Alex Hassell lands Rupert Campbell-Black role for Jilly Cooper's Rivals
jilly cooper's Rivals has Alex Hassell playing Rupert Campbell-Black, with Disney+ set to release the series on 18 October 2024. He was chosen from 600 hopefuls for a part built around one of Cooper's most talked-about creations, a casting race that ended with a face the production says can carry the show's most loaded role.
600 hopefuls for Rupert
Hassell said he told his agent, “I actually said to my agent, “I shouldn't bother auditioning,” because I didn't think I would have a chance of getting the part or would even know how to play it if I did.” The scale of the search tells you how carefully the role was handled; this was not a default casting, but a wide field narrowed to one actor for a character central to the series' appeal.
He also said, “I’m so pleased – otherwise it would have been terribly awkward, wouldn’t it?” That is the practical reality of landing a character who is described as tall, dark and devastatingly handsome, and who has to sell both the pose and the joke without losing either.
Rupert in 1986
The story is set in 1986, where Rupert has retired as a professional showjumper and serves as the Conservative Minister for Sport. He is also described as the most eligible divorcée in all of Rutshire, which gives the part a social and political edge rather than just a romantic one.
Rupert is notoriously blue-eyed and fair-haired in the books, and Hassell said, “Someone said that Rupert was the James Bond of erotica or something.” He added, “and in my mind, there's definitely more of Roger Moore… he’s got his tongue firmly in his cheek.” That is the balancing act the production has to land: the character must look like fantasy, but play with enough self-awareness to avoid turning into a one-note joke.
Eight seconds on board
Hassell's first appearance comes eight seconds in, via his naked thrusting buttocks aboard the Concorde, with champagne corks flying as the characters hit the Mile High Club to a soundtrack of 80s classic Addicted to Love. It is a blunt signal about the register of the show, and it also means the adaptation is not hiding what kind of audience it is chasing.
He said of the attention on set, “It was great,” and added, “They just look at me in a certain kind of [thoroughly lusty] way, and that helps me go, “great, well I'll look back at you the same.”” For a series built on desire, class, and spectacle, that reaction is part of the job, not a side effect.
The real date to watch is 18 October 2024. If Rivals lands as scheduled, the test is simple: whether Hassell can turn a famously fancied Jilly Cooper figure into a lead who sells the series beyond the first glance.
