{"id":489,"date":"2026-05-19T14:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/rivals-season-2-jilly-coopers-rutshire-drama-shows-good-sex-from-a-womans-point-of-view\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:48:07","slug":"rivals-season-2-jilly-coopers-rutshire-drama-shows-good-sex-from-a-womans-point-of-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/rivals-season-2-jilly-coopers-rutshire-drama-shows-good-sex-from-a-womans-point-of-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivals season 2: Jilly Cooper\u2019s Rutshire drama shows good sex from a woman\u2019s point of view"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good sex on the screen seems to be having a moment. Steamy gay ice hockey romance Heated Rivalry made stars of its unknown leads Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The most recent season of Bridgerton \u2013 in which the titular family\u2019s son and their lady\u2019s maid fall passionately in love (and into bed) \u2013 garnered 39.7 million views in four days. <\/p>\n

The final season of Outlander is currently airing, enduringly popular more than a decade after its episode The Wedding<\/a> was heralded as a game-changer for representations of explicit, woman-centred sex on television<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These three shows have something in common: they are all adapted from romantic fiction written by women \u2013 Rachel Reid, Julia Quinn and Diana Gabaldon, respectively. <\/p>\n

They have also all been credited as examples of shows that, like the romance novels they are inspired by, prioritise the female gaze in their depictions of sex. The Guardian has described this as \u201cstorytelling that highlights the meandering, textured, sublimely messy inner worlds and wants of women\u201d (even when, as in the case of Heated Rivalry, women are not actually partaking in the on-screen sex).<\/p>\n

The second season of Rivals<\/a>, now streaming on Disney+, is also adapted from a romantic novel by a female author: the 1988 book of the same name by the late Dame Jilly Cooper<\/a>. Season 1, first broadcast in 2024, was critically acclaimed<\/a>, and became Disney\u2019s most successful drama of 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sex and the bonkbuster<\/h2>\n

Cooper was particularly famous for writing \u201cbonkbusters\u201d: a form commonly associated with the 1980s, described pithily by comedy writer and author Sue Limb<\/a> as \u201ca big, thick book with lots of bonking in it\u201d. <\/p>\n

Sex is central to the bonkbuster, which glories in wild, over-the-top sex scenes. More than half of Rivals\u2019 52 chapters describe sex between characters \u2013 and many of these sex scenes have made it onto the screen.<\/p>\n

\n<\/figure>\n

These range from the tender \u2013 such as the first time between Freddie Jones (Danny Dyer) and Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), in which he declares her body \u201can area of outstanding natural beauty\u201d \u2013 to the ridiculous. One of our earliest encounters with protagonist and Conservative MP Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) is via him playing a naked tennis match with fellow MP\u2019s wife Sarah Stratton (Emily Atack). <\/p>\n

Notably, not all \u2013 not even most \u2013 of the sex scenes in Rivals occur in the service of a romantic plot, which sets it apart from shows like Heated Rivalry and Bridgerton. This reflects the difference in genre between the source texts: while bonkbusters have a lot in common with romance novels \u2013 including, but not limited to, their predominantly female readership \u2013 they are not quite the same thing.<\/p>\n

However, for many readers, the depictions of sex in bonkbusters felt as groundbreaking in the 1980s as the sex depicted in these lauded screen adaptations of romantic novels. <\/p>\n

Sex education and female pleasure<\/h2>\n

In 2022-24, we spoke to dozens of people who read books like Rivals in the 1980s, while conducting research for our recent book The Bonkbuster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A key takeaway for many was bonkbusters\u2019 role as supplementary sex education. For example, one of our participants appreciated the comparative sexual progressiveness of Rivals, which contrasted with her memory of a 1986 biology textbook \u201cwhich showed the female reproductive organs but did not point out the clitoris\u201d.<\/p>\n

By representing sex on the page, books like Rivals filled a silence about sex in these readers\u2019 lives. One of the most remarked-upon aspects of bonkbusters by those we spoke to was not just the explicit sex, but that the sex depicted was overwhelmingly positive for the women involved \u2013 and it was men who had to work at it. <\/p>\n

For example, when Rupert and Cameron (Nafessa Williams) have sex for the first time, she \u201cordered him around like a sergeant-major\u201d. This is reflected in the TV adaptation, where, when Cameron demands more clitoral stimulation, Rupert\u2019s reply \u2013 taken directly from the book \u2013 is to say \u201cI am, after all, a member of the Cli-Tory Party,\u201d and obliges. <\/p>\n

While Rupert is sleeping with Cameron under sinister pretences (corporate espionage), she still benefits in short-term sexual pleasure. Good sex in the bonkbuster tends to happen because men are willing to put in an effort to make it good for women. <\/p>\n

Sex adaptation \u2013 nostalgia v discomfort<\/h2>\n

However, bonkbuster sex is not always pleasurable, and Cooper has an eye for the unsexy, darker side of the 1980s. Many such details have been included in the TV adaptation. For example, several female characters in Rivals are assaulted, but in the first season, none of the male perpetrators are held accountable \u2013 something which many of our readers also found disquieting in the book.<\/p>\n

The TV adaptation, though, has taken the opportunity to redress some of the imbalances from the original text. <\/p>\n

In the novel, Cameron requires stitches after being badly beaten by Tony (David Tennant). But in the TV adaptation finale of season one, it is Cameron who strikes Tony. The first season ends unclear as to whether Tony is alive or dead (although Tennant\u2019s presence in the trailer for season two is a bit of a giveaway). <\/p>\n

And while Cooper\u2019s novel mentions HIV\/AIDS in passing, the TV adaptation places more emphasis on the discrimination against gay men at the time, and introduces a new relationship between two gay characters \u2013 Charles (Gary Lamont) and Gerald (Hubert Burton). <\/p>\n

The second season has taken this even further. Even Rupert \u2013 who got away with everything short of murder in Cooper\u2019s books \u2013 has to face the consequences of his past bad behaviour. <\/p>\n

These changes are indicative of the different climate of 2026. While some aspects of the 1980s bonkbuster are clearly still important and pleasurable for readers and viewers \u2013 the nostalgia, the sex positivity \u2013 some things are best left in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good sex on the screen seems to be having a moment. Steamy gay ice hockey romance Heated Rivalry made stars of its unknown leads Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The most recent season of Bridgerton \u2013 in which the titular family\u2019s son and their lady\u2019s maid fall passionately in love (and into bed) \u2013 garnered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}