Just starting Rivals. I had no idea!

[SadSaq]

I didn't know it was set in the 80s.

Looks promising.

I enjoyed Score because I love Flora Seymour and was pleased to see Rannaldini get his comeuppance. Struggled through Pandora and then gave the rest up after a couple of chapters.

In my head I know RCB is blond but I never really had a mental picture of him so although I know technically he shouldn’t be dark haired I think Alex Hassell plays it brilliantly.

Oh yes! Wearing beige bermuda shorts and a cricket shirt with the sleeves rolled up, thus becoming the sexiest woman in the stands and knocking Grace Alderton’s purple silk dress out of the park. I still try and aim for this look in the summer but the effect on me is rather more Monica Baddingham weeding the garden.

Rupert is no how i pictured him at all which was a bit disappointing but still over it. Going to rewatch before the new series. Anyone know where you can still watch riders? I’ve tried and failed to find it

I definitely do not look anything like Chessie in real life!

Dh and I loved it so much we watched it all over again recently in preparation for S2. So glad we did as there is so much detail, I don’t want to spend the whole of S2 trying to remember what happened in S1.

I thought the casting was spot on, even Rupert, because in my mind he was always dark; I always remember being mildly surprised at him being described as blond in the books because for some reason I could never place him as a blond. So to me the actor looks exactly as I’d always imagined him.

Loved Danny Dyer, probably my favourite character.

Might rewatch it!

This is the reason I don’t want to watch the tv series. I feel it will never be as good as the books and I have pictures of all the characters in my imagination and will be disappointed if they are different on tv. These books were a huge part of my childhood (yes that’s right I got hold of these at 11 🤣)

I felt like this about him until I watched, love him in this he is fantastic

Katherine Parkinson was great in it

I know just about all of Jilly's books quite well (including the non-fiction ones) so would love to see this. Started with Emily bought from a garage sale at 13 and they've all been my comfort reads since (as they've come out - back then I think it was just the "name" books, collections of her newspaper columns and things like "Supermen and Superwomen).

I'm another thinking I'll do a trial subscription to Disney+ when all the episodes are out and binge it.

I notice people keep mentioning Freddy as Fred-Fred but nobody's mentioned Valerie. I was hoping she'd have a part in it as she's an (unwittingly) hilarious character in the book.

Yes she really is. Her & DD make a lovely couple!

Lisa McGrillis plays Valerie in Rivals.
She hasn’t had a lot of screen time yet although that’s going to change for season 2. She’s every bit the monstrous social climber she was in the book and if you’ve watched Mum you’ll know Lisa McGrilis is a very good actor.

i think where Rivals has excelled has been enhancing certain characters - Monica, Maud, and even Joyce Madden. They haven’t changed just given a bit more development.

i enjoyed rivals so much.
it was very well done and so reminiscent of the light heartedness of the books.

Thanks, Notonthestairs

She’s every bit the monstrous social climber she was in the book and if you’ve watched Mum you’ll know Lisa McGrilis is a very good actor.

I haven't seen Mum but I've now looked at some stills for Rivals and she looks a good choice.
I also love the OTT 80s clothes she's in, especially the peach satin (to match her sheets) bow dress. Jilly obviously has a real hatred of shirt-waister dresses but those clothes suited the era and the character far better, imo.

Valerie’s clothes including the deer stalker are spot on. Cameron & Sarah’s wardrobes are pretty extraordinary too - the shoulder pads and massive earrings! Lizzie is permanently attached to Laura Ashley dresses.
The soundtrack is fabulous too.

I think it’s just been made by people who loved the books.

and it was so evocative of the 1980s! i forgot to add

I always had a sneaking sympathy for Valerie. Her only real failing is trying too hard, because she's thrust into a social setting far beyond her roots and doesn't have the confidence to just be herself like Freddie does. She's just doing what she thinks is the right thing in a very unfamiliar world. Jilly was always very scathing of aspirational middle class people, I think - you either have to be salt-of-the-earth working class types, or aristocratic poshos on horses if you want her seal of approval. Freddie also never tells her to relax and calm down a bit, he just lets her carry out making an idiot out of herself.

Jilly's a bit kinder to Marigold Lockton in TMWMHJ, who is in a similar position, but then Marigold likes sex and Valerie doesn't, which is another huge crime in Cooperland, along with voting Labour (or even worse, Green) and not being a dog person.

Agree with a lot of that Sydney.
I’d just add that Valerie was very capable of dishing it out - really patronising & dismissive of Lizzie and anyone (mainly women) she didn’t consider aspirational. Quite judgemental of Maud & Declan, impressed by Henry & Hermione.

i actually think the series draws out Fred & Lizzie’s romance far more sensitively than the book - they immediately make a connection through good humour & their sense of fun, both of which had been squashed by their existing partners.

In "Class" it's certainly the lower middles and the nouveau riche who spring from the lower middles who get ridiculed most, followed by the middle middles.
Nouveau riche from the working class, like Freddy, are fine as long as they don't ape their "betters".
I remember an interview in The Times by Camilla Long (I think) that suggested Jilly herself had NR tendencies. Jilly never mentioned that but did complain about many other parts of the interview and was obviously very annoyed about it.
She also mentioned in "Class" that she and Jean Rook had been interviewed together and the interviewer started with "Now Jilly, you're upper class aren't you? And Jean, you're working class?".
Apparently, Jean said crossly "I'm upper class! I know lots of duchesses" while Jilly says she "mumbled" "I'm not upper class, I'm upper middle".

JC went to the same school as my aunt (although not at the same time), and my grandparents would definitely have qualified as the sort of aspirational one-generation-away-from-working-class types that she dislikes - definitely nouveau, though not that riche! Both she and her husband came from officer-class military backgrounds so upper middle sounds about right.

Thank you to whoever brought Tackle up.... not. Quite, without a doubt, THE WORST book I have ever read, and considering I've read probably at least one a week since I could read....

Maybe not as bad if you're not a football fan but still

LOVE RIVALS THOUGH

I’m a football fan and Tackle is rubbish, it appears to be written by someone who has very little understanding of football, which is a shame as Jilly Cooper is such a good author 🙁

Season 2 starts on Friday!

So disappointed only three eps (of twelve) will be available on Friday. I know it's because they want people to resubscribe but it does feel mean.

Me too. In fact I have avoided anything with Danny Dyer in for years but there is a very appealing softness about him in this.