#thank you poldark

[arthursfuckinghat]

"Thank you"

[wildwren]

ranking george warleggan's blood feuds

1. george vs. aunt agatha - absolutely iconic, nothing will ever top this, frankly this IS the high point of all 5 seasons of poldark. george said "i refuse to be out-cunted in my own house" and agatha was like "this is LITERALLY my house" and then they fought to the death. "that old woman will have no party" is THEE george warleggan quote of all time

2. george vs. ross - this is high on the list for george vs. ross because we all know how much of a ross hater i am, but actually im a george x ross truther, like they DO have chemistry, gay sex would nOT help, it DEFInITELY would make things worse, but i think they should try it anyway!!!! also remember that time george wept when ross' daughter died and told ross that some of the light had gone out of the world with her, and ross responded by telling george he would step over george's uncle if he saw him drowning in a puddle? because i think about that a lot. i might be paraphrasing

3. george vs. drake - i find george vs. drake tiresome sometimes because drake is simply *too* hapless, but at the same time, it's very funny that over the years, george has accused drake of: theft over forty shillings, intent to riot, grain stealing, trespassing, child grooming, bride-stealing, home invasion, and murder; has gotten drake kicked out of church, arrested, beaten and left in a ditch, imprisoned, nearly hanged; burned down his blacksmith shop not once but twice; had a pack of dogs sent after morwenna because she agreed to marry him, and probably other things i'm forgetting. meanwhile, in every sense of the idea, drake is just kicking a stone down the road.

4. george vs. geoffrey charles - i wish george vs. geoffrey charles was more fun but it's just sort of basic like oh no, george, do you hate your stepson who your beloved wife had with another man who you also hated??? how original that's incredibly creative of you!!! george almost marrying cecily was sort of an unhinged touch but by that point i did not really care. i'm a geoffrey charles hater though so maybe it's a personal problem :/

[little-earthquakes-rp]

I think Heida Reed would be a nice FC for Etta :)

Well, look at this gorgeous-gorgeous girl. This is my first introduction to Heida but after looking at her filmography I realize if I made better life choices I'd know her from Poldark, which I promise is on my to-watch list.

Honestly, I love her greenish hazel eyes and those cheekbones so yeah I totally get it. I could picture her as sweet little Etta. I think she could easily pull off the soft disposition Etta seems to have about herself.

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

When Winston Graham wrote in Poldark, The Four Swans, "Love is not a possession to hoard. You give it away. It's a blessing and a balm."

[pegleggysue]

‘Don’t you think I remember the night we came back from the pilchard catch in Sawle? Then it was different. That was the night I fell in love with you. Instead of just the physical thing … Without emotion there’s nothing, is there. Nothing worth recalling. A shabby exercise. Thank God it’s never been that between us since.’ ‘Let us thank God we are not as other people are.’”

- The Stranger from the Sea: A Novel of Cornwall, 1810-1811 (Poldark Book 8) by Winston Graham

[turneradora]

NEW ABOUT RIVALS 💯💯💯💯

New article in the Harper's Bazaar UK, October Issue, to promote "Rivals"!

Amazing photoshoot !

Here is the article of the Harper's Bazaar Uk magazine !!

Thanks to Emma Jones for the written transcription ! 🙏👍🌺

Harpers Bazaar - October 2024

BEST OF ENEMIES

Bazaar recreates the fictional county of Rutshire to meet the cast of Rivals, a new TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s racy 1980s blockbuster

As Jilly Cooper’s Rivals leaps rambunctiously to our screens, we meet the cast of the saucy new show

It’s 1986 and, high over the Atlantic, a London-bound Concorde is about to break the sound barrier. Most passengers continue smoking, flicking through magazines and ordering martinis, while the rattling WC door indicates that two are currently joining the mile-high club. Moments later, an unruffled, glamorous couple emerge triumphantly from the loo and the tannoy announces that supersonic speed has been reached: everyone whoops; glasses are clinked; and the thumping chorus of ‘You might as well face it/you’re addicted to love’ is amped up. This is the opening scene of Rivals, the much-anticipated new television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bestselling novel, and it’s so unsubtle that, even alone in a dark screening bunker below the streets of Soho, it makes me splutter with laughter. It is also irresistible.

The 1988 book is a classic of the Cooper canon and part of the Rutshire Chronicles, a series based in a fictional Cotswolds county that follows the lives and loves of the affluent elite – an area the team behind its new, and first, on-screen adaptation are well-versed in bringing to life. Produced by A Very English Scandal ’s Dominic Treadwell-Collins and written by Laura Wade, who was behind The Riot Club, Disney+’s eight-part drama is also executivelyproduced by both Cooper and her literary agent Felicity Blunt. It is largely faithful to the novel but, as that has 700 pages and 79 characters listed by name and personality trait in an A-Z at the front, the show necessarily homes in on the central plot lines.

The two main protagonists are Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Alex Hassell), a former Olympic-gold show jumper turned Conservative MP (and, incidentally, the ‘best-looking man in England’); and Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner), an Irish broadcasting star who leaves the BBC to move to Rutshire with his actress wife Maud and children Taggie, Caitlin and Patrick. Declan’s new employer, Corinium Television, is run by David Tennant’s vile Lord Tony Baddingham and his sidekick Cameron Cook, an American producer he has lured over from New York, depicted by the US native Nafessa Williams. They are joined by a large supporting cast that includes Danny Dyer and Emily Atack.

The titular rivalries are many and varied, primarily centred on the struggle to win the local TV franchise; simultaneously, characters lock horns over love, money, class, pets, politics and property, while presenting chat shows, throwing parties and playing nude tennis. The resulting viewing experience is both a period drama that seems set on another planet and a series exploring themes that still resonate today.

Cooper – who, at 87, is still in full ownership of her signature cloud of coiffed hair, inimitable charisma and a hundred-mile-an hour conversation – loved working on the project. ‘It’s terribly exciting,’ she tells me, with an amazed shake of the head. ‘Other books of mine have been televised and it was awful – but with this, we took casting very seriously and I can’t fault any of them.’

During a break on Bazaar ’s shoot, Turner tells me how Cooper gave a cocktail party for the cast in her garden, and what a ball they all had filming in the West Country last summer. (The latter is clear: he’s delighted to see his co-stars, including the mongrel Pontie, who plays Gertrude, the O’Hara family dog, and some of her canine colleagues brought along for a day in front of the camera.)

The series appealed to the Poldark star immediately. ‘I thought the scripts were really, really funny – line-wise, I have some crackers,’ he says. Turner’s Declan is a big-hearted if self involved journalist, wrestling to reconcile his bosses’ desire to monetise his charm, his own dream of writing a Yeats documentary and the need to bread-win for his profligate family. Although this push and pull between being commercial and creative, between the professional and the personal, plays out in a larger-than-life fashion, it still somehow feels familiar to a modern viewer. ‘That’s the sign of really good television, isn’t it, when it holds the mirror up to our present,’ says the actor. ‘What have we thrown in the trash? What still needs to change?’

The ways in which prejudices have evolved in the past 40 years are thrown into quite harsh relief in the show. Casting a Black actress to play Cameron Cook, the damaged but resilient hot-shot American producer, gives the series an opportunity to delicately include a glimpse of the regularity of what we’d now recognise as racist micro aggressions. Equally, Cameron’s strength is joyful to witness. ‘Such a spicy, smart character – especially a Black woman, who can carry her own and get her way in the male-dominated world of that time – I wanted to sink my teeth into that,’ Williams says. ‘I also love the glamour: the red lip, the red nails.’ (The cast have embraced the scarlet-stiletto emoji – a replica of the original image on the classic book cover – as their unofficial series motif when posting on social media.)

The changing dynamics between men and women are portrayed with a light touch. Victoria Smurfit read Cooper as a teenager, and has now adored playing Declan’s wife Maud O’Hara – an insecure, attentionseeking former actress, the kind of mother who arrives at her son’s New Year’s Eve 21st-birthday party in the Cotswolds on a camel. ‘There are aspects of Rivals that make you think, “Oh my Lord, can you believe they got away with this back then?”’ the Irish actress says. ‘But in the show, it’s delivered in such a clear, fun, gentle, appalled way that a 2024 audience can digest it very easily.’ When I suggest the series has made more of the women and ensured they have three dimensions, perhaps to modernise the story a little, she makes a good point: that Cooper’s male characters – be it the rakish Rupert Campbell-Black or the angelic Lysander Hawkley of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous – may seem the most famous because it was mostly women reading the books, and the author had designed her heroes – or antiheroes – to be ‘their perfect man’. ‘But look closely, and the women are not less than the men,’ she says. ‘Essentially, every character wants something they don’t have – usually love and safety – whether from their partners, animals or colleagues. Women in this world are entering the era of “having it all” and are learning to be open about what they want – and, by the same token, we are starting to see a softer side to the men.’

This is embodied perfectly in Bella Maclean’s Taggie O’Hara, the delightful, very dyslexic cook and daughter of Declan and Maud: on screen, she has slightly more twinkle in her eye than in the book – a good decision, as otherwise Taggie could be seen as almost too virtuous to be true to a modern audience. ‘But it’s so nice playing someone with a really strong backbone – it slightly rubs off on you,’ says the actress, who appeared in the latest Sex Education series and has just shone as the lead at the National Theatre’s London Tide. ‘Among all the silliness, the shoulder pads and mad hairdos, there’s always an undercurrent of something thought-provoking,’ she says of the show that could prove to be her career’s turning point. ‘There’s a love story that blossoms out of something really unpleasant. There’s light and shade.’

But the figure with perhaps the most chiaroscuro is Rupert Campbell-Black, Cooper’s number-one character, into whose shoes Alex Hassell is amazed to be stepping. Hassell is a seasoned RSC actor, with turns in The Miniaturist and His Dark Materials, whose theatre company The Factory counts Mark Rylance and Emma Thompson among its patrons. ‘I’m also from Essex, with dark features,’ he points out wryly, in reference to the white-blond locks and blue eyes of his new alter-ego, both of which are oft-alluded to in the books, and about which many young women dreamed in the 1980s and 90s. (Cooper was initially appalled.) ‘Rupert exudes privilege and confidence, so I had to learn a loucheness. It was helpful that everyone was told to treat me as if I was extremely attractive,’ he continues, laughing. ‘When you walk into a room of supporting artists who’ve been briefed to fall over themselves looking at you, smouldering becomes a lot easier. They imbued me with a certain power.’

