Like hot Bovril or red phone boxes, they feel like they belong to a bygone era of British life: somehow both more innocent and more problematic all at the same time.

In addition Aidan also told The Times in a recent interview: “We have so much sex on our show, we have to have two intimacy coaches. Two! Cooper's recent works received a variety of responses from critics, with The Guardian praising "her near-magical ability to conjure up a world and populate it with people for whom you feel a deep affection" [4] and Express calling Jump "one of her most captivating novels yet." [5] The Rutshire Chronicles [ edit ] Cooper doggedly insists he is the handsomest man in England, something I always found hard to picture, since I don't find blond men attractive, especially when they murder foxes for fun. This is exactly the sort of snitty remark, by the way, that Cooper would expect of a hairy-legged feminist like me. Feminists of all stripes get very short shrift in her novels (which is interesting, given that she was the main breadwinner throughout most of her marriage), but hairy-legged ones, by which I suppose she means second wave, are the worst. Riders is a 1985 novel written by the English author Jilly Cooper. It is the first of a series of romance novels known as the Rutshire Chronicles, which are set in the fictional English county of Rutshire. The story focuses on the lives of a group of top show jumping stars and follows the ups and downs of both their personal and professional lives. It was turned into a television film, Riders (1993), directed by Gabrielle Beaumont for Anglia Television and broadcast on the ITV Network.

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Part of Jilly Cooper’s racy 10-book ‘Rutshire Chronicles’ series – named after the fictional county in which its set –‘Rivals’ follows members of England’s ruling elite as they fall in and out of bed with each other and claw each other’s eyes out to get ahead. Meanwhile, NafessaWilliams ( Whitney Houston: IWannaDance with Somebody) plays Cameron Cook,a ferociously talented American TV executive, who’s brought toCoriniumby Tony to produce Declan’s newprime-timetalk show.

Aidan Turner plays TV presenter Declan O’Hara, who’s wooed toCoriniumTV from the BBC byBaddinghamhimself, but feels he’s been swindled and vows to get his revenge. RIvals author Jilly Cooper meeting Camilla at the Cheltenham race festival. (Image credit: Getty) Is there a trailer for Rivals? Anyonealiveand of reading age in the ’80s will have come across a Jilly Cooper novel. Dubbed ‘bonkbusters’, the English novelist’s ripe, pre-’50 Shades of Grey’ tales full of powerful executives,horny polo players and sexy showjumpers questing after other men’s wives and businesses, they often leaned heavily into the dual meaning of the word ‘stud’.I was nine when I discovered Jilly Cooper. I found a copy of Rivals in the bedroom of a holiday rental. There was no way my mother would have kept such seditious material in the house. She took a dim view of Cooper's work. I'm sure the feeling would have been mutual. My mother is the sort of person Cooper lampooned in her books: a left wing, lower-middle class intellectual who didn't know her place. To be fair, my mother doesn't know her place. She suffers from the societal equivalent of body dysmorphia: she imagines she's far posher than she is. Turner plays fiery TV presenter Declan O’Hara and ex-Dr Who David Tennant is Baddingham, who lures O’Hara to Corinium but fails to make good on his promises to him . Revenge is so brewing.

It was also through Cooper's books that I learned I was quite common. The signs were all there: we said "toilet", "lounge", "mirror", "TV". My sister and I had stopped calling our mother "mummy" before we turned five. Our father would keep putting sauce bottles on the table, and calling dinner "tea" (which he insisted be served at a déclassé 6pm). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Before I read Cooper, I thought the same. My imaginary poshness was borne out by the others kids at school, who called me "posh snob", a moniker I'd done little to earn. beyond handing my homework in on time and having a weird, posh name. In the 1980s, Tabitha was still rare enough that you couldn't find it on mugs or doorplates. When I complained about this to my mother, she pulled a sententious face and said: "I gave you your name so you would have chances." She was a teacher and had seen colleagues running through the names in their registers on the first day of school, saying: "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Hmmm, might be all right?" On 5 November 2019 BBC News included Riders on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels. [1] Plot [ edit ]

Rivals is part of Jilly Cooper’s racy 10-book 'Rutshire Chronicles’ series which follows members of England’s power-grabbing social elite as they fall in and out of bed with each other and fight tooth and nail to get ahead. In more recent years, her Rutshire Chronicles have come under fire for dated and problematic portrayals of race, homosexuality, gender roles and sexual consent. [1] [2] [3] During a recent interview with us Aidan revealed more about his Rivals role: "I look like I’m from circa 1975 but it’s for Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, which I’m filming until October. I hadn’t read Rivals before. It seems very British so it wasn’t really on my radar, but it’s really fun. But after we wrap the tache is definitely going to go and I’m going to take a break – I’d love a big holiday!" Danny Dyer, meanwhile, is swapping ‘Eastenders’ for the countryside to play Freddie Jones, a noble-minded self-made electronics millionaire who, along with his wife Valerie (Lisa McGrillis), finds himself victim of Rutshire snobbery. At least, until Rupert and Tony need some of his dosh for a business proposition.