Rivals, Disney+ review - adultery, skulduggery and political incorrectness

Delirium has greeted Disney’s eight-part adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel Rivals (part of her Rutshire Chronicles series).

Perhaps it’s nostalgia for the previously-unloved Eighties, or maybe it’s because its non-stop conveyor belt of adultery, skulduggery and political incorrectness feels like some kind of liberation from the joyless paranoia of the 2020s. It also has lots of Eighties pop hits to keep it rattling along, from Tears for Fears and Blondie to ZZ Top and Depeche Mode.

The rivals of the title are Rupert Campbell-Black, a former Olympic showjumper and now Minister for Sport in Margaret Thatcher’s government, self-made TV mogul Lord Tony Baddingham who runs the Corinium TV network, and TV interviewer Declan O’Hara, Corinium’s new ratings-pulling (they hope) star. They all live in vast country estates around the Cotswold town of Cotchester, go horseriding and hunting and attend each other’s lavish parties. It’s numerically simpler to keep up with who hasn’t slept with whom than who has.

Rupert (Alex Hassell) is the acme of Rutshire Man, a tireless lothario who can barely see a female without trying to whisk her off to the nearest bedroom. Or anywhere would do, actually. Mostly, they don’t put up much resistance. However, Rupert blots his copybook badly with Declan (Aidan Turner, pictured above with Victoria Smurfit) when he gives his 20-year-old daughter Taggie (Bella Maclean) a libidinous grope in the midst of a dinner party. Declan wants to punch Rupert, but his boss, Lord Baddingham (David Tennant), spots a bigger opportunity. Why not interview him on his TV show and eviscerate him publicly? “Revenge is a dish best served on television,” he smirks.

Mrs Thatcher herself urges Rupert to do the interview, and Declan painstakingly prepares to deliver his demolition job by winkling out every bit of rumour and scandal he can find about Rupert. We’ve already seen his technique in action, where he blasts American movie star Johnny Freedlander with revelations about his squalid personal life. However, when the great confrontation finally arrives, it doesn’t work out quite the way everyone expected, despite being a ratings sensation. But it does tee up the way the series will develop, as Baddingham fights tooth and nail to persuade the Independent Broadcasting Authority to renew Corinium’s broadcasting franchise.

Mostly it’s frothy, escapist piffle with lots of heaving bosoms and buttocks (as well the spectacle of Rupert – pictured right – playing naked tennis), and many scenes bear uncanny similarities to those venerable saucy seaside postcards, but Rivals does veer into some darker territory. There’s an ugly sexual assault incident involving a young Corinium employee and a very unexpected assailant, and the way it’s cynically swept under the carpet speaks volumes about power imbalances in the workplace. Also Danny Dyer’s portrayal of Freddie Jones, a working class entrepreneur who has made a fortune in the technology business, opens up space for some observations on class warfare in the midst of leafy, champagne-soaked Rutshire.

When your attention starts to wander, the plot takes another couple of twists and pulls you back in again. The characters tend to be painted in bright primary colours, but Aidan Turner manages to bring a bit of light and shade to his portrayal of Declan, while David Tennant is unpleasantly convincing as a ruthless and cold-blooded tycoon with a murderous temper. Nafessa Williams lends some transatlantic lustre as American TV producer Cameron Cook, and Katherine Parkinson, Claire Rushbrook, Victoria Smurfit and Emily Atack each brings her own particular something to the mix. Further Rutshire frolics are in the Disney pipeline, one suspects.

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