In the Rivals prequel Riders, there are some pretty unpalatable aspects of Rupert’s personality – particularly the way he treats women and animals – that haven’t aged well. ‘We never explicitly had this conversation, but for my portrayal of Rupert, we’ve kept some parts of that history and taken out others. In our version, there’s a loneliness to him: he is a shit, but he has a kindness.’

However, there are two elements of Cooper’s storytelling to which the show stays steadfastly loyal: the abundance of sex and wordplay. Rupert’s dialogue is riddled with quips – some very clever, some very… Eighties. Hassell’s favourite is delivered just as Rupert is getting down to it, and involves a pun that combines Tories and the clitoris. ‘It was a hard sell,’ he says, laughing.

His character and storyline – which takes Rupert on, dare I say, a journey – are key to the show’s charm, pace, plot and sociopolitical signposting. What would Hassell like viewers to make of the series? ‘I hope people enjoy it, have conversations about the knottier topics it raises, and maybe have sex later,’ he says. ‘I say that jokingly, but – and maybe this is high hopes – perhaps for people who don’t talk to one another that much, as the series goes on, watching it with someone else might allow certain things to come to light.’

Cooper is delighted by this possibility. ‘Well, we’re philanthropists, aren’t we? I keep reading that the birth rate is going down like mad. Putting Rivals on the telly may help,’ she says, with the enthusiasm of a writer who has long had one foot in showbusiness: in her forties, she appeared in her capacity as a celebrity columnist on the BBC game show What’s My Line, and wrote a sitcom about a four-girl flat-share with Joanna Lumley in the lead role.

Revisiting the world she created – and partially lived in herself – 40 years ago has been bittersweet: it made her miss the era (‘it was much more naughty’), but also her late husband (‘there’s a lot of darling Leo and his jokes in the book’). Indeed, what today’s viewers may not clock is the real people Cooper drew on to shape several fictional figures, namely the ‘glamorous aristocratic types who were floating about when I, middle-class Jilly, moved to the country in ’82’. Rupert Campbell-Black, for example, is a patchwork of Andrew Parker Bowles, the late Earl of Suffolk and the fashion designer Rupert Lycett-Green. Her ‘beloved’ Taggie is entirely made up, but the scruffy Lizzie Vereker – a novelist whose husband cheats on her – is, she admits, based on herself: ‘She is nicer than me, though. I love her – that’s terribly narcissistic to say, but I do.’

Like her conversation, Cooper herself still rattles along at a good clip – last year, she released a bonkbuster about football inevitably titled Tackle!; this May, the King presented her with a damehood for services to charity and literature, and she’ll be tapping away at her typewriter on various secret projects right up to the very moment she is dragged out of rural Gloucestershire to the premiere of Rivals.

To all these endeavours, Dame Jilly continues to bring the same philosophies she always has: a disregard for snobbery (like many great minds, she rereads Proust and loves Helen Fielding) and a straightforward goal of contributing to the gaiety of the nation. ‘Maybe one day I’ll write something serious,’ she says. ‘But, at the moment, there’s some terrible sadness and loneliness, isn’t there? So, more than ever, and more than anything, I’d like to cheer people up.’

‘Rivals’ is released on Disney+ in October.

[wombywoo]

Totally jumping unprovoked in here to ask if you have ever seen the tv show Being Human? It ran for 5 seasons in the UK and it's about a vampire, werewolf and a ghost living together trying to live a 'normal' life. It's a comedy-drama with a few scary moments, very good I would recommend. If you don't want to dedicate your time to a whole 5 seasons I would recommend season 3 to start off with, you don't need much knowledge going into it and it's definitely the strongest season IMO. Anyway thought maybe it would be right up your street check it out! Anyway thank you for coming to my TED talk.

IMDb link https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1349938/

Also I think it got 1 season remade in the US but we don't talk about that...

Ahhhh this sounded familiar and yes, I have heard of this show! Vampire Poldark!

Confession: I actually watched like one or two episodes of it yeeeears ago with my sister, and we both hated it 😭😭😭 I'm sorry! I honestly don't remember much about it besides Aidan Turner's greasy locks lmao, but there was a weird vibe and we both were like "I don't want to watch this again" so we didn't 😅 It might actually be good, but eh...it just didn't appeal to me at the time (the same can be said for poldark which I also watched with my parents and do not recommend ✋)

Thanks for the rec though! Maybe I'll revisit it at some point, for ~research~

[anglophiletraveler]

In My Life Chapter 40

Help!

Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

******************

Sorry that it’s taken so long for this chapter.  I had a hard time writing this one, which is probably why I titled it Help!  Thanks for sticking around and supporting this story!

******************

“Elizabeth…”

There was a mutual gasp in the room when Ross called out Elizabeth’s name.  A startled Demelza covered her mouth and looked at everyone around her… Dwight, Grace and Joshua and Verity.  Of course the staff in the room didn’t realize what was going on.  

Dr. Brown looked at Demelza, “Are you Elizabeth?”

Demelza couldn’t speak, she just shook her head.

Grace spoke up hoping that maybe she could make sense of what just happened, “Ross, dear, can you hear me?”

He shook his head and mouthed the word ‘yes’.

Grace smiled, “You’ve given us a scare!  Especially Demelza!”  Grace waved her hand nonchalantly but in a hope that Ross noticed Demelza was in the room.

It worked.

Ross tried to sit up, “Demelza!”  

“Mr. Poldark lay back down, you can’t get up,” a nurse was trying to get him to settle back down.

Demelza grabbed his hand and kissed it, “I’m right here.  I’m not going anywhere.” Tears were rolling down her cheek.  She could find out why Ross called out for Elizabeth later.  It was more important that he’s awake and feeling better.  

Joshua spoke up, “Son, do you remember what happened?”

Grace gave Joshua a dirty look.

“Not a whole lot.  Elizabeth had just called me.  I answered… phone on….  bluetooth, didn’t know it was her.”  It was obvious Ross was having a hard time breathing.  “She… bitch…”

“Shhhh Ross, calm down.  We don’t have to talk about this now.  It’s not important.  Just relax, I don’t want you to get upset.  She’s not worth it,” Demelza’s voice was a little stronger as she tried to get Ross to settle down.  

“I think maybe we should let Ross get some rest.  The last thing we need to do is tire him out right now,” Dwight spoke up in his doctor voice.

“I think you are correct Dr. Enys,” Joshua said.  He leaned over and gave Ross a kiss on the forehead.  “Son, it’s so good to see you awake.”

“Thanks dad.”

Verity walked up to Ross’s bedside and gave him a kiss on the forehead, “Behave yourself Ross.  I love you.”

Grace got up out of her wheelchair, “We’ll be back later on darling.  Get some rest.”

Ross looked at Demelza, “Don’t go.”

Demelza looked at Dwight.  “Alright you can stay, but I don’t want either one of you getting upset.  Ross needs to rest.”

Demelza smiled, “I promise.”  Dwight smiled at Demelza and Ross as he left the room.

Demelza scooted her chair closer to Ross’s bedside, and picked up his arm and kissed and leaned her face against it and sighed.

Ross noticed that Demelza looked tired.  Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, her eyes had dark circles under them along with being bloodshot.  He moved his arm so that he could run his fingers through her hair, “You look… very tired, love.”

She hummed at the feel of his fingers in her hair.  She was worried that this simple gesture of love would never happen again, “I’m fine as long as you’re awake and doing better.”

“I’m sorry… that.. I worried you,” Ross’s voice was weak.

“Shhhh, you have nothing to apologize for.  It wasn’t your fault.  Just relax and get some sleep.”

“Did you… spend the night…here?”

Demelza sighed and looked him in the face.  He would know if she lied to him, “Yes, well not here in the room.  I slept on the couch in the waiting room.  The nurses were nice to me and gave me a pillow and a blanket.  I wasn’t going to leave you here!  I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

Ross smiled and let his finger caress her cheek, “Demelza, promise… me that you’ll …go home and get some rest.  Please baby.”

“I am totally fine.  I don’t need to go home.  Drake is taking care of Seamus for us, so I don’t have to worry about that.  So, Mr. Poldark, I am all yours!”  She was trying to convince him that she wasn’t tired and didn’t need to leave him.  “Honest Ross.  I’m fine.  If I get tired, I’ll go out in the lobby and take a break.  I almost lost you and I don’t want to leave you just yet.”

Ross smiled, “Right… but I’m not going anywhere.  Hey did … anyone find my cell phone from the accident?”

“Um no, if someone did find it nobody told me.  Do you remember the accident?” Demelza asked.

“A little.  Everything’s kind of foggy right now. I remember talking to Elizabeth on my bluetooth, and then I hung up on her.  Then she called again and after that …. I don’t remember anything.  My throat is really sore.  Can you help me with a glass of water?”

“Of course.”  Demelza got up to search through a drawer to find a straw for Ross to drink through.  “Here you go babe.  Does that help?”

“Yes, thanks.  I’m really tired. I think I’m going to take a nap.  Why don’t you go home so you can get some proper rest and then come back later,” Ross suggested.

“I don’t know…” Demelza looked at Ross and he definitely looked knackered, “Maybe I will.  But I will be back, so you are not going to be rid of me.”

Ross grabbed her hand, “Babe, I don’t ever want to be rid of you.  Lean down here and give me a kiss before you leave.”

Demelza leaned down to kiss Ross’s lips, then his nose and his forehead,  “I love you Ross.”  Demelza couldn’t help the tears dripping down onto Ross’s cheeks.

Ross raised his hand to run it over Demelza’s cheek, “I love you too, love.  I can’t wait for us to get married.” Demelza smiled but couldn’t keep herself from crying even more.  “Hey there, shhhh.  Everything’s going to be fine baby, please don’t cry.  You need to go home and get some rest.  You’ve worn yourself out.  I can see it in your eyes.”

Demelza stood up and wiped her tears away, “I’m sorry.  You’re probably right.  I’ll be back later.”

*********************

A couple days later, Ross was stable enough that he was able to be moved into a step down unit and also to be interviewed by police about the accident.  Joshua and Grace just happened to be in the room when the police arrived.  They were able to return his phone to him after they pulled the call history from it, to see if he was on a call when the accident happened.  He explained to him that his ex-fiance had called him and he hung up on her while wearing his blue tooth, and that she called back again.  At least he assumed it was Elizabeth, he never actually heard a voice from the other end and then the accident happened.

