It was here that Cooper really hit her stride, skewering Anglo Saxon attitudes to marriage, money and the tricky interface between the two. It is the second in the series and features many of the much loved, and affectionately loathed, characters that readers first met in Riders. For Charlie Hanbury, polo is life: after all, he’s played professionally for a decade and is even married to a fellow polo-player, Yoanna Otto, the daughter of Princess Anna Oettingen-Wallerstein. The lead director of Rivals is BAFTA-nominated Elliot Hegarty (Ted Lasso, Cheaters, Trying), who also serves as executive producer on episodes 1-3.

Part of Jilly Cooper’s racy 10-book ‘Rutshire Chronicles’ series – named after the fictional county in which its set –‘Rivals’ follows members of England’s ruling elite as they fall in and out of bed with each other and claw each other’s eyes out to get ahead. Ricky's obsession to win back his wife, and Perdita's to win both Ricky and a place as a top-class polo player, take the reader on a wildly exciting journey--to the estancias of Argentina, to Palm Beach and Deauville, and on to the royal polo fields of England and the glamorous pitches of California where the most heroic battle of all is destined to be fought--a match that is about far more than just the winning of a huge silver cup. The first book in the series Riders was released in 1985, followed by Rivals (1988) , Polo (1991), The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (1993), Appassionata(1996), Score!The minute we met with Alex we knew he’d perfectly embody my all-time hero, the iconic, racy, ruthless, and devastatingly handsome, Rupert Campbell-Black,’ says Cooper. But before she had time to grow up, Ricky’s life exploded into tragedy, and Perdita turned into a brat who loved only her horses – and Ricky France-Lynch.

She was a teacher and had seen colleagues running through the names in their registers on the first day of school, saying: "Shit. Ricky's obsession to win back his wife, and Perdita's to win both Ricky and a place as a top class polo player, take the reader on a wildly exciting journey - to the estancias of Argentina, to Palm Beach and Deauville, and on to the royal polo fields of England and the glamorous pitches of California where the most heroic battle of all is destined to be fought - a match that is about far more than just the winning of a huge silver cup. Danny Dyer, meanwhile, is swapping ‘Eastenders’ for the countryside to play Freddie Jones, a noble-minded self-made electronics millionaire who, along with his wife Valerie (Lisa McGrillis), finds himself victim of Rutshire snobbery. The 2015 30th anniversary edition's toned-down cover artwork moved the male hand from where it was firmly gripping the female rider's bottom to a much higher position nearer to her hip, generating some backlash from fans.Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits. Emily Atack takes the role of Sarah Stratton, the new wife to MP Paul Stratton, played by Rufus Jones ( W1A).