How Jilly Cooper's 'Rivals' has unleashed 80s chic in home interiors 

Based on Jilly Cooper’s second book in her Rutshire chronicles series which numbers 11 in total with the publication of Tackle earlier this year, the yarn has steadily evolved with familiar characters returning like old acquaintances, from aristocrats to nouveau riche social climbers who share gossip and lovers with their neighbours, deliver endless sex scenes, blistering one-liners and cringy puns all captured on-screen for our delectation.

As has become the norm, the interiors are as credit-worthy as the cast which includes Aidan Turner and Victoria Smurfit as chat show host Declan O’Hara and his wife Maud. Their fiery relationship plays out against a backdrop of interiors grandeur and country shabby chic in locations that prove a distraction from the drama, sometimes a welcome one as one naked bottom after another heaves into our screens.

It proves to be the on-screen version of another publication launched in the 80s — World of Interiors. If you were to stumble across a vintage copy you’d see the fashions of the day — shoulder pads and pie-crust collars — translated into outsize pelmet swags and dust ruffles in stately homes, including the sort owned by arch-villain and television mogul Tony Baddingham, who attempting to lure Declan O’Hara to his Corinium television station, says, “What are you doing dodging dogshit in Fulham? Come to Cotchester.”

That’s the fictitious Cotswolds town where all the shenanigans take place but the question is, how did Declan and Maud fill The Priory, the 11-bed slightly decaying country pile they subsequently move to with just the contents of a modest Fulham house?

But this is the magic of fiction and the work of production designer Dominic Hyman and set designer Holly Thurman at play who have managed to make the characters’ houses distinctive.

The Priory, as a crumbling pile, is the down-at-heel relation of Rupert Campbell-Black’s elegant Penscombe and is Chavenage House in real life, also used for Poldark and Wolf Hall, but this time dressed down for Rivals with the charm of a gentleman’s club long in need of revamping.

It’s the look of Chesterfield sofas, wing-backed chairs, dark wooden panelling, plaids and stripes and pleated lampshades with unravelling fringes, a look which is enjoying a revival as part of the trend for maximalist interiors.

Get the look with something like the DFS Regency velvet sofa in plum; €1,299, add a red check cushion from Next, €24, and the Rugs.ie Vintage red and teal rug, €566.10, for some fading grandeur.

Chrome-framed coffee tables and outsize sofas in colour combinations like red and navy are a match for the personality of ruthlessly ambitious and equally stylish television executive, Cameron Cook. Hers is also probably the most relatable interior for modern tastes.

You could get a notion of it with something like EZ Living Interiors Leon cream bouclé three-seater sofa for all the squishiness of Cameron’s red sofa but updated for modern design sensibilities and our love of neutrals; €1,999. The stainless steel-legged Lugo coffee table from Bo Concept; €379, and some edgy black and white framed prints like Limelace’s Safari get you the 80s theme.

It’s a look that’s happily free of dust-ruffles which you’re more likely to see in the home of social climbing Valerie Jones, and where shagpile carpet is the floor covering of choice which she has her daily help take a rake to rather than the vacuum cleaner. While hubby Fred wheels and deals making the necessary dosh to pay for it all, Valerie’s red walls, chandeliers and swag pelmets aspire to the Georgian interiors of her neighbour’s mansions. It’s a trip down memory lane for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers.

Get a hint of the look but considerably more pared back with Laura Ashley’s Carson chandelier, €405, www.castlelighting.ie, and Ikea’s Vildpersilia floral curtains, €49, which are more modern take on chintz.