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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Barbara Ellen

The week in TV: Rivals; Mr Loverman; Life and Death in Gaza; So Long, Marianne – review

‘Hugh Grant levels of aristo-totty rakishness’: Alex Hassell in Rivals
‘Hugh Grant levels of aristo-totty rakishness’: Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black in Rivals. Photograph: Sanne Gault/Disney

Rivals (Disney+)
Mr Loverman (BBC One) | iPlayer
Life and Death in Gaza (BBC Two) | iPlayer
So Long, Marianne (ITVX) | itv.com

A “hot Tory” may be hard to imagine right now, what with the Conservative party having all the electoral allure of greying undies. Nevertheless, in Rivals (Disney+), a hot Tory is what you get. The opening scene of Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Laura Wade’s eight-part adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1988 “bonkbuster” is of mile high club sex in the loos of supersonic airliner Concorde. Swaggering hero, former showjumper and Tory minister for sport Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell channelling Hugh Grant levels of aristo-totty rakishness), shags a journalist to the thumping beat of Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love.

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