It has the largest body count in TV since The Sopranos but only because there are so many raunchy sex scenes in every episode.
Now Rivals author Dame Jilly Cooper has revealed the inspiration behind one of the most outrageous characters depicted in the raunchy Disney+ series which is taking the nation by storm.
Rivals, which is set in the 1986 in the appropriately named fictional country of Rutshire in the Cotswolds, is based on her 1988 novel of the same name.
His Dark Materials actor Alex Hassell, 44, plays rich show jumper, Conservative MP and lothario Rupert Campbell-Black in the series everybody is talking about.
He beds a string of women and knocks back a few as well before falling for young Agatha ‘Taggie’ O’Hara, played by Bella Maclean.
Needless to say it would have the late Mary Whitehouse choking on her corn flakes even though some of the sex scenes are almost as hilarious and ridiculous as they are titillating.
The series also stars David Tennant as unscrupulous TV mogul Tony Baddingham and Aidan Turner as journalist Declan O’Hara.
Now Cooper has confessed the name of the man who was the top of her list of men who inspired nobleman Campbell-Black and he has an intriguing royal connection.
She has admitted that he is based on her pal Queen Camilla’s first husband Andrew Parker Bowles, once dubbed “the lothario of London”.
‘He’s been a great friend for a long time… so he’s very like Rupert. He’s beautiful and blond and stunning,’ said Jilly.”
Parker Bowles and Camilla, divorced in 1995 after 22 years of marriage and two children; food writer Tom, 49 and Laura Lopes, 46, an artist. They remain good friends.
This week the Rivals’ cast threw their support behind author Cooper at the 2024 Harper’s Bazaar Women Of The Year Awards in London.
Turner, Bella Maclean and Hassell were all at the Claridges Hotel as Dame Jilly, 87, won the writer award.
Jilly scooped the prize for “her extraordinary half-century contribution to literature” which was presented by Turner.
The author wore a black satin slip dress teamed with a sheer, ruffled jacket and a classic pearl necklace for the event.
Turner recently told of how he threw himself into his racy scenes with friend and co-star Victoria Smurfit, who plays his wife Maud, including baring all in the no-holds-barred scenes.
“Victoria is such a legend, she’s a pal, I love her,’ he said. “We didn’t care, we just got straight involved. It’s technical but you do have to have a sense of fun about it as well, it can’t just be laborious. It’s like a dance. There are 50 hairy men hanging around with cameras.”
His admission comes after it was revealed that younger writers on Rivals had rallied for a scene in which Campbell-Black gropes Taggie be removed from the eight-part Disney adaptation.
It was a scene where Campbell-Black put his hand up 19-year-old Taggie’s skirt as she serves up food while dressed in a raunchy maid’s costume.
Dominic Treadwell-Collins, the show’s executive producer and writer, said: “We talked a lot about the groping scene between Taggie and Rupert and whether we could show that on screen and, yes, we sat in the writer’s room and wriggled that out.
“Some of the younger writers said, ‘You can’t keep that in because we would never want Rupert and Taggie to get together if he has groped her.’
“And we said well he’s got to change, that’s got to stay in, it’s a comment on the 80s and these men.”
Rivals has since been praised for its loyal adaptation to Dame Jilly’s original storyline, not shying away from the more uncomfortable truths of the pre-MeToo 1980s.
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here.