Emily Atack: ‘I was so relaxed I would sit with my knockers out’

When Emily Atack was filming the TV adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster Rivals, it was not the nudity she was fretting over.

In the Disney Plus series, Emily plays Sarah Stratton, who we meet for the first time engaged in a game of naked tennis with lothario Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell).

‘I was worried about that,’ The Inbetweeners actress, 34, told alongside co-star Claire Rushbrook who plays Lady Monica Baddingham. That being the tennis match.

‘I thought, “Oh God, am I gonna have to actually know how to play tennis?” Funny that was my worry, rather than the nudity.’

She added: ‘It ended up being quite a liberating experience, actually.’

Emily felt so at ease on set that she joked she would forget she was naked. ‘I remember I had the towel and the robe in between takes; but by the end of it, honestly, I couldn’t put my clothes on, I was just running around like, “Woo.”’ she said with a laugh.

The Dad’s Army star added: ‘Sometimes you do become so relaxed that you are just sometimes sitting there with your knockers out, and you go, “Oh, right, okay, God, I’ve forgotten to put my robe on.”

Emily attributes her comfort on Rivals to her ‘amazing’ crew, director, co-stars and intimacy co-ordinators. Morale was so high and bonds tightly formed that they would give each other a pat on the back after filming intimate scenes.

‘We all spoke about our nudity scenes and all spoke to each other and after we’d all done a nudity scene we’d all give each other a hug,’ she explained.

Claire jumped in and quipped: ‘You put your clothes on first.’

However, Emily admitted she did have some pre-filming jitters but had consented to the nudity in Rivals and was aware of what she had signed up for.

She said: ‘It’s scary when you have to do something like that, for sure. But I just think: I’m exactly where I need to be and I’m behaving as I should.

‘This is a role that I’ve been cast in. It’s a scene that I signed a contract for that I said I was comfortable with.’

Set in the fictional English county of Rutshire in the 80s, Rivals follows the story of Rupert Campbell-Black and Lord Tony Baddingham’s (David Tennant) rivalry that begins to affect the day-to-day operations of a TV network all the while various romantic sparks fly.

In Rivals, Claire’s character Lady Monica is married to Lord Tony but she seems to give most of her attention to her dogs. They say never work with children or animals, but did this ring true on Rivals?

‘No, these dogs are actor dogs, so like us, they took direction very well. They’ve got handlers,’ Claire, 53, said before Emily revealed they were banned from playing with the dogs in between takes.

Claire explained: ‘They’ve got to absolutely be focused on their handle who will then just give them a signal and they will do what they told. So, if you’re playing and distracting them, they’ll be distracted.’

In Rivals, Claire plays a haughty aristocrat but said she drew no inspiration from real-life people, instead drawing on her costume and the opulent country pile where they show was filmed to let the character ‘seep in.’

Emily, meanwhile, said that women would identify with Sarah. ‘She represents how women felt back in that time when they had to use their sexuality to get things that they wanted,’ she explained.

‘A character like Sarah Stratton could so easily have been unlikeable but she’s funny -and you actually really root for her hopefully as it goes on

‘[Rivals] shows these real vulnerable sides to her and shows why she feels she has to be manipulative and conniving to get what she wants because she feels there’s no other choice.’

Emily was thrilled by the role, as were her loved ones. ‘My friends and family were just like, “Oh my God”. My mum was like, “Oh my god, Jilly Cooper,’ she said of their reaction.

Claire was met with similar enthusiasm. ‘I’m the generation where we were all reading Jilly Cooper and our mums were also all reading her books. So, there was great excitement amongst my lot,’ she said.

Emily even got a taste of real-life Rivals – by attending one of Jilly’s infamous parties at her country pad. ‘We got a bus there and we called it the Rivals party bus,’ she recalled.

‘I sat and chatted with Richard Madeley for ages. That was pretty cool.’

Sounding starstruck by the encounter, Emily continued: ‘The Madeleys were there. That was great. Richard and Judy. I was like “Oh my god Richard and Judy.”’

Claire added: ‘Jilly was very gracious, wasn’t she? It was a garden party, so we got to experience true Englishness.’