It's May 2026, a week on from local elections that made mincemeat of the Prime Minister, leaving an already uninspiring government in serious decay. It feels like a lifetime since I've heard anyone say anything positive about a sitting politician, let alone lust after one. And yet, somehow, a show about a Tory MP whom everyone wants to sleep with is the biggest thing on British TV.

The success of Rivals, Disney+'s soapy, addictive, 1980s-set series, is one of the more fascinating entertainment stories of the last 18 months. By the sheer force of its charm, it has brought its originator, Jilly Cooper, the literotica legend who died at the age of 88 last year, to the modern masses, and turned the eat-the-rich TV trend on its head. It's quite a feat: showrunner Dominic Treadwell-Collins manages to weave silly jokes, ridiculous sex scenes and genuine emotional beats together while burning through plot faster than EastEnders (which he happens to have produced for many years, too). But the show's success is thanks in no small part to its excellent cast, led by Alex Hassell as the aforementioned MP Rupert Campbell-Black, who finds himself in a will-they-won't-they relationship with his new neighbour, Taggie O'Hara (Bella MacLean).

Hassell, 45, has been putting in top-tier performances across theatre, TV and film for over two decades now, but Rivals marks the kind of mainstream breakthrough that he thought would elude him forever after a series of "ill-advised experiences" on Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain, his first proper Hollywood film, which he shot in the early 2000s (more on that shortly).

Ahead of the Rivals season two debut, I spoke to Hassell about that particularly painful learning curve, winning Gen Z over with an onscreen age-gap relationship, and the one modern politician you could compare to Rupert Campbell-Black...

Rivals season two is great. What felt different this time around?

I've certainly not been part of something that's had this insane level of response. And it's funny doing scenes with Bella [MacLean] where we have to look yearningly across the room and, as you're doing it, imagining the TikToks that are going to come out, and trying to be like, "No, don't do that."

It's so funny how fervently people in their 20s have taken to the show. Did that surprise you?

Definitely. I remember us really believing that it was important that Rupert groped Taggie in the beginning of season one, because that's in the book and because that is the world, and that's the kind of shit that happens. But also thinking, How the fuck are a young audience going to respond to that? It's been incredible how much they've gone for this age-gap thing. There's something in the idea that this fairly innocent, fairly naive, heart-on-sleeve sort of ingénue who, just through being that and the power of her love, is capable of transforming the biggest rogue in the world. I guess that's a very exciting fantasy, especially when there is reportedly a real crisis in young men's idea of what relationships with women their own age should be.

It's impressive that you've managed to make a politician who everyone wants to have sex with a popular character in 2026.

An international playboy politician [laughs]. Although, Justin Trudeau is now with Katy Perry...

Jilly Cooper passed away late last year, while you were in the middle of filming. Did you honour her on set?

I wasn't actually on set the day that it happened. I woke up to calls, emails and stuff about it. But everyone on set was gathered and told the news, and then there was a discussion about whether or not to carry on that day, and everyone felt that it was important to do so, because she cared so much about the show and it was a way of honouring her. And then at the end of the day, loads of Champagne was brought onto set, and glasses were raised. The priest at her memorial said she had a "Champagne soul", and I think that we all felt that that really accurately sums her up. She loved Champagne. Whenever she would come on set, by 11 o'clock, she'd be like, "Why isn't there Champagne?"

In episode one, you play polo with Danny Dyer. How much of that was really you?

All of us were on actual ponies, really riding. We obviously had riding doubles for the more complicated parts, but we all learned and we all did as much of it as we possibly could. It's just ludicrous and amazing and getting to fucking bomb it around on these amazingly well-trained polo ponies and get quite good at it. When you actually manage to crack one of those balls, it's really quite a potent feeling.

You've got a campaign ad in episode two, and it feels very real and of the moment. You nail the TV politician voice.

That was really fun to do. I was born in 1980; my understanding of politicians and politics would have crept in from that era. But there's something that you just get in the ether about that sort of voice and that sort of physicality, I suppose. I love playing Rupert - the levels of public persona depending on what he's doing and the interactions he's having, and then the interior life, and the gap between those things. And the idea of this apparently extremely cool person crummily doing this thing - I think that's really funny. And trying to pitch that in the right way, especially when it's intercut with the sex montage, is really, really fun.

Cold Mountain was your first proper Hollywood experience, right? What do you remember from that?

I was just out of drama school. Bella [MacLean] loves when I talk about embarrassing stories from early on in my career. And Cold Mountain is a list of incredibly ill-conceived experiences on my part. I basically got cut. I didn't have a big part to begin with; I was Orderly Number 12 or something. And I didn't find out that all of my dialogue, apart from one line, was cut, until I took my entire family to see it on Boxing Day. I cried my eyes out in the car park afterwards, it was terrible.

You poor fella.

I fucked so many things up on that experience. I had no idea. I thought, This is me on the pathway to A-list success. I had to carry this actor, Lucas Black, on a stretcher all day, and my arms wouldn't do it. I didn't want to say to anyone, "I'm too weak to do it." So at the end of the day - in the middle of a tape with hundreds of extras and [director] Anthony Minghella - I dropped the stretcher. It broke and everyone went dead silent. I was like, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" [Laughs].

And then later, I was with Jude Law and Anthony Minghella, and we were covered in fake blood made of sugar, and this wasp goes into my ear, and I started to really spin out. But they hadn't seen the wasp, so they thought I was just having this weird attack.

And the one scene I had to do, I hadn't done film before and I massively overplayed it. Anthony Minghella had to be like, "No, no, no, no," and had me do it dozens of times to bring it down. It was a really hard lesson, and I had to really work my confidence back up after it.

I wondered if there was a role in your early career, the first 10-15 years or so, that you felt really proud of, or that was underseen?

I did this thing called The Miniaturist, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai and Paapa Essiedu. People did watch it, but I was really proud of it and really, really responded to the character. It makes me emotional thinking about the character. He's someone else who had a really strong interior emotional life that he felt he had to cover it up. And I found that a really profound experience.

Lastly, I like to ask people what they've seen recently that they can't stop thinking about. My example is Before Sunset, which I recently rewatched for the 50th time.

I love those films. I think about them all the time, and I think they should almost be required viewing for adult relationships. We're currently watching Widow's Bay. Matthew Rhys is so amazing in it. It's fun and scary. And it's doing something similar to Stranger Things in the way that it lives in a Stephen King-y world.

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