Rivals: David Tennant Teases "Racy" Bits in Dame Jilly Cooper Adapt

Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, bonkbuster, david tennant, disney, hulu, Jilly Cooper, Rivals

Rivals: David Tennant Teases "Racy" Bits in Dame Jilly Cooper Adapt

David Tennant hinted at "racy bits" in the upcoming miniseries Rivals, Disney+'s adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper's 1980s bonkbuster novel.

Published Sun, 22 Sep 2024 08:37:10 -0500
by Adi Tantimedh
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David Tennant has been on the promotions round hyping the upcoming Disney Plus adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper's hugely popular (in the UK) 1980s bonkbusters novel Rivals, which premieres on the streamer (and Hulu) in October and looks all set to be every bit as risqué as the novel. Rivals is the second out of ten of Cooper's "Rutshire Chronicles," a satirical look into the cutthroat world of independent television in 1986 when, as Tennant put it, 'The world went a bit mad with all the 'Greed is Good!' stuff" and follows a bitter rivalry between television executive Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) and politician Rupert Campbell-Black (The Boys alum Alex Hassell), featuring sex, scandal and controversy galore. Most of the action takes place in lavish Gloucestershire estate mansions where the rich cavort and party.

Rivals: Just How "Racy" Is It Going to Get?

Tennant was a guest on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show this week  with Jodie Whittaker and was asked by guest host Scott Mills about Rivals, where he said, "It's quite racy." A week ago, the London Times ran a major feature about the upcoming series where Dame Cooper, Tennant, and the cast gleefully hinted there might be full frontal bits since that was described in certain notorious scenes in the book. It's not for nothing that Dame Cooper's novels have been bestsellers for decades in the UK, and while Americans might not know that much about them, a TV series of Rivals is highly anticipated, especially by generations of female fans who go all the way back to the 1980s.

Mills pulled out a diagram of the human anatomy and pointed around to see which bits would show up on the screen on display in Rivals. It was a very Scientific discussion, as far as a promotion for a bonkbusters adaptation like Rivals or any Jilly Cooper novel could get. "David, here is a picture of the human anatomy. Do we see this?" Mills asked. Tennant responded, "On me or on any human?" "On any human," Mills said. Tennant responded, "Oh well, keep your ruler moving, Scott. Wave it freely around." Tennant used to be Doctor Who, you know. Oh, and so did Whittaker. "All of human experience is there! There's yuppies! There's early mobile phones!" quipped Tennant.

On Rivals, it's probably not going to be a ruler that will be waved around. You'll get to find out when the series premieres in October.

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