27/21
Coincidentally, Aidan Turner had previously filmed at Chavenage House (the Priory in Rivals)
Story
It follows Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham as their long-standing rivalry comes to a head. The same filming location was also used to depict Trenwith House in the BBC’s TV adaptation of Poldark in 2015.
In the 90s there was a terrible version of Jilly Cooper’s Riders, since TV shunned her ' bonkbusters' critics consider Jilly Cooper’s novels dated and silly
This is far from the truth, Cooper satirizes the Cotswold upper middle class with an iron wit and has always understood comedy, character and entertaining plots. In many ways her work was more like Restoration Comedy than Carry On with characters having more development and more inner life than you might expect.
The changes are minor and actually open up the period and politics more
Now from Disney comes RIVALS which boasts a stellar cast, and the good news is that it's a great watch, yes, it's full of naughty moments, boobies and bums, even the occasional Willy. Still, its victory is that it has a budget and has time to do justice to the feel and spirit of the original book.
He does a truly creditable job
Bella Maclean is brilliant in the central role of Tagie, and Alex Hassel does a great job as Rupert, a role that is impossible to cast because no one in history can be character that Cooper has created – part villain, part Adonis, part whining child. However, the real star of this is the ensemble of brilliant character actors Emily Atack, Danny Dyer, Katherine Parkinson who all give career-best performances.
I really liked it
Soundtrack from the 80s -them is spot on and makes Rivals a real triumph for Disney. It’s fun, it’s frothy, but there’s a deeper underpinning that elevates it above the typical movie and offers hope that we’ll see much more from this crew and this universe in the future.