Dame Jilly Cooper's favourite romp, Rivals (part of her beloved Rutshire Chronicles) hits our screens on October 18th. The new Disney+ adaptation of the 1988 bonkbuster novel stars David Tennant as Lord Tony Baddingham and Alex Hassell as Olympic horse-rider and Conservative MP Rupert Campbell-Black as they battle it out in the world of 1980s TV rivalries. Danny Dyer, Emily Atack and Poldark’s Aidan Turner also join the cast in full glamorous 1980s regalia.
Based mainly in ‘Rutshire,’ the TV show is also a glossy and completely over the top depiction of life in the countryside. ‘Whoever said country life was boring was clearly in bed with the wrong people,’ reads the tagline of the show. And certainly this version of country life seems much more lively than the average sleepy English village…
Is Rutshire a real place?
Sadly not! Rutshire it is a fictional county, a creation of Jilly Cooper's, but it is based on the real counties of the Cotswolds, which include Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. The show has been filmed all over the UK, particularly in areas of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. ‘As full of ravishing countryside as it is workaholics and their bored spouses, where Barbour jackets do battle with fast cars and buckets of Champagne,’ says the Rivals team of Rutshire.
Rutshire is a wonderful satirisation of the most luxurious and wealthy parts of the English countryside. The Cotswolds has long been synonymous with wealth and power, with seemingly all of the British media and politicians owning second homes just a stone's throw away from Daylesford Farmshop. But whether the real ‘Chipping Norton Set’ (a group of political and show-business big dogs whose country houses all reside in the picturesque town of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire) as drama-filled and raunchy as Rivals suggests? Surely that's not possible…
Mega estates and quaint villages are all described in lively detail in Jilly Cooper's novels, and the TV show captures the aesthetic of 1980s grand houses perfectly, with an added sprinkle of Disney+ glow. The Rivals team stated in a press release that they recognised the need for ‘locations as impressive as their characters.' So, with handfuls of luxurious Rutshire locations needed for the various countryside big wigs, which filming locations did the Rivals team use?
Rivals filming locations
Producer Eliza Mellor’s starting point was Caroline Lowsley-Williams, the owner of Chavenage House in Tetbury. Chavenage House is a traditional Cotswold stone Elizabethan Grade I listed house, and it had previously served Mellor as a location on Poldark. It now serves as the romantic, slightly dilapidated home of Declan O'Hara and his family, as he moves from London to Rutshire to take up his new, glamorous job at the Corinium TV station.
“Caroline also introduced us to the owners of our Falconry, Lord Baddingham’s home (see more below), and also to those of the house where we shot the tennis,” says Eliza. “They’d never had filming before, so we’d never have got it without her.” Luckily, Lowsley-Williams is (along with most of the British public) an avid Cooper reader, so she became their local eyes and ears, making lists of all the best suitable local houses for other characters.
Tetbury itself serves as the fictional village Cotchester in a number of scenes. Aidan Turner, who plays Declan O'Hara, was spotted in costume on the street in Tetbury in 2023, and the local shops were transformed into their 1980s counterparts. There were even banners welcoming Margaret Thatcher. Dame Jilly herself has lived near Tetbury in Gloucestershire for over forty years, telling The English Home that “Gloucestershire is so welcoming and the Cotswolds are so heartbreakingly beautiful, so home is definitely here.”
Another house in Tetbury also plays an important role in the show – Berkeley House at 16 the Chipping was the location for American TV producer Cameron Cook's house. The Grade-II listed house became ‘Hamilton Terrace’, and we hear that it's actually a rental property, so there's a chance you could stay in one of the houses from the show. The local church, St Mary’s, also became St Agnes and St Isaac's in Cotchester for a crucial wedding scene.
The team also ventured a little south of Gloucestershire and into Wiltshire, particularly Corsham, a photogenic market town known for its picturesque streets and nearby rolling hills, which did double duty as parts of Cotchester. Neston Park was reportedly used as a filming location, serving as ‘The Falconry’, the home of TV mogul Tony Baddingham (played by David Tennant).The present ashlar-built house is Grade II* listed, features a frontage of eight bays and dates to around 1790; large and beautiful with lots of remaining original features, is just the kind of house you'd picture for one of Cooper's wealthy protagonists.
Though presumably still doubling as the fictional Rutshire, the team had to head further afield and into Monmouthshire in Wales for another of their locations. Again, the fictional owner is unknown, but Woodbank House was one of the locations used in the area, a large country house on the edge of the River Usk with views over Usk Valley which is also available for weddings and parties.
Instagram content
Actor Aidan Turner, who plays Declan O'Hara, a journalist-turned-chat-show host, reportedly let it slip on his Facebook that the Battleaxes Pub in Wraxall, Somerset was used for some filming. The pub was built in the Tudor style in 1882 and is Grade II listed. The pub was closed in 2020 before lockdown, which makes it a great filming location as publicans won't have to be shifted out for the cast and crew. It's a particularly attractive pub, and its historic look makes it a timeless location for the 1980s show. The set directors will have undoubtedly dressed the pub up to suite the timeframe, with typical 1980s pub drinks and snacks used to add to the world-building.
Bristol's Harbour Hotel on Corn Street in Bristol's historic Old City was used as the filming location for the television awards ceremony. The team added a red carpet and various other elements to add to the scenes. The Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove and the coastal town of Clevedon (both also in Bristol) were used for filming too.
