Meet the cast of Rivals: The Jilly Cooper adaptation with naked tennis and ’80s makeovers galore
Ever since pictures of Rivals’ all-star cast started circulating online, fans of Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series have been getting excited about its TV adaptation.
The Disney+ show features one of the most starry ensembles viewers will have seen in a long time.
The likes of Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Danny Dyer have undergone some brilliant ’80s makeovers in order to bring to life all the scandal and sex of Dame Jilly’s best-selling book, which is set around life at a fictionalised TV channel.
For Turner, cast as the show’s lead news anchor, the “really cool” part was seeing the “sharp as a tack” author on set.
Pic:Rivals/Disney+/Havas
Turner said: “I think one of the first questions she asked was ‘who’s popping into whose trailer around here?'”. He admitted he “fed her a bunch of lies, but she seemed happy with it!”
While some literary snobs have in the past dismissed Cooper’s novels, there is a lot more to her writing than a bare bottom or two – her social commentary for starters.
Aidan Turner (with Nafessa Williams) said Jilly Cooper was ‘sharp as a tack’
As Turner explained: “Our show does feel like there’s a refreshing sense about it. It’s fun, it’s bold, it doesn’t feel safe, it feels different and, you know, it is this kind of perspective on the ’80s told through a 21st-century lens, I suppose.”
As to be expected, it doesn’t shy away from showing sex.
David Tennant, who plays the ethically questionable TV company chairman Lord Tony Baddingham, said for actors the industry has “gone on a bit of a journey” when it comes to approaching raunchier scenes.
“MeToo happened and corrected things a bit,” he said. “We’re now in a world where… everyone feels they’re in charge of that telling rather than having it done to them, so I think it feels quite empowering actually.”
Alex Hassell (L) and David Tennant
Emily Atack said she is still laughing about how “liberating” she found the experience of being asked on day one to strip off for a naked game of lawn tennis (not a euphemism).
She said: “I’m on a closed set, we have intimacy coordinators… and I’m very comfortable and happy… it’s other peoples’ behaviours that need to be looked at if they’re going to twist that into some grotesque negativity.”
Emily Atack filmed a naked tennis scene on her first day
For Alex Hassell, there is a weight of expectation on his shoulders. He was cast as the infamous Rupert Campbell-Black, who, those au fait with the books will know, is “the handsomest man in England”.
He said he “knew of the books being high up on my mum and dad’s shelf when I was young, next to The Joy Of Sex, but no, I didn’t quite know what I was letting myself in for”.
When he read the scripts, he said he “made the decision to be okay with [all of] it”.
A passionate scene from Rivals. Pic: Rivals/Disney
He added: “I wouldn’t have done anything that I didn’t want to do, but I thought ‘if I go into this feeling really nervous and awkward, then it’s going to be nervous and awkward’.
“A lot of the sex scenes are supposed to be fun, joyous, a reciprocal pleasure-giving experience. We tried to just have a laugh as much as possible.”
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One of the most remarked-upon transformations is that of Eastenders’ Danny Dyer who said he had a lot of fun playing “a teddy bear with a bite”.
Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, who grew his own moustache for the show
He teased: “Growing a moustache, and it’s my own moustache, shows that I’m a very versatile actor.”
Rivals is released on Disney+ on 18 October.
The mother of Cassie Ventura has told a court she felt “physically sick” when her daughter told her Sean “Diddy” Combs had threatened to “release two explicit sex tapes” after discovering his long-time girlfriend was dating someone else.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, the seventh day of the trial, Regina Ventura said she did not initially understand the email Cassie sent her in December 2011, saying, “The sex tape threw me, [Diddy] was trying to hurt my daughter.”
The email said Combs was planning to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi.
Regina said the family took out a home equity loan and paid Diddy $20,000 to recoup money he had spent on Cassie “because he demanded it,” angry that Cassie was now dating Cudi.
She said the money was returned days later.
During her evidence, jurors were shown photographs of bruises on Cassie’s body Ms Ventura said were taken when her daughter returned home for Christmas in 2011.
Regina’s time on the stand was fairly brief, as the defence declined the opportunity to question her.
Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, who dated Cassie in 2011. Pic: Reuters
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 7 – As it happened
Prosecutors say Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, forced women to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” from 2004 to 2024, facilitated by his large retinue of staff. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty.
The rapper faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs and Cassie pictured in 2015. Pic: Reuters
Last week, the prosecutors’ star witness, Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs for over a decade, spent four days giving evidence.
Combs’s legal team has sought to show jurors that his relationship with Ventura was complicated, and while they acknowledge he was an abusive partner, and had substance issues, they say the sex acts described by the prosecution were consensual.
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‘Diddy wanted our bodies to shine’
A male exotic dancer nicknamed “The Punisher” also gave testimony, telling jurors that in the autumn of 2012, Cassie contacted him asking him to “create a sexy, erotic scene” Diddy, and using the pseudonym “Janet”.
Male exotic dancer Sharay Hayes, aka The Punisher. Pic: Reuters
Sharay Hayes said he went on to have eight to 12 more encounters with the couple, having sex with Cassie, while Diddy watched from a distance.
He described the hotel rooms as routinely being dressed with electric candles and sheet-covered furniture, and says Cassie told him not to “acknowledge” her husband, and to “try not to look at him and no communication”.
He says Diddy would often wear a cap, and he could not see his face, but he later realised it was the famous rapper.
“The Punisher” mentioned using a “considerable amount of baby oil” during the performances, saying “[Diddy] wanted us to keep our bodies covered, to shine”.
He later described the acts as “a fetish type thing,” and while he said he believed Cassie was fully consensual, he also said he “did occasionally see her sigh or wince” and said she would frequently look at Diddy “for cues”.
Paid between $1,200 (£900) and $2,000 (£1.500) for each performance, he said he was not called back after struggling to get an erection during one encounter.
He said he never saw Diddy use drugs or saw filming during any of the performances.
Car park dispute with Suge Knight
David James, Diddy’s ex-personal assistant, also completed his evidence and testified that he never saw physical violence between Cassie and his former boss.
David James, Combs’s former assistant. Pic: Reuters
James, who worked for Diddy for two years, said he left Diddy’s employment after he realised his “life was in danger” following a dispute in a car park with rival record label owner Suge Knight, which culminated in Diddy bringing three handguns to try to find Knight and his entourage.
He also detailed an altercation between Diddy and his personal chef, Jourdan Atkinson, and said he refused to file a police report after Diddy told him to say “Chef Jourdan hit him first”.
The final person to give evidence was a special agent responsible for planning the March 2024 raids on Combs’s Miami home on Star Island.
Steve Gannon showed photos of items taken during the raid, including sex toys, high heels and loaded guns, and explained how an armoured vehicle was used to break down the mansion’s front gate to gain entry while the family was away on a trip.
Combs has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.
The trial is set to last for around two months.
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