Secretly, Ross was more concerned if he was actually the one to cause the accident, but fortunately the police officer told him that another driver in the lane next to him caused the accident when he was distracted by his friend in the seat next to him. They were a couple of young college students not paying attention to what they were doing.   It turns out that he not only hit Ross’s car, but he rear ended the car in front of him, causing a chain reaction.  In total, there were seven cars involved.  Luckily there were no fatalities.  There were plenty of witnesses that all confirmed what happened.  The police officer left all of the paperwork with Ross that he would need to turn into his insurance company.

All three of them sighed after the officer left.  “Well, that’s a relief,” Ross said.

Grace looked at her son, “What’s that dear?”

“I was afraid that I caused the accident while talking on the phone with Elizabeth.”

“Well, you were honest with the officer and told him that you were on the bluetooth.  You weren’t actually holding the phone.  I still can’t believe that bitch Elizabeth tried to convince you not to marry Demelza!  Who the hell does she think she is!” Grace answered.

Ross gasped at his mum, “Mum! Watch your language!”

Joshua was smirking at his wife, got up and stretched his legs, “ I’m sure your precious BMW is totaled,” Joshua smiled at Ross.  

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking.  That really pisses me off.  I loved that car.  It was the first thing I bought when I got my job at the firm.  Now we’ll have to get two cars… one for Demelza and one for me now.”

Grace smiled and raised her eyebrows and hummed, “Hmmm interesting…”

Ross tilted his head at his mother and the dark Poldark eyebrows furrowed, “What?  What are you thinking, mother?”

She sat back and smiled while her crossed legs started bouncing, “Oh nothing, just…”

Joshua was spying the evil grin on his wife’s face.

“Just what mum?  What are you thinking?”

“Nothing!  My goodness you’re so suspicious!  You need to lay back and rest.”

“I am not going to relax until you tell me what you’re up to!” Ross’s voice was getting louder now.

“Shhh!  Don’t get all rattled, love.  I was just thinking that you might want to get a bigger vehicle, you know, for the future, like a van or…”

Joshua and Ross both gave Grace a dirty look.  “Mum, there is no bloody way in hell that I’m getting a van!  We don’t need a van!  Bloody hell!  What are you thinking!?”

“Calm down!  I was just thinking that maybe you might need something bigger with Demelza’s cello, and… and… the trips you might take, and if you start having babies you’ll need something bigger,” Grace was still grinning.

Ross shook his head and looked up at the ceiling, “Mother!  I told you that we might not even have kids.  We haven’t decided on that for sure.  Mum please don’t say anything to Demelza about this.  I promised not to pressure her about kids.”

“Is that something that you and Demelza are definite on?” Now Joshua was in on the conversation.

Ross looked at his father and then looked down, “Look, it’s… undecided at this point.  Demelza’s not sure about kids.  You have to remember that she basically raised her six brothers, so the thought of having her own children is a bit overwhelming to her.”

Joshua moved to sit back down next to Ross, “Ross, I always thought that you wanted children?  This is a big decision to make, have you really thought about what a life without children will be like?  Don’t get me wrong, I really love Demelza and think she’s a wonderful woman, but to not be totally certain about something this important before you get married can really cause trouble down the road.”

Ross let out a big sigh, “Dad, Demelza and I have talked about this plenty of times.  Yes, I want children, but I love Demelza more, and if she decides not to have children, then I will just have to live with it. I don’t want to lose her.   Now can we please change the subject before she gets here because I don’t want her walking in here with all of these long faces.  Please.”

Grace and Joshua both looked into their son’s face and saw how serious he was about his words, and knew they wouldn’t be able to change his mind.  

Luckily a nurse came into the room to check Ross’s vitals so the tension in the room lightened up. 

Ross looked at his parents, “So are two still staying in the hotel?”

Joshua nodded, “Yes, it’s nice that it’s just across the street and we can pop over so that your mother can have a kip.”

“Well, you can always stay at our place.  I’m sure Demelza wouldn’t mind…”

Just then Demelza walked in with a smile on her face, “What wouldn’t I mind?”

Ross’s face broke out in a bright smile, “There’s my girl!  I was just saying you wouldn’t mind if mum and da stayed at our place while they’re here in town.”

Demelza leaned down to kiss Ross, “Of course not.  You’re more than welcome to stay at the house.”

“Oh thank you Demelza, I was just telling Ross that the hotel across the street is really convenient for us so that Grace can go to the room and take a quick nap.  But if you need me to drive you to rehearsal and pick you up, I’d be more than happy to do that for you,”  Joshua responded.

Demelza sat on the bed next to Ross and grabbed his hand, “Thank you.  Maestro said if I wanted to take the rest of the week off, he wouldn’t have a problem with it.  But thank you anyway!”

Ross looked at Demelza, “Babe, are you sure you want to miss that much rehearsal time?”

“Well Ross, I didn’t even ask.  He called me so I think it’ll be alright.  Plus I’ve still been practicing at home.  And speaking of home, Seamus is really missing you.  He’s been moping around like crazy.”

“Aww poor Seamus!” Grace said.

“You should sneak him in for me!” 

“Ross, how am I going to sneak in an Irish Setter?” Demelza was smiling at her fiance.

“Nobody will mind.  Just say that he’s a therapy dog!”  All three just shook their heads 

at Ross.

Joshua stood up, “Well on that note, I think your mother and I will go get something to eat and head back to the hotel for the night.  Demelza dear, let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.”

Demelza stood up to hug her future in-laws, “Oh I will, thank you again.  Take care Grace.  Get some rest.”

“Good night Demelza.  You get some rest also!”

Demelza turned around and raised her eyebrows at Ross, “We're finally alone!”  She went over and put her hands on Ross’s face, careful not to knock off his oxygen hose, and gave him the deepest, lustful kiss that she could give him.  

Ross moaned, “Mmmm I could use more of that Mrs Poldark.”

“Hey now, don’t jinx us!  What… what is this stuff?”

Ross opened the envelope and bag and showed Demelza the contents, “The police brought it by.  It’s my phone and some other stuff that was in my car.  I guess I’m going to have to get a new phone.  Maybe then I’ll be able to find out for sure if it was Elizabeth calling back a second time.”

“Well, I can work on getting you a new phone tomorrow.  I don’t think the store will be open now.  Have they said when you can come home?”  Ross tried to pull Demelza closer to him, but she was resisting, “Ross, not here!”

“Oh you’re no fun!  Come on baby, just snuggle a little bit. I miss you,” Ross was starting to whine.

“Alright, just a little,” Demelza wrapped herself under Ross’s arm.  She couldn’t help herself and started caressing Ross’s belly.  “Mmmm I have to admit this does feel good.  Ross..”

“Hmmmm?”

“I think we should postpone the wedding.  It’s going to take a while before you’re feeling better, so I think we should postpone it.  When you’re feeling better and stronger, then we will have the dresses and the suits and we can go ahead and get married,” Demelza’s voice was soft.

Ross sat up, “Absolutely not!  We are not changing a thing.  You hear me?” 

Demelza looked up in Ross’s eyes, “Yes, I heard you.  But it doesn’t make me happy.  Ross, you’re going to take a while to recover, it’s not something that can be rushed.

“I am going to be just fine by the time of the wedding.  My respiratory treatments are going well, my physical therapy started today.  I will be fully healed and strong when I say my vows to you.   Speaking of which, do we have an officiant lined up?”

“Oh, um I don’t know.  I’ll have to check with Caroline about that,” Demelza weaved Ross’s fingers through hers.

Ross’s eyebrows furrowed like they always do when he’s thinking, “Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Caroline since I’ve been in the hospital.  I mean, not that I’d expect her to be here for hours on end, I just thought…why are you looking that way?  What’s wrong?”

Demelza let out a sigh, “Well she was here with me the whole first day while you were in surgery, but I just got the feeling that there’s something wrong going on between Dwight and Caroline.  That whole day they barely said two words to each other.”

“Did you ask them about it?  That is kind of weird for them.”

“Yeah it is, and yes I did.  I asked Caroline when Dwight had stepped out if they were alright, and she just said something like they were going through a rough patch.  Later on Dwight said the same thing and that it was nothing to worry about.  I haven’t seen her since, but  I have talked to her on the phone a couple of times, but we really haven’t had time to talk about it.  I’m really worried about them though.  Maybe you could talk to Dwight?  See if he will talk to you about it.”

Ross kissed Demelza’s hand, “If I get the chance without a bunch of staff around, I will.  Now, talk less, snuggle more.”

Demelza rolled her eyes and followed Ross’s instructions.  But of course, with snuggling, eventually comes snogging, until…

“Oh please!  Really Ross!  In a hospital!  Don’t you have more respect for yourself than that!”

Ross and Demelza jumped out of their skin and looked towards the door and there stood Elizabeth hand on hip, a very expensive handbag hanging from the other arm, a very expensive dress hugging all of her curves, hair and makeup perfectly done.

Ross sat up in bed, inadvertently yanking his oxygen tube from his nostrils, “Elizabeth, what the fuck are you doing here?”  Demelza’s face quickly turned beet red.  She climbed off the bed and straightened herself up in her embarrassment.  

“I came here to talk some sense into you.  I wasn’t expecting to visit your hospital room while the two of you are screwing.  Very tacky even for you Ross,” Elizabeth said.

“Elizabeth, you’re the reason why I’m in this hospital bed, so… please… leave!” Demelza noticed that Ross was starting to have trouble breathing, so she hit the nurse call button.

“Elizabeth, I think you should go, you’re upsetting Ross,” Demelza raised her voice to try to get Elizabeth to leave.  

“I am not going anywhere until I talk with Ross.  Alone!”

The nurse came in and immediately put the oxygen mask back on Ross instead of the hose that was previously in his nostrils.  She was an older nurse who looked like she didn’t take shit from anybody.   “Alright, calm down Mr. Poldark, you’ve got your heart rate up.  Take some nice easy breaths.  That’s right, nice and slow.  Okay gorgeous, now, which one of these birds got you riled up?”  Ross pointed to Elizabeth.  The nurse looked right at Elizabeth, “Alright sweetheart, it’s time for you to leave.”

Elizabeth just stood still, “I am not going anywhere, I need to speak with Mr Poldark before I leave.”

“Look lady, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care who you are except that you’re upsetting my patient and now he can’t breathe.  So either you leave on your own, or I call security.  It’s your choice.” Demelza couldn’t help but smirk.

Elizabeth gasped and scowled at the nurse, so the nurse reached for the phone to call security, so Elizabeth finally left.  

