Disney+

I got 6 months free with my phone so bought an Amazon Fire stick in the Amazon sale for £22 the other day.
Have only watched a couple of things but I have really been enjoying Welcome to Wrexham and have now watched alln3 series in a week.
Now I have zero interest in football but found the series so enjoyable and so well made. I even got quite stressed watching some of the matches.
Hasn't changed my view on football but its a great series.

I've watched episode 1, it's very trashy but great fun.
I read the books back in the day but don't remember anything about them.

Loved Rivals. Watched it far too fast, the clothes, the cars, the hair, the smoking, the bad hair dye and the moustaches all fabulous. The soundtrack utterly perfect.

So it felt pretty jarring when the girl piped up saying she was doing gcse french, when it was still o levels at the time.

I did my O levels in 1985/6. It was the last full year of them. My French course was actually a trial for the GCSE style so I sat one set of exams and got a Grade A O level and a Grade 1 CSE! It was a confused time for education so I can forgive a slight error there.

They have adapted ‘Riders’ twice I think, which is the book before ‘Rivals’, then ‘Polo’ is next (also good) but then the quality drops a bit. Rupert and the location are the only constant, with some overlaps. They would make for a great sprawling tale but with much pruning to keep it relevant (even if still. ‘period’) and there’s one book with a really grubby child abuse storyline that put me off reading any more.

I'm enjoying Rivals which I remember reading as a twenty-something when it first came out. I do love the way that the designers look to have consulted the photographs of Martin Parr, the documentary photographer who took so many photos of various subsets of English society in the period concerned. And I think the performance by Bella Mclean is fantastic (I have a daughter of the same age and recognise the confusion/bewilderment and much else of young womanhood.)

You very probably (and unintentionally) saw my wife then. She was playing in the brass band who played outside the stadium in Series 2 (episode 10 possibly). If it had been filmed a few years previously, you might have seen me as well 😉.

Just finished Rivals and wondered if anyone can tell me if that's how the book ends or if there is a 2nd series to come from the same book.

There’s now a bonus doc to watch - Rivals the official podcast. Interviews with cast and creatives. Nothing was mentioned about a second series but the way “this series” was said gave me hope that there will be another one in the future. It was mentioned that where the tv series ends is only halfway through the book so there’s more material there to be used 😊

Another important question about Rivals - when are we getting a series of Four Men Went to Mow?!