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She is the ‘queen of the bonkbuster’ with a global reputation for writing outrageously steamy sex scenes.
Yet Dame Jilly Cooper has fallen out with wary US TV bosses who fear an upcoming adaptation of her flashy novel Rivals will prove too much for modern viewers.
Bosses at streaming service Disney+ have ordered several intimate scenes in the star-studded series to be reshot over fears they are inappropriate in the post-MeToo era.
However, the content of Dame Jilly’s 1988 book, set among the social elite of the fictional county of Rutshire, should have come as no surprise. After acquiring the rights, Disney boasted how the novel was ‘full of sex’ and involved ‘drama, excess and shocking antics’.
Nor is Dame Jilly’s prose particularly shy. One woman is described as ‘an electric eel in a sack’ and another is ‘an excited whippet’. Additionally, the story involves a powerful man nearing 40 teaming up with a woman who has not yet turned 19, which must have certainly set off alarm bells.
Mind the age gap: Alex Hassell and Bella Maclean, who play his teenage lover
Changed morals: Poldark’s Aidan Turner on the set of the TV version of Rivals, written in 1988
Still, sources close to the project say some executives found certain scenes “a bit much.”
One said: ‘It was a very different world in the 1980s when the book was written, so there were always going to be some problems getting it right for today’s viewers.’
But other insiders suggest another reason for the reshoots – which are likely to delay the planned release later this year – and claim that the scenes simply weren’t good enough to be shown.
It can be particularly embarrassing as the eight-part series boasts a stellar cast, including Poldark heartthrob Aidan Turner, ex-Doctor Who David Tennant, Sex Education actress Bella Maclean and Alex Hassell from BBC fantasy series His Dark Materials.
A source told The Mail on Sunday that two intimacy coordinators were brought in to ensure the sex scenes were shot with respect for the actors.
But they added: ‘Some of these scenes just weren’t good enough for the Disney executives in America. The sex scenes lacked something, so many have to be reshot.
‘This will inevitably lead to a delay as to when we can expect to see it on our screens, which is all quite embarrassing. There are a lot of people struggling to make Rivals good enough for broadcast. It is not ideal given the amount of money that has been spent and the high-profile actors involved.’
The story revolves around clean ex-Olympian and Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Hassell, who is locked in a bitter battle with Tennant’s selfish and ambitious character Lord Tony Baddingham over the future of a television production company.
Controversy: Co-star Nafessa Williams attends the world premiere of The Color Purple
Hassell’s character also falls for teenager Taggie O’Hara, played by 23-year-old Ms Maclean.
In Dame Jilly’s novel, the marriages are largely of convenience, with wives accepting ‘boys will be boys’. Men are applauded for their caddish tendencies. Women’s weight is often mentioned. A wife proudly announces that she weighs seven stone and that anyone bigger than a size six is ​​fat. A young character is referred to as ‘poor fat Sharon’.
The series, which also stars EastEnders’ Danny Dyer, Nafessa Williams from Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody and IT Crowd star Katherine Parkinson, has been adapted by former EastEnders writer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.
Disney has been criticized for being ‘too woke’ recently, showing a lesbian kiss in family film Lightyear, swapping Minnie Mouse’s classic polka dot dress for a more ‘progressive’ pantsuit and slapping content warnings on its old films.