Aidan Turner is confident that Jilly Cooper fans will find a lot to love in the Disney Plus adaptation of Rivals.

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The actor, who shot to stardom in the BBC's Poldark, plays Declan O'Hara in the steamy drama series, which takes viewers into the wild world of the 1980s television business.

Turner and his Rivals co-star Nafessa Williams spoke to RadioTimes.com, with the latter expressing her hope that the show lives up to what fans of the novel had in their heads while reading it.

"I hope that it's as exciting for them as it was for us making it and they see the visual," she said.

"You know, when you read a book, you have a visual in your head of what the characters are going to look and feel like."

Turner interjected: "I don’t think they’ll be disappointed."

Turner went on to admit that he hadn't actually read Rivals prior to becoming attached to the Disney Plus adaptation, but described Cooper's work as "a whole new genre" that he loved being introduced to.

He explained: "I was aware of who Jilly Cooper was, obviously, and being in Ireland, we're not that far away and the book's very popular there, obviously, but I hadn’t read any before we started shooting.

"It’s one of those great things as an actor that you get to do. You’ll never imagine that you'd get to read these books, I suppose, they wouldn’t have been on my radar and then you get to read them.

"You get to be introduced to a whole new genre, really, it’s fun."

The star-studded cast of Rivals also includes David Tennant, Alex Hassell, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, each of whom can currently be found on special edition alternate covers of Radio Times.

Rivals is available to stream on Disney Plus from Friday 18th October 2024.

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Authors

David Craig
David CraigSenior Drama Writer

David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.

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