Rivals ★★★★ Disney+ Release the hounds! A canny adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bestselling 1988 “bonkbuster”, Rivals is a swaggering period drama with an abundance of shagging, big hair – on women’s heads and men’s chests – and arch dialogue. Satiric enough to get away with its rich people behaving badly excess, salacious enough to keep you engrossed, this eight-episode series is an alchemical wonder when it comes to tone. It opens with a mile high club scene and never fastens its seatbelt for landing.
Swaggering period drama: Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black in Rivals. Credit: Robert Viglasky There’s a ream of characters, all living in Cotswolds rural luxury and hungering for something, or someone, they can’t have but usually do. The string-on-corkboard chart would reveal TV magnate Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), his blueblood nemesis Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), and Tony’s new star talk show host, Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner).
The supporting cast includes wives and adult children, most notably Declan’s daughter Taggie, with novelist and rare good sort Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson) as the unofficial observer clocking her rapacious neighbours. The characters have a larger-than-life spirit: Taggie first meets Rupert when she discovers him playing nude tennis with a fellow Tory MP’s wife. It’s the safety valve for all the bad things they do and a permission slip for the audience to laugh instead of lament.
Rivals is .