Demelza was standing by the bed and rubbing the hair out of Ross’s forehead, trying to get his breathing to settle down.  

The nurse got a cool wet washcloth and placed it on Ross’s forehead.  She took a listen at his lungs, and looked at his heart rate blip across the screen.  “Now that we got her out of the way, I’ll put a note up on your door that all visitors are to check at the desk before they come in.  Alright?  So just calm yourself down.  We’re going to keep this mask on you for a little while longer.” the nurse looked at Demelza, “So redbird, are you his girlfriend?”

Demelza smiled at the nickname the nurse gave her, “We’re engaged.  That woman was engaged to him years ago but is married now to his cousin.”

“Ahhh she’s trying to have her cake and eat it too!  I get it now.  Well, we will take care of this at the desk.  Now, I think you should be going in a little while. Your future mister needs his rest after Miss Fancy Pants disrupted him.”

Demelza frowned, “Is he going to be alright?  What about his breathing?”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll keep both my eyes on ‘im for ya, and if there’s anything you need to know, I’ll call you.  You have to take care of yourself too, ya know. I’ll give you 30 minutes.”  The nurse smiled at Demelza and then left the room.

Demelza looked at Ross wearing the oxygen mask again.  He looked pale like he did a few days ago and that worried her.  “Oh Ross, I could just smack Elizabeth!  How could she come charging in here like that!  I’d like to get a handful of her hair and drag her around a bit!”

Ross smiled at Demelza picturing her dragging Elizabeth by the hair of her head.  He held her hand and tried to comfort her, “I’m fine, I shouldn’t…  have let her…  get to me like that.  She’s… not worth…it.”

“I don’t want to leave you Ross.  I’m worried now, and I want to stay and keep watch over you,” Demelza was almost in tears now.

“My love… I am fine and I’ll… be okay.  I have all of this equipment monitoring…me, and that nurse … watches me like… a hawk…  so don’t, worry, my redbird,” Ross smiled at her new nickname.  

Demelza gave a weak smile at that, “Alright. I’ll go, but I’ll be back first thing. I love you Ross,” she leaned down and kissed his forehead.

“I love you too Demelza.”

****************************

[nervousladytraveler]

Promps again😊 Too hot to cuddle

Oh @veryflowerobservation, what have you done? This started off a small thing then turned into a proper story. Well almost proper--it's not done yet. But here's where we are so far. From the Poldark Like Someone/Rose in December universe (maybe called "Plans and Proposals"?) And it's pretty darned hot here this week so I feel like I did some "field research" but alas I did not have Ross to help me.

Thanks again!

---

“Well, well! Such progress!” Ross said as he came up behind Demelza in the kitchen garden–or to be precise, the plot that had been a garden at one time and was once again in the making. He hadn’t meant to sound patronising but the look she shot him made him fear she might whack him with her spade.

“I had forgotten how god awful this soil was here. Packed hard but also sandy and now full of weeds. And stones.” She stooped to pick up a rather large one then threw it over her shoulder. Farquahar, their six month old puppy ran to chase it then lost his focus when a moth flew by. That he’d remained outside this long was unusual. He had a dislike of getting his paws dirty, a rather unfortunate trait in a dog, much less a dog that resides on a farm.

“We could move your garden elsewhere,” Ross suggested practically.

“No, tradition says this is where the Nampara garden lives. Your mum had it here, I had it here years ago, this is where it shall remain as long as the Poldark name is on the land deed.

He smiled. She wasn't really cross with him, just frustrated with her task–a task she rather adamantly took on herself. 

Ross still found pleasure in all of Demelza's moods–even when she was fractious or even a little impatient. It meant she was real and that their relationship was genuine and not confined to safety at the surface. 

Anyone could be sweet and accommodating for the first few months of love but at some point, if they were honest with one another, disagreements should in fact occur. Their quarrels weren’t dramatic, it turned out. They laughed off the times they didn't see eye to eye and never let the sun set on a row. Ross should have expected as much since that had been the case with them years ago. Well, at least that had been their playbook for most of the time they were together until …

Best not to think of that.

Instinctively Ross moved towards Demelza to ease his mind. He managed to land one kiss on her neck before she wriggled away.

“No, that's enough of that, Ross. Not now,” she said and stepped back before he was able to wrap his arms around her. “It's too hot to cuddle.”

“It's never too hot to cuddle,” he said, his arms still outstretched. Another sidewise glance from her told him what she thought of that.

“You might regret those words, Ross. I’m stinky as hell,” she said and crouched to pull out a clump of Ribwort plantain, then thought better of it. “These are supposed to be good for bees.” 

“I happen to like your stink,” he countered.

She sniffed her t-shirt sleeve then wrinkled her nose dramatically to prove her point. “Seriously, I'm even makin’ myself sick. As soon as I'm done here I'm headed straight for the shower. Then we can revisit your proposal.”

“I can run you a cool bath now if you'd like.” He’d meant to sound supportive but immediately saw he was distracting her.  

“I'm nowhere near done for the day but if that ever happens, I’ll use the outdoor shower.” She struck her spade back into the packed soil. 

The outdoor shower was an inspiration he’d had when the (new) North Barn was being built. It made sense to have a place where one could clean up before heading indoors, whether one had been in the field or at the beach. It was a vast improvement from the previous set up in the yard.

Good god that water was cold, he thought, recalling the rubber hose and rusty old sink.

“Fucking hell!” Demelza bent over to pick up another rock. “Who’d have guessed that nature would so fiercely take back an unattended garden. I mean it hasn't been abandoned that long, has it?”

Only six years.

He made some half-hearted attempts to keep it going after she left–out of spite really–before he finally let it go to rack and ruin.

“Demelza, love,” he said, suddenly feeling very guilty about his role in the garden’s current state. “Please, let the lads do this. They’ll be done in the hopyard in an hour and can even come through with the tractor…”

“No!” she said, then laughed when she heard herself. “Sorry, no thank you. I can do it–I want to do it.”

“Do you?”

“Well, the growin’ things part yes but not really the wrestlin’ with the rocky earth part. But I simply won't be one of those pretentious weekend gardeners. The ones who have the whole thing set up for them by someone else and then just show up to pluck a weed or two and prune the tomato vines and call themselves ‘avid gardeners’...”

“Tomatoes? Is that your plan?”

“Maybe.” 

“No one is doubting your commitment, Demelza,” he said. “Unless you are.”

“No, it's not that. But you should know…well, I'm not really into havin’…” She paused, carefully picking her words.

“Into having…?”

“Help,” she said. “I mean hired help. Like servants.”

“Come on! Michael and Sean aren't…”

“Yes, they are, Ross. And havin’ once been the hired help myself, I’m not really comfortable havin’ someone else in that role workin’ for me. No offence, Ross. And no judgement–I know your family has had help for generations and it is needed on a farm but…”

“Isn't a garden part of the farm? The idea is to grow things, is it not?”

“Not a kitchen garden. It's more like an extension of the house and…it just isn't for me.”

“Demelza, sure you were the help at one time, but you were also more than…”

“Watch out, Ross,” she laughed. “I don't think you want to follow that thought to its logical conclusion of just what more I was….”

He nodded solemnly (point taken) but her smile suggested she was teasing more than warning.

“Look, love, don’t try to downplay it. I was a servant—farmhand, maid, cook, whatever the role. I was in service. And it's part of who I am–what I was. Just as you once were a soldier,” she said softly. “These things made us who we are now.”

“Okay, I see that. I’m sorry if you felt I was trying to erase an essential part of your…”

“No worries,” she brushed it off. “Just no servants for me.”

“Got it–but what about a cleaner–occasionally?”

“Oh good lord. With just the two of us? I think we can manage!” she snorted. “Although…” Some new thought seemed to pass through her mind. “Maybe, if we were havin’ a big do–like a special party or celebration or somethin’—we could have someone come through, just the once.” 

“Cleaner for special occasions only. Duly noted,” he nodded. “But no housekeepers, footmen, butlers, valets,  cooks…”

“Cooks?” she laughed. “That's ridiculous! Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Maybe–again a big do–like a catered event for more than twenty people–we'd need help with that.”

“And maybe before this hypothetical big do, we’d need to hire on a gardener to tidy up in the yard?” he laughed. “I mean, is the party outdoors?”

“Don't you think it would need to be? If it's like fifty people?”

“I thought you said twenty?”

“I said more than twenty. And we could certainly accommodate fifty–or more–out here. But yes, maybe a temporary gardener so that you don't spend all day trimmin’ the shrubs and then be too knackered to play the host. Plus you'd need to keep your nails clean and all that.”

“What kind of party is that where people are scrutinising my grooming? And I always wear work gloves, don’t you know?” He gave a teasing glance to her own hands, gloveless as usual. “But you seem to be giving this “do” some thought.”

“Hypothetical do. Strictly hypothetical,” she smiled. “But I do mean it–no hired help in the house, day to day.”

“Noted.”

“Maybe a childminder–workin’ folks need that obviously–but no proper nanny per se and no live-ins!”

“Oh?” He raised a brow. This was new. He wasn't sure where she was going but she seemed to have leapt ahead of hypothetical outdoor catered parties for fifty (or more) guests on to a more distant future. He considered prodding her into offering more information then decided to wait her out.

“I wonder… just because all was fertile here once doesn't guarantee it is now…Do you think we’re startin’ this too late?” she asked, pausing again and this time leaning on her spade for support. 

“Too late for what?” 

“A garden, of course.” She looked at him like he’d just asked the most idiotic of questions. “Surely it would have been better to start in April or even May. But now? It's so hot…”

“The heat isn't helping but since you're buying your plants already started from the garden centre, I think you’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “And we both know, you can coax anything into growing.”

“Seeds! Of course I’d need good quality seed...but that’s for next year…” Her head snapped up as though she’d made up her mind. “Okay, Ross you can help me.”

“What?” He was struggling to keep up. 

“You can help me dig, if that’s what you're offerin’...”

“Yes,” he laughed. “I’ll gladly help you, just let me go change.” Then he paused to ask the question on his mind. “Demelza, what do you mean by ‘that’s for next year’?”

“That next year I’ll do this garden properly and try my hand at growin' plants from actual seeds,” she said. “What do you think I meant?”

"Nothing. Just know that whatever your plans--for the future--I support them."

"Even if I give them up half way through and bunk off to go swimmin' instead?" she laughed.

"Swimming?"

"Yes," she said. "Forget the garden for now. Let's go down to Hendrawna. Days this hot just beg for the sea."

