Jillian Godsil: Aidan Turner or not — after Epstein and #MeToo I just can't stomach ‘Rivals’

Having enjoyed Jilly Cooper's bonkbusters in the 1980s, a more mature Jillian Godsil now says: 'I am over stories that romanticise the innocent young woman being claimed by an older, powerful man'

Irish actors Victoria Smurfit and Aidan Turner as husband and wife Maud and Declan in season two of ‘Rivals’. Jillian enjoyed Jilly Cooper's novels decades ago but, while aspects of the TV adaptation is entertaining, she says its portrayal of a power gap as romance is just ghastly.

Confession time: Many moons ago, as an avid reader, I was one of the late Jilly Cooper’s biggest fans. Riders (1985), the first in her Rutshire Chronicles series of bonkbusters, was utterly unputdownable.

One summer, it travelled to Greece with a group of my university pals and, at any given moment, one member of the group would inevitably be holed up somewhere reading it. It was passed from friend to friend like contraband, and I remember it vividly to this day.