'My night with Dame Jilly Cooper and Rupert Campbell-Black'
In a pale blue satin trouser suit, a string of pearls, glittery brooch and chic icy-blonde long hair, 87-year-old Dame Jilly Cooper walked onto the stage at London’s Southbank Centre last night to roars of applause from the audience of mainly women. (I spotted two men.) Her killer outfit accessory? Rupert Campbell-Black – or rather Alex Hassell, the actor who plays her notorious Rivals leading man– whose gallantly offered arm supported the elderly novelist as she walked onto the stage.
In other words, Dame Jilly was every bit as fabulous in the flesh as you’d hope her to be. And then some. Appearing alongside cast members Hassell and Katherine Parkinson (aka Lizzy Vereker), as well as Olivier Award-winning playwright and Rivals screenwriter Laura Wade to discuss the hugely successful Disney+ adaptation of her book, she was twinkly, giggly and sharp as a tack. And her fellow panellists clearly adore her.
The big question on everyone’s lips, is there going to be a second series of Rivals coming to our screens. “I’m touching wood,” said Dame Jilly, who said it was her childhood dream come true to be working with Disney. “As a child, I loved Dumbo,” she said of her lifelong adoration of all things Disney. To have the corporation come calling in her 80s was, she said, a lovely surprise.
Can we expect a Rupert Cambell-Black and Lizzy Vereker dalliance in series two? Yes, if Katherine Parkinson has anything to do with it. “If there is a second series, there’s going to be a lot of action with Lizzie and Rupert,” she joked. Not true, of course, but a girl can dream. The pair’s platonic friendship is one of the most touching relationships in the story.
As for Hassell himself (very handsome and unexpectedly shy in the flesh), how does he feel about playing one of literature’s sexiest bad boys? The surprising truth is that he’s got imposter syndrome. “I’m not blonde and I’m not blue-eyed,” he said, echoing the reservations that many women have about his casting in the role.
The moment he put his hesitancies aside will surprise you - the famous naked tennis scene. (Yes, that full-frontal scene in episode one.) “I realised I had nothing to hide,” he laughed, confiding that filming that scene finally gave him the confidence he needed to fully inhabit Rupert. (Anyone who’s watched it can see why…)
In one of the final questions of the night, the panel was asked what they'd serve at a 1980s Rivals-style dinner party. Dame Jilly didn’t miss a beat: “Champagne and coq au vin,” she said, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. Please send us an invitation – and sit us next to Rupert.
Rivals is available to stream on Disney+ now.
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