"Well, Madame," he said, "I accept your proposal."

[arthursfuckinghat]

Arthur and Poldark 𑁦𐂂𑁦 Fort Mercer

[thoughtsonpoldark]

Thank you for your essays on the Poldark saga. I have gained so much understanding. I have always believed that when Elizabeth and Ross met at the churchyard by her springing on Ross that George doesn't believe Valentine is his child" then by her words "I cannot say" " I will not say" she was admitting Ross was father. Why the need to tell him if it was not true? She hated Ross at that time.And to tell him this!? I believe she had the knowledge of her menses to know when they stopped that she was pregnant and who the fathet was(sex on May 9th, married on June 20th, baby Feb 14). Demelza knew because of Verity s letter. Didn't show to Ross, she had thoughts of her own on the letter and later "they were all so wrong". What do you think? How much did Demelza guess? She could count if no one else could-Aunt Agatha? How much did she know. She was smart and I believe she knew child was definitely full term. Then...What was Ross’s responsibility? Could he have been involved in Valentine's childhood? I don't see how. George and Ross hated each other. Years later a conversation between Verity and Ross talking of Valentine and Verity saying when Valentine small he looked like Ross now he looks, acts like Joshua. I think Verity fishing for the truth, trying to get Ross to admit and he will not. Your thoughts?

Hi there. Thanks for your ask and your kind words.

On the issue of Valentine’s paternity, for some reason Winston Graham chose not to be explicit in narration about whether all the key characters you mentioned including Elizabeth, Demelza, Ross, Verity and Agatha knew about Valentine’s true paternity, and if they did, then when they had this realisation. However he gave us enough information for us to be surer with regards to Elizabeth and then indications which were suggestive for the others.   

Did Elizabeth know Valentine was Ross's baby?

Like you I think it is clear that Elizabeth did know that Valentine was not George’s child when she married him. Ironically the postponement of her intended wedding day (at her request) will have provided her enough time to have missed a menses and to then realise she might be pregnant following Ross’s visit. This is especially as Elizabeth did tell Dr Anselm that her menses were regular. Her comment “I cannot say" and " I will not say" was in keeping with Elizabeth’s way of words when trying to avoid an outright lie while also not giving away the real truth either. Like you said this only serves as an admission because if he was not the father she would have happily confirmed that.

I think it is understandable that in the heat of the moment with pent up anger over three years for the possible destruction of her marriage, that she would let it slip when finally faced with the man who she felt was responsible for it. Winston Graham conveyed that feeling when he wrote “He seemed at that moment the cause, the fount, the initiator of all her present and past miseries.’ Most people who see someone who has hurt and damaged them and see that they appear to be living their life unaware of the hurt they have caused them will want to give them an indication of this. Once Elizabeth said a bit and Ross prodded her as to the exact problem, I think she couldn’t help but say the true issue was a suspicion on paternity.

When did Demelza realise Valentine was Ross's baby?

So there is no clear indication of the point where Demelza knew about Valentine’s paternity but it made clearer that she knew in the later books when Valentine is older and encroaching on the Poldark’s life. I cannot read much into Demelza’s response and thoughts to Verity’s letter in Warleggan with the gossip that Elizabeth might be pregnant. This is because although Demelza’s sharp intelligences and her natural pessimism around Ross and Elizabeth will have meant her thinking it was a possibility that this was Ross’s child, Winston Graham is not clear on the specifics of Demelza’s reflections on it, which part/s this related to and if she withheld the letter from Ross to avoid him being wound up about the wedding in general or because of the pregnancy gossip. Though George confirmed Elizabeth’s pregnancy to Ross it is not clear if this was confirmed to Demelza by the time she thought back on Verity’s letter when she nearly ran out and left Ross at the last scenes. The other thing is that Winston Graham wrote this book thinking it was the last and also that it had a happy ending. 20 years later he decided to continue the saga and it seemed he then developed the idea about Valentine’s paternity being some key point of conflict and tension to build a new book and storylines around. I think it is less likely he had thought of this beforehand for a book he was closing happily ended and where he made no obvious suggestion of a paternity issue. For instance towards the end he covered Elizabeth’s reflections on her marriage. She was 7 months pregnant by then. Despite being heavily pregnant at the time, not only did he not cover her reflections or hints that she thought she was pregnant with Ross’s child or unsure about this, he did not mention her feelings at all about her pregnancy. That suggests to me it was not a solid concept in his mind with any certainty. I am inclined to believe that Valentine being Ross's child was an idea Graham committed to when he reopened the saga and e started the next book.

Despite the above my view is that Winston Graham wrote with it in mind that Demelza did believe Valentine was Ross’s child from her first appearance in The Black Moon. That was in mid March of 1794 and Elizabeth had given birth two weeks before. Winston Graham specifically wrote that ‘The birth and christening of Valentine Warleggan was the latest thorn in the flesh. Neither said what was uppermost in their minds; it could never be uttered by anyone.’ By then Ross and Demelza had been reconciled for nearly three months and they had processed George and Elizabeth being married, which they had by then been for 9 months. Why would the birth of their first child concern them? I do think that this alludes to a feeling of discomfort about the timing and since Demelza was quite sharp minded she will surely have guessed about the paternity. This is because if Elizabeth got pregnant from her wedding night with George then their baby would not have been due until mid-late March. That would arose suspicion for Demelza. Then whafrom t are the chances of conception soon after marriage but particularly the wedding night. Using a conception date to birth date calculator the due date would be around 26th March if Elizabeth conceived on her wedding day. Valentine's birth on 14th Feb was perfectly in line with conception on 9th May when Ross took Elizabeth against her will.

Ross on paternity and duty to Valentine

You didn't ask about Ross's knowledge of Valentine's paternity before Elizabeth told him but I think it is relevant and also to the question of him taking responsibility and getting involved with Valentine's childhood. In response to Caroline’s letter in 'The Black Moon' about Valentine's Christening Winston Graham said Ross would have been glad not to have read it and that Caroline ‘…did not know half the story.’ I think that relates to him thinking how she did not know about 9th May. Between Ross and Demelza I think Ross subconsciously did not want to think further about paternity and you might have or will notice that whenever Valentine was mentioned to him before he met Elizabeth before she raised the parternity issue to him, he ignored the subject. For instance when his cousin St John at Ralph-Allen Daniell’s dinner party told him Elizabeth had fallen down the stairs while pregnant he asked Ross if he had said something in reply. He had not and Ross said ‘I said nothing.’  He then did not make any further comment or ask any clarifying question on what he was told. Also when he went with Caroline to see Agatha at Trenwith Caroline mentioned about being there for Valentine’s Christening and Winston Graham wrote  ‘Ross did not answer.’ So Winston Graham made a point of Ross swerving any talk of Valentine. I don’t think that was because he resented it as a child of George’s and Elizabeth’s but because of the fear it could be his.

Other than Ross’s initial exclamation of “Oh God. God in Heaven.” when Elizabeth told Ross of the basis to George’s suspicions about Valentine, I do not perceive that Ross was that shocked and I don’t think Demelza would have been either. In his later reflections it was worded that Ross was shocked and worried about George’s suspicions as if George being suspicious was the problem for him rather than the fact that he (Ross) might be Valentine’s father. I think that this is because at some conscious level he had already considered that a possibility and this was why he (and Demelza) did not want to say what was on their minds about Valentine after he was born. Ross stated to Elizabeth that he did not want a cuckoo in the nest and was keen on helping her kill George's suspicion. He avoided Valentine for years until teenage sought him out in the later books. It is clear from his angry reaction to John Treneglos who implied Valentine was his son in the later books that paramount for Ross was the embarrassment caused to Demelza but he also implied to Valentine that the suggestion Elizabeth had been with another man out of marriage would damage her reputation. Elizabeth also wanted Valentine to be believed as George's child and to get his inheritance from him. Ross taking responsibility for Valentine voluntarily as if he was accepting he was the father, would have sullied Elizabeth's name, hurt his own family and complicated inheritance issues. Ross only stepped in when Valentine was estranged from George and by force due to a heavy dose of guilt for how Valentine's life was going and even then he threatened Valentine not to repeat his suspicions that he was his father. Just like men were expected to be distress if they had a mistress, if Ross got involved with Valentine earlier it would have to have been discreet but it would have been very odd before George and Valentine were estranged since George was rich and there would be no need for Ross to be involved with Valentine in a kind of parental way.

Did Verity know of Valentine's true paternity?

I feel quite certain that Verity did not suspect Ross was Valentine’s father. She lived out of town for so long and would have had no idea of Ross possibly having had sex with Elizabeth and being unfaithful to Demelza who she was close with. She was too much of a sweetheart to taunt Ross in the way of making remarks to put him on the spot about paternity and to make him feel awkward or get him to admit he was the father of her sister in law. That would be quite an explosive thing which I think she would prefer to stay away from if she had suspected anything and respect his privacy unless perhaps she perceived it was the source of discontent in Ross. I think she made the comments because Valentine actually being Ross's child was the furthest thing from her mind and that Winston Graham just used Verity's innocent musings as a vehicle to put Ross in awkward situation of that paternity issue alongside the subplot of George having difficulties with Valentine and himself reflecting on the paternity issue. Verity just commenting on an observation that she had about Valentine's likeness to a family member in the Poldark line was a mirror of when Geoffrey Charles said out loud his thoughts that Valentine looked like Ross on his rocking horse. I see these incidents as devices by Graham to taunt Ross in the former occasion and George and Elizabeth in the latter occasion that Ross was the father. It was a interesting way to show the reader that this was not a dead or unforgotten issue and the secret was a dangerous one because Valentine’s Poldark traits were occasionally noticed by people who innocently commented on this while not having a clue that there might actually be a paternity issue with Valentine.

Did Agatha know that Valentine Was Ross's Child?

