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Coincidentally, Aidan Turner has filmed at Chavenage House (The Priory in Rivals)

Chronology

It follows Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham as they have a long-standing rivalry that comes to a head. The same filming location was also used to portray Trenwith House in the 2015 BBC television adaptation of Poldark.

I read Rivals a few years ago and enjoyed every page of it!

It’s quite difficult to compare the book and its characters to its television adaptation, as we all bring our own perception of how certain characters should be and act. Furthermore, whilst we can read a book to our heart’s content, television has to move at a pace that suits the format and doesn’t become tiresome, so it’s possible that some characters or subplots may have to be cut for reasons of convenience.

It makes us love Declan as much as we hate Lord B!

That said, yes, there are differences from the book, but none so great as to ruin the overall fun and entertainment value. The characters, especially Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara, the upstanding journalist, and David Tennant as the nasty Lord B, are great.

It was great to see Jilly Cooper in the diner lunch scene

The 80s music is fantastic, although the only part I found annoying was the high-pitched opening opera music, it just didn’t fit right. As for all the sex scenes, yes, we could do without some of them, as we all have imaginations, but that wouldn’t be the book Cooper wrote.

He looked like he was really enjoying the show, as I was

The last episode ended quite differently to the book, so I hope there’s at least another season where we get to see what happens to Taggie and RCB… And of course we know that nasty Lord B must be around to wreak more havoc.