31/47
Coincidentally, Aidan Turner has previously filmed at Chavenage House (The Priory in Rivals)
Synopsis
Follows Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham as their long-running rivalry reaches its climax.
The same location was also used to portray Trenwith House in the 2015 BBC television 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 apart from the odd name (because some of Jilly’s creations were sooooo common – Rupert Campbell Black says it all – and somehow entered the vocabulary), but almost immediately I started to recall, if not the entire plot, then at least a synaptic click with the intoxicating scent of YSL Opium from watching The Rivals.
This adaptation (one episode later) seems to get it just right
It’s silly giggles rather than outright laughter, and cheeky, not raunchy.
and the socio-political commentary, while not shoved in your face, is much more obvious than when reading the books
The world has been built quickly – the ’80s, money-hungry old boys and Thatcher-era yuppies, bored wives and fearsome warrior women, all treated like meat whatever they do, concord, cigars and birdsong, the English class strata, Britain in a globalised world trying to establish itself at the top…
Okay, it’s a bit of a panties, panties panto, but for heaven’s sake, 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 – they work out each character’s habitus (to quote Bordeau) and present it to the audience for their attention, admiration, denigration and/or arousal.
https://traceyleannesawyer.com/2024/10/27/gracie-and-pedro-the-to-2024-pets-rescue-torrent/