I don’t believe that Agatha knew Valentine’s true paternity. She would not have had any idea that Ross and Elizabeth slept together but the circumstances of Valentines birth on a black moon and premature did get her attention. In her argument with George before she died she was taking what I think were shots in the dark around the two elements of Valentine’s birth that were unique. For being under a black moon she could run the argument that this meant the child would be evil or ‘twisted’ as she said. Then the child being premature naturally would mean he could not be the father. That was an obvious taunt to make. I say that too was a shot in the dark because she even suggested Valentine was neither a seven month or eight month baby and she had seen 8 month newborns and that they did not look how Valentine did who she said was a full term child. However according to the enquiries George later made with Dr Behenna in the next book Agatha’s claims upon which she based this on were wrong. She said that unlike full term babies 8 month babies did not have nails, were wrinkled and red and did not have hair. Dr Behenna who said in his career he had delivered a considerable number of 6, 7 and 8 month babies denied each of those assertions were quite true. Hence Agatha was taking shots in the dark with this too in order to make him think Valentine was conceived before marriage. Also just before Agatha died she regretted what she said with Graham taking no opportunity to narrate clearly that nevertheless Agatha had revealed a long held suspicion that she had and believed was true. He just narrated her questioning ‘What she had said’ as if she knew it was crazy rather than and not meaning to injure Elizabeth.  I think that especially as she hated George all along, that if Agatha really believed what she said was actually true there would have been indications along the way or little under the breath jibs about him not being full term, rather than this outburst a year and half after Valentine was born.

[missfckingfortune]

How many works do you have on AO3? 4

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? I have no idea. Maybe around 150k? (I’m sure there’s a way to actually see this?

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently only writing for ACOTAR and Masters of the Air In the past, on a different site ( most of which I have since DELETED) band of brothers The pacific last kingdom the 100 thor one direction ( I know, I know)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I only have four fics. But of those. It’s I Can Wait For You At the Bottom.

5. Do you respond to comments? YES!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? None of my current fics have ended yet, but I’m not a fan of angsty endings.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? None of my fics have ended yet, but spoiler alert, it’s going to be I Can Wait for You at the Bottom.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I’m not popular enough for this hahahaha

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Currently the good old f/m kind. I’m for sure a plot with porn girl with some good old breeding kink, praise kink, and light dom themes. But open to branching out to m/m or f/f and likely will for one of the spinoffs I have dreamed up ( Azris)

10. Do you write crossovers? Haven’t yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Again, I’m not that popular.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Please see above.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet!

14. What is your all-time favorite ship? Oh, like all time? Doesn’t even have to be ACOTAR? Let’s do acotar first just to get that out of the way. I’m a major Elucien girlie. All time? Will Turner/Elizabeth Swan, Ben Solo/Rey, Charles Vane/Elinor Guthrie, Ross Poldark/ Demelza Carne, Bellemy Blake/Clarke Griffin. There’s probably a million more I’m not thinking of!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My Reylo fic- Strange Addiction. I’m just not in the same place as when I started.

16. What are your writing strengths? Description and VIBEZ. Sometimes dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Pacing, not repeating myself, organization, thinking the plot all the way through.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I’m so uni-lingual American it’s not funny, and I have not done this before, really. Oh, wait, there’s a teensy amount of French in I Can Wait for You at the Bottom, courtesy of google translate.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Band of Brothers 20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I Can Wait for You at the Bottom. This was my return to writing as an adult, and I’m pretty proud of it, even if it is a bit of a chaotic mess

Thank you so much to @beesays @cauldronblssd and @witch-and-her-witcher for the tags!!! You are all goddesses and I love you!! <3 I'm so late to this, so if you've already been tagged please ignore me!

@itsybitsybluesy @wilde-knight @clockwork-ashes @temperedink

[sgiandubh]

The Couple Next Door - a very, very short overview and my 50 cents, in the process

With as little spoilers as possible. My first plan was to make a post per episode, but I quickly realized that would be useless (so much talking, already, plus a very plethoric press ) and risky (the more you write about it, the less able you are to avoid spoiling it and no, that is not this page's editorial line). You will have to do with this short review, instead.

This is the story of a botched swinger coupling experiment, somewhere in the middle of a non-descript, Truman Show-esque Midlands suburbia. Where nothing is what it seems to be and curtains always flutter for a reason. Adjacent storylines complement this sexy & risqué core, which I personally found more interesting than S puffing and panting on top of Tomlinson. Corruption, life crisis situations, lost late pregnancies, a hidden child, bigot parents looking not unlike Grant Wood's American Gothic odd couple (especially the mother, enough spoiling it), voyeurism and privacy violations - this is a LOT to take in. With a bit more tact when it comes to script writing (sometimes things are really in your face and almost didactic: never a good thing), it could have been BAFTA material. It is not, and no, Disgruntled Tumblrettes - not because of S, but because of numerous plot holes, useless plot devices that could have been gags but totally miss the mark (walking little old lady, anyone?) and an overall superficial approach. It's like trying to cram half a dressing into a carry on: burst at the seams it will or you will end up with odd bits and pieces that do not necessarily make sense.

So if you set your bar very high or are poised to watch it in contempt, this is not going to be fun at all. If you have no expectations and also no idea about the rest of the cast, you will find it interesting and enjoyable. I personally think Enoch is a perfect cast, as is the very intelligent Jessica de Gouw: she knows how it's done and she knows where and especially when to stop. Tomlinson, eh - not so much. I have zero idea about how she fared in Poldark, but here I found her inattentive, formulaic and totally cliché. She has some good intuitions, but she fails to deliver, especially at the end. So, that's a 4/10 for me.

Now for S, as I am sure you are all interested to know. After all, this is why I even bothered watching and getting a paid VPN for it. I will say only this: there is a before Episode 3 and an after Episode 3, by far superior. You'll get my point when you watch it. It's not OL, but thank Heavens, it's not Where the Starlight Ends, either. With all the indulgence in the world, I'd say 8,5/10 - not his fault, the script was brutal to Danny ('Take a good look' is a major, MAJOR eyeroll and it did make me spit my Coke). Also, that intergalactic arse makes it on screen for about 5 minutes, which is nothing- so long for Mordor's honest reviews. Last but not least: he tried, bless his heart, to help Eleanor, but to no avail. Sorry.

The most interesting secondary storyline is Alan's, by far. The press shite - meh, that was there just to give Enoch's character a job, I suppose. And the child - it left me completely hungry and there was definitely room for more.

Rewatch? Christ, no.

Overall? a solid 7/10.

Recommend? not to my mum, but to my best -offline shipper- friend, for sure. She'll watch for S and we'll cackle over the phone.

Potential springboard? I hope so, but he still needs a real, well written role. This is decently good, but still not good enough to showcase what I know he is perfectly able to deliver.

Home eye candy takeaway? Oh, come on, the one involving this item:

I mean, what is more sexy than a bear of a man carrying a washing machine like I would carry my purse?

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

hello, Gigi!! 15, W, 🤩, and 🕷️ for the first time asks? 🥰

HELLO, HELLO LUMI!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THESE!! 💖💖

☀️ask game!☀️

15. answered here! 🥰

W. First time they realized their relationship is endgame... or isn't

OUGH, ENDGAME… I think they get that They Are Made For Each Other after the Baby Jia Scene, where they understand there’s something bigger going on between them, even if they can’t quite grasp the deeper meaning of it… But honestly, I think they slowly realize they’re endgame because they’re going through so much together—from exposing themselves in front of each other, in every sense of the word, to standing by each other’s side during their most confrontational moments, to fighting battles together. I think this is how they loved each other too—I’ve told this before, but while their fascination towards each other came quickly, the actual love came gradually, and it came not only because they were both Dragonborn, but because they were both human... or became again.

🤩 - First big inspiration for writing (an author? a piece of media? a plot idea?)

To be honest, when I first started writing, I did it on a whim—I didn’t necessarily have very specific inspiration, I just wanted to escape that dreadful reality I was living… Unconsciously, I think my blorbos were inspired by certain pieces of media—for example, my Miraak has very Geralt of Rivia vibes, since I was watching The Witcher back then, and Jia used to have a very ‘Daenerys Targaryen flare’ too, even though I mostly connect her to Helaena Targaryen and Demelza Poldark these days. Now, I take inspiration from authors (Winston Graham has become one of my favorite sources of writing inspiration) and fellow fic authors, SO CONSIDER I FEAR NO FATE A BIG INSPIRATION FOR MY WRITING AS WELL—I really love studying other people’s stunning writing styles, taking examples, and exploring my own and my story!

🕷️ - First time writing something that scared you, and how it went

Ah, definitely the SA, even if it’s only implied in my fic, no graphic descriptions are mentioned. It’s something I’ve seen in real life through my work, something that traumatized me quite a bit and gave me a lot of anxiety then (even if it didn’t directly happen to me…), so when I first decided that my main character would suffer something like that… I was very scared; I was scared that I wouldn’t do it justice, that my fic will receive lots of hate for broaching ‘taboo topics’ like this, or even that it’s a ‘cliche’ trauma to give a character (yes, I’ve heard a lot that it’s overused). But to me, it means much and by writing it, it helps me cope with my own feelings, so I’m not scared anymore. 

[love-little-lotte]

A Look Into My New Guilty Pleasure: Poldark (2015 Series)

My biggest weakness is period dramas — especially period dramas with a talented cast, sweeping romance, terrific scenes (preferably set in some kind of country/provincial side), and lots and lots and lots of just sitting around and talking.

That's probably why Poldark has captured my heart. As a big fan of Outlander, it's no surprise that I fell in love with this show. Outlander and Poldark have so many similarities that I may make a lengthy post about it, but for today, let me just rant about my new guilty pleasure. I'm so obsessed with this show that I actually finished watching the entire five seasons in one week!

Poldark is based on Winston Graham's novels and adapted by Debbie Horsfield. I was so excited to start this show, with a male protagonist originally written by a man, created and written for a series by a woman. I haven't read Graham's novels (I'm going to one of these days, I swear!), so I'm not sure how well Debbie's adaption worked. I've read many Reddit threads, though, and some fans of the novel are not that impressed with how she omitted and added details to the show (will get back to this once I've read the books or at least the seven ones that were used in the show). The show has also been adapted in the 70s, so this was not the first time Graham's novels were seen onscreen!

Despite not having read the books, I fell in love with the story, the characters, and the cast! The show follows Ross Poldark returning to Cornwall after fighting in the American War in the 1780s. He looks forward to marrying his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth but, believing him to be dead, is now engaged to his cousin Francis. He then tries to resurrect his family's mining business and hires a young girl Demelza to be his kitchen maid (whom he eventually marries) while also crossing paths with the villain George Warleggan, a corrupted banker who stops at nothing to ruin Ross's prospects and personal life. As the show progresses, we also meet other characters, including Prudie and Jud, Ross's servants, Verity, Ross's cousin and Francis's sister; Ross's friend Dr. Dwight Enys and his love interest Caroline Penvenen; Sam and Drake Carne, Demelza's brothers, and Morwenna Chynoweth, Drake's love interest.

