FILLED with nudity, profanity and sex scenes, Jilly Cooper’s Rivals may have started out as a lavish novel – but I can confirm that it has been reborn as an even more exciting TV series.
Set in the 1980s, it unashamedly reflects the hedonism of the time — when making love and money were considered the pinnacle of ambition for the jet set of the era.
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Jilly Cooper’s lively novel Rivals is reborn as an even more exciting TV series, featuring star Emily Atack as Sarah Stratton in a nude tennis showdown Credit: Disney +
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Aidan Turner takes center stage in a cheeky shot from the first episode of Rivals Credit: Disney +
One of the cheekiest moments of the sassy eight-part series, set in the ruthless world of independent television in 1986, features Emily Atack — better known as Charlotte on The Inbetweeners — playing nude tennis as sassy Sarah Stratton.
She is married to Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stratton, but also gets on well with the central character, Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell.
Although he is also naked, when visitors show up at his villa, he does not cover up like Sarah.
Instead, he stands there proudly holding his racket and demands to know, “Who the hell are you and why are you here?”
Just like in the original bonkbuster book, a tangled web of infighting, backstabbing and bed-hopping is woven around the reserved Rupert, who lives in the aptly named fictional Cotswolds county of Rutshire.
Legions of women seek to seduce him, including the three female characters Maud, Caitlin and Lizzie, who are heard lusting after him.
Maud says: “The only thing that convinced Caitlin to leave all her friends in London was the thought of living next to Rupert Campbell-Black.”
Caitlin confirms, “I want him to rape me. I’m going to boarding school, I want to rush him first.”
Lizzie sighs, “I’m one of the few women here that Rupert hasn’t raped.”
But he’s not the only figure stripping in the cheesy series, which hits Disney+ next month with an all-star cast.
Later in the series, we see another pin-up, Aidan Turner, showing off his bulging torso, just as he did in the period drama Poldark, the hit TV series that made him a star.
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At 41, the Irish actor doesn’t look quite as lean or smooth as he did when he posed for the famous haircut on the BBC show nearly a decade ago, but he’s guaranteed to attract plenty of viewers reaching out to their fans.
Especially in another scene where Aidan, who sports a bushy moustache, is seen flopping around in the bathtub as smoke billows into the air as he takes a seductive drag on his cigarette.
He plays TV presenter Declan O’Hara, who interviews the Deputy Prime Minister and mentions his relationship with his wife Sarah.
Curses galore
O’Hara tells him sharply, “She says you have the girth and stamina to compete with any championship racehorse.”
They’re just a few of the highlights in a series that, in its first episode alone, features eight naked men, six tit shots and seven butt flashes.
And, as such a story requires, 28 expletives litter the script.
Opponents are sure to hit the ground too.
Just seconds later, we’re confronted with Rupert and a reporter named Beattie joining a mile-high club.
He has a wife, played by Annabel Scholey, pinned against the wall of an airplane toilet, her red high heels jammed against the towel rail and her head banging against the mirror.
He has to hold the door shut with one hand while a cabin crew member bangs loudly on it, fully aware of what’s going on inside.
Even as Rupert finishes having sex, he returns to his seat on the plane, winking at the other women who would be eager to eat him alive.
All this to the sounds of Robert Palmer’s anthem, Addicted To Love.
The soundtrack is just one element of the series that revels in its eighties time frame as giant permanents compete with even bigger shoulder pads, not to mention some seriously flashy watches and sports cars.
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Aidan’s sizzling torso turned up the heat in a scene for Poldark 2019 Credit: Brochure
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Journalist Beattie (Annabel Scholey) soared to new heights Credit: Disney +
The story is driven by the competition between Rupert and the ambitious TV station controller Lord Tony Baddingham, played by David Tennant, who is also Declan’s boss.
Pit of hate
The trio has a complicated relationship and it is not immediately clear why there is such a pit of hatred between them.
Things are equally tense among their various friends and neighbors, who are all later seen banging out – separately – in a lengthy montage to Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough.
