The Big Picture
- Rivals is a new Hulu series starring David Tennant, offering a look at the glamor and excess of 1980s Britain.
- The show centers around the rivalry between Tennant’s Lord Tony Baddingham and Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black.
- With a star-studded cast and production team, Rivals promises to bring steamy drama to the small screen later this year.
Fresh off his second stint as the lead on Doctor Who, David Tennant is going back in time again. Tennant’s new Hulu series Rivals offers a trip back to 1980s Britain, complete with private helicopters, lavish parties, and luxurious thickets of chest hair. The streamer dropped the new teaser for the eight-episode miniseries today – but no date has yet been set for its release.
The new teaser offers glimpses of the two titular rivals; Tennant’s Lord Tony Baddingham, a gentleman farmer and controller of Corinium Television, and Rupert Campbell-Black (His Dark Materials’ Alex Hassell), an Olympian turned politician. The two are neighbors in the fictional English county of Rutshire, and their rivalry is going to extend from the boardroom to the broadcast room – and especially to the bedroom. The teaser features many trappings of 1980s glamor and excess, from horseback riding to massive country estates to sports cars, all to the strains of Robert Palmer‘s 1986 hit “Addicted to Love”. The series is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jilly Cooper, a prominent British writer of steamy potboilers. Cooper has been dubbed the “Queen of the Bonkbuster”, so expect this series to get raunchy; plus, she’s written a whole series of Rutshire novels, so if Rivals is successful, don’t be surprised if there are sequels in the works.
Who Else Stars in ‘Rivals?
In addition to the two leads, the series will also feature Poldark‘s Aidan Turner as mustachioed TV star Declan O’Hara, with Victoria Smurfit (Once Upon a Time) as his wife Maud. Nafessa Williams (Black Lightning) will star as ambitious, domineering TV executive Cameron Cook. Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd), Emily Atack (The Inbetweeners), Catriona Chandler (Enola Holmes 2), Oliver Chris (Foundation), Danny Dyer (EastEnders), Rufus Jones (Wonka), Lisa McGrillis (Sex Education), Luke Pasqualino (Shadow and Bone), and Claire Rushbrook (Ammonite) will also star in the series.
The series is produced by Dominic Treadwell-Collins (A Very English Scandal) via Happy Prince; Treadwell-Collins is also executive producing with Alexander Lamb. The series’ lead director is Elliot Hegarty (Ted Lasso), who also serves as executive producer on the first three episodes. Eliza Mellor serves as series producer. The series’ writers are Treadwell-Collins, Laura Wade, Sophie Goodhart, Marek Horn, Mimi Hare, Clare Naylor, Dare Aiyegbayo, Kefi Chadwick, Tray Agyeman, and Sorcha Kurien Walsh.
Rivals will be released on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally later this year; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch the new teaser for Rivals below.
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