Yes, this show has a large ensemble cast, and trust me, there always comes a point when you hate or love them. Especially our protagonist Ross Poldark. Ross... is an interesting character. He's terribly, terribly flawed and many times times, I'm so infuriated with him to the point that I want him to suffer. I swear, you cannot go through this series without screaming at Ross. (When that moment came up in Season 2, I swear I had my middle finger ready every time Ross showed up on my screen from then on.)

But my favorite character in the show is Demelza, Ross's wife who started as his kitchen maid. She's the heart of the show, the voice of reason, and even though she makes questionable decisions along the way, you can't help but get on her side no matter what. She's the perfect fiery yet gentle match to Ross's stubbornness. He treats her like shit many times in this show, which makes me angry to no end, but they eventually grow to be understanding, loving partners.

And it also helps that Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson have one of the best romantic chemistries I've ever seen. They're terrific actors as well and they bring the characters to life so effortlessly. They just seem like they have the best time shooting this show. I kind of want to rewatch Loving Vincent now just because they're in that movie, even just in supporting roles.

Poldark is a roller coaster, with so many ups and downs (mostly downs, to be honest, please give Demelza a break!) My favorite season has got to be Season 1. Season 1 had the best Ross and I loved the early stages of his relationship with Demelza. It also has my favorite episode: Season 1, Episode 8. That episode broke me so much, thanks to Aidan and Eleanor's perfect performances. It's the only time I ever cried watching this show. I usually cry in period dramas (I've cried countless times in Outlander and Downton Abbey), but for some reason, I only cried once in Poldark. Most of the time, I'm annoyed and infuriated (hahaha but I still love it!)

The romance in Poldark is also quite unique, something I haven't seen before. Ross and Demelza emotionally hurt each other many times in this show, and they don't have the best communication. It's not an ideal marriage, but that's what makes it so raw and real. It hurts when Ross sleeps with his first love Elizabeth or when Demelza falls for the much-sensitive Hugh Armitage, but these are challenges people face all the time, and it's interesting to view it in characters and circumstances through 18th-century lenses. Plus, it can be very tiring to see perfect couples onscreen all the time. So watching Ross and Demelza's relationship thrive, suffer, and reconcile is very refreshing to me.

Nevertheless, Ross and Demelza are still able to work together. Seasons 2 and 3 showcase the worst moments of their marriage, from infidelities to insecurity, but the love between them still perseveres and they learn to forgive. In the end, they realize that they belong together.

And despite the unconventional marriage, Poldark is not a stranger to grand romantic gestures. Two of my favorite Ross and Demelza moments occur in Season 2:

A real funny, old-married-couple type of bicker in The Beach Scene:

And of course, showing all intimacy in The Stocking Scene:

(Let's just not talk about what happened 2 episodes after this!)

The romance in Poldark not only ends with Ross and Demelza. We also got two really good couples in the series: Dwight and Caroline and Drake and Morwenna.

And these love stories don't just happen! They're fleshed-out characters with proper backgrounds and their own problems, especially Drake and Morwenna's relationship. Morwenna is one of my favorite characters, and she doesn't deserve all the shit thrown at her. The last season of Poldark is not the best (bordering on bad, actually, especially the last two episodes), but watching Drake and Morwenna get their happy ending is worth it.

Finishing all five seasons is bittersweet. I enjoyed most of the story and fell in love with different characters. I kind of regret watching everything in one week haha. But what can I say? As soon as I finish each episode, I'm so tempted to start another episode. I think the last time I stayed up until 5 AM the next morning to watch TV shows was Yellowjackets. Poldark's just too good to binge! It's one of my favorite TV shows now. Maybe I'll watch Sanditon next...

I want to write more about Poldark soon, maybe a comparison with Outlander or maybe just a post about each character. I realized I hadn't talked much about Elizabeth, Francis, and George in this post; I was too preoccupied with the love story aspects and Ross and Demelza. We'll see!

[turneradora]

Here are the press article from the Radio Times magazine.

Thanks again to Emma Jones for the written version ! 🙏🥰

Rutting in Rutshire!

Bouffants, bounders and creaking beds… Jilly Cooper reveals why Rivals is her favourite book (and shares the secret of a happy marriage)

‘Buckets of electric blue eye shadow, heaving shoulder pads atop polka dot and pinstripe suits, haystacks of bouncy hair, kept in place by enough lacquer to fuel a rocket – it feels like I’m back at school getting ready for the end-of-term disco. In fact, I’ve walked onto the set of Rivals, Disney+’s big-budget adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1988 bestselling bonkbuster.

We’re inside a huge restaurant in Gloucester, which is doubling up for a posh eaterie in the novel’s fictional Rutshire of 1986. Waiting to make his entrance is Aidan Turner, sporting a moustache to make Tom Selleck proud, in the role of TV chat show host Declan O’Hara. Other names on the call sheet include David Tennant as the cartoonishly named Lord Baddingham, Danny Dyer as big-of-heart, bigger-of-wallet Freddie Jones, and Alex Hassell as the polo player-turned-Tory minister and one-man shagathon, Rupert Campbell-Black. It’s quite the starry cast, but despite all the familiar faces in the room, there is an audible hush upon the arrival of one small, smiling figure through the door – Dame Jilly herself is in the building.

Later, in a quiet corner, she expresses her enthusiasm for the project in exactly the selfeffacing, giggly and gushing style you would expect from the creator of such scrumptious literary – and now TV – fare: “It’s miraculous!” What about the producers? “They’re brilliant, they don’t really need me.” This is clearly not true. With 45 titles to her name since her light-hearted guide to wedlock How to Stay Married debuted in 1969 and 11 million books sold in the UK alone, Cooper is best known for her Rutshire Chronicles, an 11-strong set of door-stopping tomes that began in 1985 with Riders and follow the antics of the horsey set in bedrooms and boardrooms, stables and swimming pools. Rivals, the second in the series, focuses on the very 1980s idea of a battle to secure a regional TV franchise. “I think of all the books I’ve written,” says Cooper, “Rivals is my favourite. The battle for franchises in those days was so strong. And people made absolute fortunes."

The ideas he presented were lovely and he was lovely. It just happened.” She grins. “Plus, the fact that he is double-barrelled, that’s nice.”

As is her priapic protagonist. Rupert Campbell-Black is at the centre of the new drama, as he is in the books, and was the one bit of casting over which Cooper exercised her veto. “I thought Alex (Hassell) wouldn’t be right, he wasn’t blond, but then I met him and… he is very attractive.” Campbell-Black is a composite of two real-life, double-barrelled men, Rupert Lycett Green and Andrew Parker Bowles, as well as the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, all of whom the author met soon after she and her husband Leo moved to the Cotswolds in 1982.

“I’d just moved to the country and met these heavenly men, they became great friends and and I was able to study how an upper-class man would behave there.” Do her friends mind appearing in her novels? “Oh no, they love it.”

Campbell-Black may have wall-bouncing charisma, but he’s not entirely chivalrous with its deployment. Is that OK? “People do behave badly,” says Cooper. “They certainly did in the 1980s. Rupert has good qualities. He’s lovely to his dogs, he’s a good MP and he adores his wife. They fall madly in love with each other. Lots of men are frightfully promiscuous until they find their true love.”

Does she believe men like Campbell-Black are at risk of being squashed out of society today? “Yes. When did you last see a fantastically attractive man on television in drama recently?” Hmm, Poldark? Another grin. “He’s in my story. I love good-looking, glamorous, funny, macho men.”

Cooper’s own great romance was with Leo, her publisher husband of 52 years until his death in 2013. She says: “Happiness in marriage comes from creaking bed springs, not so much from sex but from laughter. Well, a bit of both, but definitely laughter. He was lovely, funny, clever, full of military history and kind. He loved cats and I loved dogs, so we worked that out.” She is perhaps referring to his well-documented 1980s affair that rocked, but didn’t ruin, their marriage when she says, “Obviously ups and downs, but when you go through a down, you just hang on and hope it gets better”.

Cooper’s stories are all as raunchy as they are romantic – “I just like people to be happy,” she smiles – but in between all the muddy boots, labradors on mats and shepherd’s pies on kitchen tables, there are progressive layers to be found in both the books and now the TV adaptation. The female characters are strong and self-determining. “The women in those days were seduced, and were seductive,” Cooper says, before adding wistfully, “Beautiful men and women… and they didn’t fight so much.”

Have love and romance changed in the 30 years since the book came out? She sighs. “Half of teenage children are brought up without their parents staying together. It’s so sad. Happy marriage is the best recipe for life and if people can try to stay together, they should try to make it work. The world is very frightening now. Don’t give up on things easily.”

In real life, Cooper counts among her set Andrew Parker Bowles’s first wife Camilla, now better known as Her Majesty, of whom the author can’t say enough good things. “She’s a friend of mine. I adore her and I think she’s going to be a wonderful queen. She looks beautiful at the moment, she’s become very glamorous.” And, of course, a real-life totem of Cooper’s favourite thing, a happy ending.

”‘FOR JILLY TO APPROVE MY RUPERT WAS IMPORTANT’

ALEX HASSELL PLAYS RupeRt Campbell-blaCk

You were chosen from hundreds of possible actors to play Jilly Cooper’s romantic lead. Did you feel the pressure of expectation?

Initially, I wasn’t sure I’d get the part, I’m not blond or blue-eyed and I’m not from that world, but it’s important to me to live up to a certain Rupert-ness. To have Jilly’s seal of approval was very important.

Where did you go for inspiration?

I’ve met two of the men she based him on, which was helpful. But once on set, you put on your costume and start to feel it.

Or take your costume off…

How did you prepare for that naked tennis scene?

By trying not to get intimidated! If I did have nerves, that day was important as I had nothing to hide behind and it was a naked crucible through which to believe myself as Rupert.

With his arrogance and privilege, is Rupert a force for good?

It depends… He’s reaching middle age and rattling around in his house with just dogs and horses for company, and he’s realising that past choices aren’t going to end well for him. But there is a core of goodness there.

IT’S A PERIOD PIECE LIKE DICKENS’ DAVID TENNANT PLAYS

Lord Tony Baddingham

What was the appeal of Rivals? Before I’d even opened the script, my wife Georgia saw the title and told me I was going to be in it, so any element of choice was taken away from me. She had quite a visceral reaction to it and has been a champion of the whole thing. Did a little part of you want to play Rupert Campbell-Black? It didn’t really matter who I played. But I couldn’t compete with Alex for Rupert. I think Lord Tony Baddingham is a more natural fit for me.

