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Rivals may be a 1980s throwback, but its focus on female pleasure puts modern shows to shame, writes DAISY BUCHANAN

My unofficial text book is across school, in my locker. I'm halfway through Rivals by Jilly Cooper, and think it might be the best book I've ever read, as well as the most educational.

Now the adaptation of Jilly Cooper's Rivals is on our screens, starring Alex Hassell and Emily Atack, it will change the way a new generation of women thinks about sex and desire In the new series, the very first scene sets the tone: we’re on Concorde, Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love is playing, and we see a succession of women gazing at a man walking down the aisle, undisguised lust on their faces. Normal People, starring Paul Mescal as Connell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne, depicted a complex, painful relationship, fraught with anxiety and heartbreak

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