The filthy rich residents of Rutshire – including Danny Dyer as tech tycoon Freddie Jones – love nothing more than a wild party, but rarely show love for their significant others. In one scene, Maud sums up the country ladies best, saying that “it’s all horses and dogs and houses and cars and who’s got the longest fucking driveway.”
She adds, “Men are desperate to ride anything until they’re married to it, and women, Jesus, haven’t had an orgasm since pony club camp.”
Lord Baddingham uses bed-rolling and deception to win back his arch-rival Rupert, exposing his affair with Sarah at dinner.
The two quarrel, but Rupert discovers that his political career is far from ruined by an affair with the deputy prime minister’s wife, he has been promoted to minister of sports.
Rupert leaves, telling the squire, “You’ll have to work harder if you want to defeat me, Lord Baddingham.”
As the door closes behind him, Lord Baddingham blows smoke from his cigar and says, “The game begins.”
- Rivals is available to stream on Disney+ starting October 18.
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Rupert (Alex Hassell) struts back to his seat after a rude encounter on the plane Credit: Disney +
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Emily played Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The InbetweenersCredits: Rex
Jilly joy in the television version
In the 1980s, the British bonkbuster market was dominated by one woman.
Jilly Cooper was the queen of the lively novel, selling more than 11 million books in the UK alone.
And no story was more raunchy than the 11 she wrote as part of the Rutshire Chronicles from 1986 to 2023.
Rivals is the second in the collection.
The first, Riders, was made into a TV series in 1993, seven years after she wrote it.
Then, in 1997, her fourth in the series, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, was also adapted for television.
But neither was considered a quality drama.
Now aged 87, Dame Jilly is delighted to see another of her eighties works revived on our screens.
Disney poured millions of pounds into the production, with some seriously sexy stars in the line-up.
Die-hard book lovers will be relieved to know there’s just as much sauce, even if it comes with a modern twist.
The man who adapted Rivals for TV, former EastEnders boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins, said: “We’ve had equal opportunities in our nudity – there’s a will for every pair of t*ts.”
WHO’S WHO IN THE STEAMY NEW SERIES
RUPERT
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Alex Hassell stars as ‘sex god’ Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black Credit: Disney +
“SEX God” Campbell-Black is a former Olympic jumper turned Tory MP and is played by Alex Hassell.
He enjoys rolling in the hay with his lover Sara.
LORD TONY
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David Tennant is Rupert’s arch rival, Lord Tony Baddingham Credit: Disney +
HIS main rival is the highly ambitious Lord Tony Baddingham, head of Corinium Television, played by former Doctor Who star David Tennant.
SARAH
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Emily Atack is Rupert’s lover Sarah Stratton Credit: Disney +
RUPERT’S lover is Sarah Stratton, played by Emily Atack.
Steamy scenes include nude tennis – and she happens to be married to the Deputy Prime Minister
PAUL
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Rufus Jones takes on the role of Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stratton Credit: Disney +
RUFUS JONES takes on the role of Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stratton, who met his wife Sarah when he was already married and they began an affair.
WOOL FABRIC
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Victoria Smurfit cast as socialite Maud O’HaraCredit: Disney +
FORMER actress and socialite Maud O’Hara, played by Victoria Smurfit, is Declan’s “volatile wife”.
You may remember her as Orle in Ballykissangel.
DECLAN
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Declan O’Hara, played by Aidan Turner, begins to hate his new boss Lord Baddingham Credit: Disney +
TV chat show host Declan O’Hara, played by Aidan Turner, comes to hate his new boss Lord Baddingham.
Declan is also Taggie’s father.
FREDDIE
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Danny Dyer appears as tech tycoon Freddie Jones Credit: Disney +
DANNY DYER stars as tech tycoon Freddie Jones, a working-class good guy with more than a touch of Lord Sugar about him.
TAGGIE
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Bella Maclean stars as Taggie O’HaraCredit: Disney +
Bella Maclean as Taggie WON Rupert’s heart instead of being in line for a casual bonk.
The Lothario admits that it “stuck him up a bit”.
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Source: HIS Education