Tony is the resident baddie. Do you have any sympathy for him?

He doesn’t see it that way, he’s just doing what he needs to do in order to survive. Objectively, I can see that some of the things he does aren’t particularly morally robust. It’s all Daddy issues. I don’t think Tony is difficult to make sense of, he’s very plausible. The characters all have drama to them, but they’re nuanced and make sense. You’re not struggling to join the dots, they’re well-crafted and that’s why Jilly’s books have survived. There is a quality in this work that makes it timeless.

Would these characters be believable in a more modern setting?

No, they are entrenched in the politics and mores of that era. It was such a specific moment in time – all that excess; Margaret Thatcher saying there was “no such thing as society”. It changed how people were allowed to think and certain people grabbed it, ran with it and wallowed in it. These characters all swim in that swamp.

The big battle in Rivals is to win a TV franchise. Is the story still relevant?

It’s not something we really have an understanding of now. When I first read the scripts, I thought, “Are the stakes of this going to make sense?” But it doesn’t matter what they’re competing over, it’s just who they are and that’s what drives them and that feels very alive and human.

What kind of portrait of 1980s England do we see in Rivals?

Jilly Cooper is a great chronicler of the human condition. It’s a period piece like a Dickens drama. You can marvel at how different some things were and how similar other things were. That’s part of the joy.

What did you love most about the 1980s?

I’ve loved rediscovering the music. I was a teenager during those years, so there was a lot of music it wasn’t cool to like. But some of these tunes are banging.

‘A WOMAN WITH RED LIPS KNOWS HER BUSINESS’

NAFESSA WILLIAMS PLAYS Cameron Cook

You were born and raised in West Philadelphia, a long way from Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire. What drew you to the role of TV producer Cameron Cook?

It was the script, plus how smart Cameron is. You have this black woman in a white man’s world in the 1980s, being able to run a company. She’s very fashionable, very strong, very grounded in who she is — and very comfortable in her sexuality.

She’s very distinctive. Did you have a particular style influence?

The singer Sade was a big inspiration for how Cameron looked, with the flicked back ponytail and the long braids.

Would you resurrect any of that era’s distinctive fashion?

I loved the high waists, the belts, the hair. It was all bigger, bolder, brighter. We don’t see as many red lips and nails now as we did back then — that speaks of a lot of confidence and sexiness, and being bold. A woman with red lips and red nails knows her business. Bring some of that back!

‘THERE WAS AN INSTANT TRUST WITH AIDAN’ VICTORIA SMURFIT PLAYS

Maud O’Hara

Maud doesn’t seem very satisfied with her lot as Declan’s wife and is very open to temptation… She is a very complicated, insecure, broken butterfly who exists on validation. She’s feeling down, she wants every man to fancy her, and her selfishness drives her to where she wants to go.

Had you met Aidan Turner, who plays your screen husband, before?

I didn’t know Aidan, but there was an instant trust. We barely talked about how our characters operated, we just knew they were existing in an English hierarchy, as this scrappy, passionate Irish family. We instantly knew where we were at.

Does Jilly Cooper treat her female characters well?

When you watch the whole arc of all the different women, by the time you get to the end, it feels like a feminist piece. All of the female characters play their politics out the way they want to — some get what they want and some get what they need.

Maud is very colourful in her mood and clothes. Did you have fun with your costumes?

Maud is more boho 70s than the others. The costumes did a lot of the work for us. As soon as we put on our clothes, it felt like we knew who our characters were.

I BASED DECLAN ON MY DAD’

AIDAN TURNER PLAYS Declan O’Hara

When you got the script for Rivals, did a little part of you want to play romantic rogue Rupert Campbell-Black, as opposed to Irish chat show host Declan O’Hara?

No, not one single bit. Alex [Hassell] does it better. It’s a best person for the role thing. There are very few Irish actors who can do Declan O’Hara as well as me, know what I’m saying? My eyes were always on the O’Hara prize.

How familiar were you with Jilly Cooper’s books before you were cast?

I remember dating an Irish girl who loved Jilly Cooper. She was in the atmosphere, but I hadn’t read the books until I started shooting. On the first day of filming, I got into the trailer and there was a copy of Rivals. We already had all the scripts, but we could use the book as a reference for tone. It was great to have it there.

Declan has quite a distinctive look. Where did you go for inspiration?

There’s something of my dad, who had a moustache all through the 1980s and 1990s. I lightly based a lot of Declan’s character on my dad — he sounds like him and has his physicality. Plus Declan is a dad, and I’m a father now, too. I felt I made a lot of connections.

Was there a TV interviewer or chat show host you studied beforehand?

Declan’s an amalgamation. There are some modern British presenters, but someone I went to a lot was the host of the American debate show Firing Line, William F Buckley. His show was political, smoky, quite serious, slow-paced and high-brow — all the things Declan would love.

You’ve been interviewed many times before. What did you discover about life on the other side of the microphone?

When you’re interviewing someone, there’s power because you can ask what you want, but it’s about building up the trust. If you just lambast people, you won’t get to a second season — people have to respect you.

These things are important to Declan. Even the word “chat” irks him slightly. Rivals is set firmly in the 1980s. What would you like to bring back from that decade?

The lack of telecommunications and mobile phones. As we see in the show, it forces people into situations that could be easily solved with a phone call. The characters can’t contact someone on the other side of the county, they have to show up unannounced at their house. There’s a lawlessness, a looseness, an unpredictability.

‘I MISS THE SHOULDER PADS’

KATHERINE PARKINSON PLAYS Lizzie Vereker

Lizzie is the sweetest of the local women, but she can be easily led by her Rutshire neighbours… Lizzie gets caught up with the snobbery of the world she’s in, and she does that thing of joining in with the crowd for survival. Then when Freddie Jones [Danny Dyer] arrives and they mock him, she’s chastened.

It takes an outsider to come in and hold a mirror up to these people. The married but neglected Lizzie embarks on an affair with Freddie. Did you approve?

They are both quite pure and drawn to each other for the right reasons, so it’s actually a positive thing. You want these characters to find themselves again.

Rivals is set in 1986. Have things got better for women since then?

My mother’s generation were more likely to sacrifice their talents for the sake of their husbands. I think that’s definitely evolved since the time Jilly Cooper was writing about, but it’s helpful to look back and see what still needs to change.

In your opinion, what was better about the 1980s?

The earrings… and the shoulder pads.

‘I’VE NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A HARD MAN’

DANNY DYER PLAYS Freddie Jones

Tech millionaire Freddie Jones is a lot softer than the “hard” men you usually play?

I don’t know where that comes from. I know I’m a working-class actor, I swear a bit and walk like a duck with a swagger, but I’ve never claimed to be a hard man. When I was in EastEnders, I wore a pink dressing gown. But this is something different and, for me as an actor, I needed an opportunity to look different. I don’t get many opportunities to do that. Even my biggest haters through their gritted teeth might have to accept that Freddie is a nice, watchable character.

Was that your real hair?

I wish. I had it all clipped on. What a bouffant it is! I’ll cling on to what I have for dear life, but I accept it. I’m a grandfather now, I’m allowed to go bald.

Freddie is the richest of all the characters, but an outsider in Rutshire. Is he the real top dog?

There’s a kindness behind the eyes of Freddie, but he’s a teddy bear with a bite. He has no desire to be top dog, but when he needs to put his foot down, he does. I fell in love with him when I read the script.

One scene, where Freddie and his wife are mocked by the Rutshire set, makes for uncomfortable viewing...

There’s an element of classism and other -isms in the show. As much as they want Freddie and his money around, they also look down their noses at him.

In 2018, you accused David Cameron of “putting his trotters up” instead of working hard. How did it feel going to Gloucestershire, the stomping ground of Cameron and his pals?

It’s not the world I come from. But this is set in the 1980s, we’re in a different era and environment now, but we’re true to how it was.

Freddie also develops a slowburn, hard-earned romance with Lizzie Vereker…

They’re both in marriages where they feel suppressed and don’t feel seen. Hopefully, the audience will root for us to have an affair, which is a strange thing as it sounds awful.

Do Freddie and Lizzie get a suitably Cooper-esque sex scene?

You’ll have to keep watching. Things take a surreal turn.

What was the best aspect of the 1980s? Anything you miss?

I think we have far too much technology now. I have children who can’t understand how we survived without mobile phones. I feel it was slightly less complicated in the way we engaged with each other: sitting down, making eye contact.

EMILY ATACK PLAYS

SARAH STRATTON

Your character, the wife of the Tory deputy Prime Minister, appears very manipulative and conniving. Did you enjoy playing her?

She’s a car crash, but she’s ambitious, smart and a bit sick of being told all her life she’s a ditzy blonde. Particularly at the time this is set, women felt there was little other option for them but to use their sexuality to get what they wanted. Characters like her are often written as unlikeable, but there are lots of hidden layers and vulnerabilities.

Her look is very much of her time. How did you go about creating it?

My morning pick-up times were the earliest of the entire cast. Hours and hours in hair and make-up — so much hairspray and backcombing. At my first fitting for costume, I thought, “I’m never going to fit into that,” but with a pair of Spanx we were good to go. And I bought some cheap 80s perfume, which I wore every day.

For one famous scene of naked tennis with Rupert Campbell Black, there are no clothes at all. How did that feel?

The whole cast were warned early on that there would be nudity and sex scenes, so you knew what you were getting into. The sex is integral to the scenes and the characters, and the tennis scene is very famous, so I wanted to get it right. Alex [Hassell] and I talked it through with the director, to make sure we felt comfortable. It was a closed set. I felt very safe, and I had a great spray tan.

Last year you made a documentary about the sexual harassment you’ve received for several years. Did you hesitate to take this role, or did you feel defiant?

You can’t win whatever you do. If you keep your clothes on you’re a frigid nun, if you take your clothes off you’re a tart. But I love my job and if a role I’m playing requires nudity and it’s integral to the story and I’m safe, I’m exactly where I should be. I’ve learnt it’s not my behaviour that needs to be looked at and changed, it’s other people’s. I’ve learned to take back the narrative that was taken from me — my sexuality, my body. These kinds of roles are fun. I’m still young and it’s OK to feel liberated. I enjoy what I do. And it’s Jilly Cooper – it’s an honour to do it!

Since filming, you’ve had a baby. Are you thinking about work again yet?

For nine months solid, I sat on my arse, ate peanut butter sandwiches and watched all of Downton Abbey. So I’ve had my time off, and now I’m back