Pictured: David Tennant as Tony Baddingham.
I’m not going to be able to do that. Surely, there’s going to be some CGI trickery here… He said: ‘We’ll just keep it running till it does’. “I thought:‘The crew are gonna hate me by take 402; this is gonna feel like the show that’s never gonna end’.And I nailed it on take four. “I’ve never felt more pleased with myself than that moment. I felt like Tony Baddingham in that second, I felt like a sporting god.” This introduction to the protagonist, and, indeed, the society in the fictional Rutshire in which Rivals is set, is the perfect way into a story about wealth, greed, romance, duplicity and darkness – one which Cooper herself holds in incredibly high regard.
SHOWBIZ - Tv Rivals
Dame Jilly Cooper talks novel TV adaptation: Rivals is my favourite because I love the characters so much By Rachael Davis, PA Entertainment Features Writer We are introduced to LordTony Baddingham in the television adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rivals by watching him land in a helicopter and then nail a hole-in-one in croquet. It’s a level of cool elitism that’s perfectly befitting of his wealthy, well-connected character, but one the actor playing him – none other than David Tennant – thought he could never pull off. “That hole-in-one, I would like you to know, was probably the greatest day of my professional life,” laughs the 53-year- old Scottish actor, known for Doctor Who and Good Omens.
“I think Rivals is my favourite novel because I love the characters so much,” says the 87-year-old author.
“Even the most ruthless display moments of tenderness and vulnerability, and the shyest and gentlest show courage and integrity as true love blossoms.” The story centres around Tennant’s Tony, who owns the local regional television franchise Corinium Television, deep in a heartland of rural England that’s all Barbour jackets and clinking champagne glasses.
“Elliot Hegarty, our lead director, set up this shot through the croquet hoop and said:‘You just need to knock it’.Well,
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