40/13

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

Narrative

EnglishFollow Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham as they have a long-running rivalry that comes to a head.

The same location was also used to represent Trenwith House in the BBC’s 2015 TV adaptation of Poldark

So, I obviously read the book ages ago (it was like a coming-of-age ritual in a certain time and place) and to be honest I remember very little about it apart from the odd name (because some of Jilly’s creations were so de rigueur – Rupert Campbell Black says it all – and have somewhat passed into the lexicon) but almost immediately I began to, if I don’t remember the plot in broad strokes, have a synaptic snap with the heady smell of YSL Opium while watching The Rivals.

It’s silly laughs rather than guffaws and impertinence, not salaciousness

This adaptation (one episode in progress) seems to achieve this perfectly.

and the socio-political commentary, while not shoved under your nose, is much clearer than when you read the books

It builds the world quickly – the 80s, Thatcher’s greedy old men and yuppies, bored wives and fearsome warrior women, all treated like meat no matter what they do, concord, cigars and birdsong, English social strata, the UK in a globalised world trying to hammer nails at the top…

Okay, it’s a bit of a pantomime of knickers, but why not?!

Perhaps it’s because I’m older and have met more people that Cooper’s critique of British culture is more obvious, but I think it’s also the casting, the accents, the costumes – bringing out the habitus of each character (to quote Bordeau) and presenting it to the audience to consider, admire, denigrate and/or excite.