David Tennant, Danny Dyer, and More Join Disney+ Adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s "Rivals"

David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Aidan Turner have joined the ensemble cast of an adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals for Disney+, according to Deadline.

What’s Happening:

Unveiled at last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, Rivals is part of iconic British author Cooper’s bestselling Rutshire Chronicles and is set against the backdrop of the drama, excess and shocking antics of the power-grabbing social elite of 1980s England.
Set in the fictional upper-class county of Rutshire, Rivals dives headfirst into the cutthroat world of independent television in 1986 when a long-standing rivalry between two powerful men is about to boil over: ex-Olympian, Member of Parliament and notorious womanizer Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and his neighbor Tony Baddingham (Tennant), controller of the independent TV franchise Corinium Television.
Turner (Poldark) is TV presenter Declan O’Hara, a fierce intellectual with an even fiercer temper who is wooed to Corinium from the BBC, while EastEnders actor Dyer is Freddie Jones, a self-made electrics millionaire.
The trio feature in an ensemble cast that also includes:
- Nafessa Williams
- Bella Maclean
- Katherine Parkinson
- Victoria Smurfit
- Claire Rushbrook
- Oliver Chris
- Lisa McGrillis
- Emily Atack
- Rufus Jones
- Luke Pasqualino
- Catriona Chandler

After filming wraps in the U.K., the show will premiere on Disney+ in EMEA and Asia Pacific and on Star+ in Latin America. There’s currently no word on where the show will premiere in the U.S.
In addition to Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Laura Wade, the series writers room also includes Sophie Goodhart (Sex Education), Marek Horn, Mimi Hare and Clare Naylor (The Accidental Husband), Dare Aiyegbayo (EastEnders), Kefi Chadwick (Looted), Tray Agyeman, and Sorcha Kurien Walsh (The Pink Pill).

What They’re Saying:

Author Jilly Cooper said the cast “features some of the best acting talent that the British Isles has to offer,” adding, “I cannot wait to be on set and see them bring the characters I love so much to life.”