Watch: first trailer for raunchy Disney series based on Jilly Cooper’s Rivals

The first trailer for Disney’s adaptation of Rivals has been released, featuring a shirtless Aidan Turner, a plummy David Tennant and Danny Dyer in his socks.

Turner, who made his name while scything topless in Poldark a decade ago, plays Declan O’Hara, a television star.

Dyer is Freddie Jones, a self-made electronics millionaire, who struggles to fit in with the horsey set, while Tennant is the landowner and TV mogul Lord Tony Baddingham.

The adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s raunchy novel will launch on Disney+ later this year. It promises a window into “the drama, excess and shocking antics of the power-grabbing social elite of 1980s England”.

Alex Hassell stars as the caddish Rupert Campbell-Black, a former Olympic showjumper turned Tory minister.

The trailer unveils other characters, including Luke Pasqualino as Basil “Bas” Baddingham, Lord Tony’s younger brother; and Emily Atack as Sarah Stratton, wife of the deputy prime minister, Paul Stratton (Rufus Jones).

While readers may remember the novel as a romp, Disney said it had more serious undertones.

“Beneath the spectacle and fun, the series brings 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,” Disney said.

Dame Jilly recently told The Telegraph that she had seen the first of eight episodes “and it is absolutely thrilling”.

‘Devastatingly handsome hero’

When the series was announced, she said: “Throughout my childhood, my favourite word was ‘Disney’ and, by 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. I cannot wait to see who will be stepping into his shoes.”

Dame Jilly said that she would like the series to introduce her books to a new generation. “I’m geriatric, so young people might realise who I am,” she said.