Streaming giants Disney+ are going to turn one of Jilly Cooper's sex-filled 80s novels into a TV series.
Rivals will be a brand new eight-part series based on part of the author’s bestselling Rutshire Chronicles.
The books captured the joy, drama, excess, and brazen power-grabbing of the affluent elite in 1980s England.
The drama promises to dive headfirst into the "cutthroat world of independent television in 1986, where the shoulder pads are big and ambitions even bigger".
Rivals author Jilly said: “I am so, so excited. Throughout my childhood, my favourite word was ‘Disney’, and by a miraculous coincidence, greater-than-ever Disney are joining forces with an utterly brilliant drama company, Happy Prince, to turn my novel into a TV series."
“I know they will bring the boardroom battles and love triangles of my characters to life – particularly those of my devastatingly handsome hero," she added.
“I cannot wait to see who will be stepping into his shoes…let the hunt for our Rupert Campbell-Black commence!”
Lee Mason, Director of Scripted Content, EMEA, Disney+ added: “The combination of Jilly Cooper and Disney+ is delightfully unexpected.
“We were thrilled when Dominic brought us these iconic books, and we leapt at the chance to bring them to life.
“We can’t wait to welcome Rupert Campbell-Black and the residents of Rutshire to the platform.”
Dominic Treadwell-Collins, executive producer at Happy Prince, says: “I have been wooing Jilly Cooper since I first started working in television.
“Jilly's iconic novels' razor-sharp observations on class, sex, love and what it means to be British resonate even more today than when Jilly wrote them in the 1980s.
“I'm so excited to bring Rivals to the screen, entertain fans of the beloved Cooperverse and introduce a whole new generation to the sweeping love stories, social satire and biting wit of Rutshire.”
Jilly’s book was once described in one review as a “combination of drama, sex and good social comedy”. Readers praised the title for its “fabulously happy endings” for “incredibly poorly behaved people”. And now they’ll get to enjoy the bestseller in video form on Disney+.
Rivals is described by creators as a “joyously mischievous rollercoaster ride, steamy in its love stories and packed with larger-than-life characters”.
The series is set to bring a “2020s lens to the 1980s, offering a raw exploration of a complicated moment in British history when class, race, sex, wealth, and sexual liberation meant that, for the very privileged few, there were no limits to what they could achieve”.
The series’ lead director is BAFTA-nominated Elliot Hegarty, who also serves as executive producer on episodes one to three. Eliza Mellor, known for Behind Her Eyes and Poldark, serves as Series Producer.
Amongst talent in the writers room is Sex Education’s Sophie Goodhart, Marek Horn, Mimi Hare, Clare Naylor, Dare Aiyegbayo, Kefi Chadwick, Tray Agyeman, and Sorcha Kurien Walsh.
