Today, Rivals returns for a second series on Disney . The first series was that rarest of phenomena: an adaptation that didn’t hate its source material. Sure, the producers decided to cram the plot with more subtle-as-a-sledgehammer politics than appears in the actual book, but you could tell they revered Jilly Cooper and the world of Rutshire and wanted to do it justice. Cooper executively produced the first series but must have been away on some days (I can’t see her let a well-heeled huntswoman pronounce the Beaufort hunt ‘Boh-fore’ rather than ‘Boh-fuht’, particularly when a major scene in the book hinges on the pronunciation of ‘Belvoir’). It remains to be seen whether her watchful eye continued for the second series, and whether Disney  will cash in on the ‘Rutshire cinematic universe’, creating Rupert Campbell-Black figurines (with retractable appendage), or worse still, defanging her. 

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