New Dame Jilly 'bonkbuster' TV series to be made

More of Dame Jilly Cooper's "bonkbusters" are set to be adapted for television.

The production company behind Rivals has secured the rights to the late author's entire Rutshire Chronicles series.

Rivals has been a huge success for Disney+, with huge stars including David Tennant, Emily Atack, Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer appearing in the show.

Dominic Treadwell-Collins, executive producer, said "We have got all these books to plunder" and "we can make it go forever".

The writer – known for what her fans call "bonkbusters" including Riders and Polo – died after sustaining a fatal head injury during a fall at her Gloucestershire home in October last year aged 88.

Dame Jilly was known for her steamy fiction focusing on scandal and adultery in upper-class society.

Treadwell-Collins was speaking at an event at Cheltenham Literature Festival to celebrate the literary work of Dame Jilly.

"We have got the rights to all four of the Rutshire Chronicles and it's interesting that if you look on the poster Disney have changed it to 'based upon Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles' and not upon the Rivals," Treadwell-Collins said.

"We have her blessing, we have got the family who we keep talking to, and what we are doing is taking bits of the books and repurposing them, playing around with them, but she's there as this Jilly treasure trove.

"So, we would like to keep going forever."

The writer had already approved the main storylines for the third series of Rivals before her death, Treadwell-Collins said.

"We have Jilly's notes for season one and all the way through season two, we talked to her about our plans for season three and beyond," he said.

"We have her seal of approval on big story points."

Treadwell-Collins revealed the adaptation of Rivals happened after he wrote Dame Jilly a "love letter" explaining how much he had loved her novels and how he would bring Rivals to life on TV.

"I always thought they would make brilliant television as she was such a brilliant storyteller with brilliant creative characters," he said.

"All the way through my career I have been mocked for suggesting it, television producers would laugh at me.

"Thank God they did because I kept it to myself for years.

"We went to see her, she said, 'You've got to write this, you've got to adapt this Dominic because you are a writer'.

"I've written one show myself before, I wasn't confident, I was thinking lots of other writers should write it.

"Jilly's made me a writer, that's really, really special.

"To bring that joy to Jilly Cooper is the proudest thing I've ever done, ever."

Filming for series two of Rivals took place across Bristol, Corsham in Wiltshire and Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, with locations across the West of England standing in for the Cotswolds and London.

David Tennant and Claire Rushbrook were seen filming scenes on the high-street of Corsham, which saw the town hall transformed into a polling station for the show.

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