things very well, but I assumed that a life peer’s title dies with them. Maybe I’m overthinking this…….

He’s introduced in the book as the second Baron Baddingham so presumably the title given to his father was an inheritable one. No idea how accurate that might be!

In the book, my take at least, is that Valerie doesn't love Fred-Fred any longer. At least not like a wife 'should' in the attitude and expectations of the time. She's only there for the money, for status, hence the social climbing. Fred is extremely wealthy, a self-made man, very successful. His loneliness in the marriage didn't come across clearly in the series.

Look what I found!!! That's this week's reading sorted!! Totally agree it would be easier to combine bits of polo with end of rivals...

Are those the versions with the pictures of Jilly on the covers?

I am also loving this, and hope there’s a second series soon!

won over by Robbie rotten, sorry RCB- struggled with the physical mismatch at first but he’s got the character down.

i’d liked to have seen Riders done too. Don’t suppose they’ll go back now.

Loving those old copies! I have some too I think!

I would put good money on them in fact already having filmed the second part. Think of how stellar the cast is and how hard it will be to get all of them back together, looking vaguely the same, plus all the support people. You’ll want the same make up person who can fluff up Aidan Turners tache just so, the same costume designer with their impeccable 80s vibe, etc etc otherwise continuity errors will be glaring. Compare that to just tacking on a couple of extra weeks filming when everyone is firing on all cylinders.

Disney did a single drop, so people could have just got a single months’ subscription then binged. Thats not particularly lucrative for them. I reckon there will be a second drop at some future time - if they are particularly sharp it will be 6-8 more episodes released weekly. But I just don’t buy it that they stopped at a fairly arbitrary point mid-tale on something they have already inverted heavily into - it just doesn’t make sense.

Oh I really hope you’re right, it would make sense for sure!

Peerages always used to be mostly hereditary. Life peerages were only widely used from the late 50s.

@HerculesMulligannn the more I think about it the more I think you must be right. Why would they end it there? They would never be able to get the continuity right, you're absolutely right. Emily Atack has had a baby since for example. But there must be some watertight NDAs in place given that it hasn't leaked!

I was thinking about whether they had already filmed part 2, but if so wouldn't they have shown Rupert's children to some degree? One reason they might not have been in season 1 might be that they will be in season 2 and it would be a bit odd if they aged by a couple of years between the two.