'In Jilly's world you can be terrible but stable'

The world created by author Dame Jilly Cooper is "not the 1980s I remember", David Tennant has said.

Rivals, released in 1988, has now been adapted for a Disney+ series with an all-star cast including Aidan Turner and Tennant.

"Low morals and high fences" is how Dame Jilly summed up her books, which often contain a mixture of sex and scandal.

Speaking to BBC Bristol's Joe Sims, Tennant said the public reaction to the series, partly filmed in the West, had been "bananas".

Set in the Cotswolds and London, and part-filmed at Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol, the drama "delves headfirst into the ruthless world of independent television".

Dame Jilly served as an executive producer on the series, which was filmed over six months last year.

Tennant plays the "egotistical" Lord Tony Baddingham, the cold-hearted controller of regional TV network Corinium.

Dame Jilly Cooper served as an executive producer on the series

He said: "In the Jilly Cooper-verse you can be both things. You can be terrible, treacherous, traitorous - having an infidelity with your top producer - and you can be in a very stable marriage. That's how it works."

The Scottish actor added: "It's not the 1980s that I remember - it wasn't like that in Bathgate [near Glasgow] in the 80s - but apparently it was in the Cotswolds. There was a lot of hair and there was a lot of sex."

Aidan Turner plays TV presenter Declan O'Hara in the screen adaptation of Rivals

Rivals was the first series to be shot on the two main stages at the council-owned Bottle Yard Studios' TBY2 facility in Hengrove, which opened in 2022 and is at the centre of protests about its possible sale.

Other scenes were filmed in the Cotswolds countryside and on board the Concorde aircraft at Aerospace Bristol in Filton.

Tennant said: "It's just a lovely city to be in isn't? I love being down there.

"There's so many fantastically talented people that work in the industry there that it's one of those places that, if you're filming in Bristol, you know you'll be surrounded by experts."