Rivals: Official teaser trailer
Well, it’s not the sort of show the esteemed Mr Walt Disney would have had on his TV channel back in the Sixties.
In fact, he would have been horrified -- before probably watching all eight episodes, while chuckling along. Why? Sex sells, as we know, and there’s ample here, as American streamer Disney + lures more subscribers, and conjures a British hit. This may be it.
Everyone is at it here. The busiest person on the set must have been the intimacy co-ordinator. Only the camel, that appears in a New Year's Eve party in episode three, seems to have been spared.
This is a period drama too, set in the Eighties, but here, like in Bridgerton, the costumes are more off than on.
Most importantly, this comedy-drama is a hilarious rendering of Jilly Cooper’s Eighties’ “bonkbuster”, a word we no longer use. Romp is far more accurate. Nothing is taken too seriously.
This show is also about nostalgia, taking us back to naughtier times. Indeed, some of the characters would have been at home on a Carry On set with Sid James and Barbra Windsor.
Rivals opens in scintillating fashion, aboard that icon of the Eighties, Concorde. I almost expected Joan Collins to pop up with a Cinzano as one couple made brisk use of the on-board facilities.
We knew what sort of show we were watching within seconds, probably a record.
While this raunch-fest may be light years from chaste Disneyland and its fairy tales, this is precisely what what happens when Taggie (Bella Maclean), the young daughter of a chat show host falls for a lord of the manor, Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), in deepest Cotswolds (watch out for Campbell-Black’s eye-popping tennis game).
The chat show chap will be very familiar to costume drama fans, once wielding his scythe to great effect in Poldark. Here, actor Aidan Turner is the Jeremy Paxman of his day, Declan O’Hara, ambushing celebrities and politicians with secrets to hide. I was almost convinced.
His TV boss is former Doctor Who David Tennant, Eighties man-made-good Tony Baddingham who is battling against the class system as he tries to renew his TV channel licence. Yes, dry stuff. No wonder it had to be so racy.
Some of the stronger performances are among the women. Katherine Parkinson is terribly good as a writer trying to make sense of this crazy world in a drama where the men tend to drive the story often to their cost.
Producers say they wanted to “modernise” the story and make it “real”. They’ve almost achieved the former but really this is a fun drama watching the rich and privileged at play.
Its message? Have a laugh. And make sure any children or maiden aunts are having an early night!
Disney+ from October 18
