the world spins faster
Nov. 3rd, 2024 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestBeast and I have just finished watching Riders, the adaptation of the mighty Jilly Cooper novel that was very popular about forty years ago.
I don't think David Tennant is right for the part. He can convey manipulative bastard, he can convey self-serving, he can convey Not A Nice Man, but what he does not do, in my opinion, is convey physical menace. And Tony Baddingham should do that - needs to, eventually. My personal image of Tony Baddingham is a beefier bloke, the kind you could imagine learning to box. A bit more beef to him. Possibly the producers wanted to keep us sympathetic to Tony for as long as they could - and using David Tennant for the part is a good way to do that. But, it's not the right casting. Though Monica is perfect.
Taggie, though I always imagined her with much darker hair, is good. James Vereker is almost painfully exactly who James Vereker should be. Lizzie Vereker is lovely. Sarah Stratton is, well, Sarah Stratton, again very well cast.
Declan is more and more my image of Declan as the episodes go by. He starts out a bit tidy, but towards the end there is the wild hair I always expected. I can't say I care for the moustache, but he's a fine Declan, and his voice is gorgeous, just right for delivering Declan's poetic lines. Maud is believable, just as irritating as she is in the books but with the necessary touch of justifiable desperation.
Rupert Campbell-Black... my idea of Rupert Campbell Black was actually Rupert Everett at his most beautiful. This one I find quite ugly, facially, though he can redeem himself when he smiles. Nice body, of course. He plays the part well, but he's not the devastatingly good-looking Rupert I expected.
Making Cameron black was a good choice. She's tough, and just what the character needs to be.
I adore Freddie.
*
I can't say I remember the book particularly well, though it was probably my favourite of the Jilly Cooper megabooks, back in the day. But as the scenes rolled on I found I remembered most of the plot developments. I thought the final episode went a bit awry, though, bludgeoning the Rupert/Taggie thing unnecessarily hard, and bludgeoning the Cameron/Tony violence in a way that I wasn't expecting. If we still have the book... nah, I probably won't look it up, but what happened on the screen is not what I remember, and strikes me as likely to lead to a prison sentence or deportation rather than seeking refuge in Rupert's somewhat reluctant arms.
Oh well. We'll watch the next season, for sure. All those eighties fashions! Yikes.
I don't think David Tennant is right for the part. He can convey manipulative bastard, he can convey self-serving, he can convey Not A Nice Man, but what he does not do, in my opinion, is convey physical menace. And Tony Baddingham should do that - needs to, eventually. My personal image of Tony Baddingham is a beefier bloke, the kind you could imagine learning to box. A bit more beef to him. Possibly the producers wanted to keep us sympathetic to Tony for as long as they could - and using David Tennant for the part is a good way to do that. But, it's not the right casting. Though Monica is perfect.
Taggie, though I always imagined her with much darker hair, is good. James Vereker is almost painfully exactly who James Vereker should be. Lizzie Vereker is lovely. Sarah Stratton is, well, Sarah Stratton, again very well cast.
Declan is more and more my image of Declan as the episodes go by. He starts out a bit tidy, but towards the end there is the wild hair I always expected. I can't say I care for the moustache, but he's a fine Declan, and his voice is gorgeous, just right for delivering Declan's poetic lines. Maud is believable, just as irritating as she is in the books but with the necessary touch of justifiable desperation.
Rupert Campbell-Black... my idea of Rupert Campbell Black was actually Rupert Everett at his most beautiful. This one I find quite ugly, facially, though he can redeem himself when he smiles. Nice body, of course. He plays the part well, but he's not the devastatingly good-looking Rupert I expected.
Making Cameron black was a good choice. She's tough, and just what the character needs to be.
I adore Freddie.
*
I can't say I remember the book particularly well, though it was probably my favourite of the Jilly Cooper megabooks, back in the day. But as the scenes rolled on I found I remembered most of the plot developments. I thought the final episode went a bit awry, though, bludgeoning the Rupert/Taggie thing unnecessarily hard, and bludgeoning the Cameron/Tony violence in a way that I wasn't expecting. If we still have the book... nah, I probably won't look it up, but what happened on the screen is not what I remember, and strikes me as likely to lead to a prison sentence or deportation rather than seeking refuge in Rupert's somewhat reluctant arms.
Oh well. We'll watch the next season, for sure. All those eighties fashions! Yikes.