Rivals: the highs and lows of adapting a 1980s 'bonkbuster' for a 21st-century TV audience

To much media fanfare and growing public anticipation, the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's Rivals (1988) began on 18 October. Cooper's novel, first published in 1988, is a key "bonkbuster" text - a largely forgotten genre of women's writing from the 1980s.

Bonkbusters have three key components: they're full of sex (the bonking) and wildly over the top in terms of storylines and characters, and they were extraordinarily popular (the buster part).

However, like its televisual sister genre, the soap opera, the bonkbuster receded into the background of popular culture in the 21st century. So why is the bonkbuster having a cultural moment in 2024? What is the appeal of adapting a text like Rivals?

We have been researching the bonkbuster genre for a couple of years, looking at its authors, themes and publishing history and talking to readers about their experiences with the genre, both at the time and now.

Also known as the "sex-and-shopping" novel, the bonkbuster was a phenomenally popular genre of women's writing in the 1980s and 1990s. Besides Cooper, authors like Jackie Collins, Shirley Conran, and Judith Krantz wrote about sex, marriage, friendship and scandal, against a luxurious backdrop of 1980s commercial excess.

'A Milky Way when you've got a fridge full of posh chocolate'

Cooper's Rivals is fairly typical of the genre - one of the readers in our study, Samantha, aptly described it as: "a full-fat, fun, frothy novel set around class, privilege and horses". It's the second in Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, following Riders (1985).

Rivals follows two competing television consortiums: Corinium, run by the villainous Tony Baddingham (played by David Tennant); and Venturer, set up by handsome Irish TV star Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner), plucky Cockney businessman Freddie Jones (Danny Dyer), and notorious lothario Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), as they bid for the local TV franchise.

They are helped (and hindered) along the way by American TV executive Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams), Declan's actress-wife Maud (Victoria Smurfitt) and unhappily married author Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson).

This might sound like fairly dry fare, but amid all the clandestine meetings and boardroom bust-ups, the characters fall in and out of love, have gleeful, adulterous affairs, and host lavish dinner parties, balls and naked tennis matches. Tory Rupert even finds time to be minister for sport - until Labour win the election.

Great fun and very funny, Cooper's books are famously tongue-in-cheek. However, the bonkbuster is also a product of its time - its references and values are, as study participant Samantha observed, "so 1980s". What, then, is the appeal of books (and now TV shows) like Rivals?

For some readers, the attraction is familiarity. Another reader, Hazel, said: "I don't have that sense of 'I cannot put this book down' because I know exactly what's coming. They're so well thumbed, and all wrinkled at the edges because they've all fallen in the bath a few times."

Readers love the fantasy and escapism offered by the genre. As Hazel remarked, "It's like still wanting a Milky Way when you've got a fridge full of Godiva chocolate ... Sometimes you just want the sugary fluff."

There are much-loved characters: Declan O'Hara remains a firm reader favourite, and there is still a lot of affection for Freddie, the rough-diamond industrialist who has lots of money and a terrible wife. Readers also remember the romance between Rupert and Declan's daughter Taggie (Bella Maclean) fondly, even as they raise an eyebrow at their age gap (Rupert is 37, Taggie 19).

There's also pleasure to be found in the setting. Cooper sets her novels in the cheekily named county of Rutshire, a fictionalised version of the Cotswolds, with vivid descriptions of stately homes and lush rural landscapes.

The problematic 1980s

But there are some aspects of the text that readers feel differently about, reading now, decades later. Some are simple: fashions have definitely changed, for instance, and the golden era of regional TV franchises has long passed.

More complex, though, are some of the attitudes. While many readers still dearly love these books, they also note some elements that have not aged well: "The class issues ... the sexism, racism, homophobia", says Samantha. Cooper herself once noted that serial womaniser Rupert would probably be "locked up in prison", post #MeToo.

Readers in our study have particularly commented on the role of Cameron Cook in Rivals, a ruthlessly ambitious and occasionally unlikeable female American TV executive who is "caricatured as this ball-breaking go-getter," according to Hazel. They wondered if the book were to be published today, whether Cameron would be written as a softer, more relatable character - and, perhaps, treated better by the men around her.

Our readers were also acutely aware of the domestic violence in the book, which they found uncomfortable on rereading. Rivals has several instances of male violence against women, including one so severe the victim requires stitches afterwards - but still defends her attacker.

While readers still find great pleasure in Rivals and other bonkbusters, they simultaneously negotiate some of these more problematic elements as they read the book again, trying to hold the 1980s and the 2020s in their minds at the same time.

Not only does the adaptation build on an audience of loyal readers, but it is also received lots of positive early reviews as a hilarious escapist romp.

Directed by Ted Lasso director Elliot Hegarty, and produced by soap director Dominic Treadwell-Collins, the series seems to be aiming for a blend of high-drama soap and quality production values. This is bolstered by the ensemble cast, including many well-known British actors.

Yet, the novel remains inescapably a product of the 1980s, from its second-wave feminist values to characters' concerns about Aids. As can be seen from the trailer - joyfully belting out Robert Palmer's 1986 hit 'Addicted to Love' - the adaptation is proudly retaining the 1980s setting. It will be interesting to see just how much of its 1980s values and attitudes remain.

*Amy Burge is an associate professor in popular fiction at the University of Birmingham. Jodi McAlister is a senior lecturer in writing, literature and culture, Deakin University.