The simmer of love is the hottest thing about Rivals

Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson are the unexpected heart that makes Jilly Cooper’s new Disney+ adaptation more than just a shallow bonkfest

- Helen Coffey

I was expecting to like Rivals, Disney+’s new steamy eightepisode adaptation of the classic Jilly Cooper novel. With Eighties hairstyles and soundtrack, an all-star cast and more bonking than you can shake a stick (or, should I say, “rock-hard member”) at, what’s not to like? What I definitely wasn’t expecting, however, was to find myself swooning over Danny Dyer. But swoon I did.

In a completely unprecedented turn of events, it was the exEastEnders actor – amid an ensemble cast stuffed full of thinking women’s crumpets – who set pulses racing in the role of straight-talking, salt-of-the-earth, boy-dun-good tech magnate Freddie Jones.

Forget David Tennant (the dastardly Lord Baddingham), Aidan Turner (the tenacious rottweiler of a journalist Declan O’Hara) and Alex Hassell (cartoonishly sexy rake Rupert CampbellBlack) – Dyer’s gruff brand of charm sparked a thousand WhatsApp chats as the nation succumbed to what can only be described as “Freddie Fever”.

“It’s all I’m talking to people about,” one friend messaged me frantically over the weekend. “The quiet love and respect of Danny Dyer and how wholesome that is. We don’t want bad boys; we just want Danny Dyer! (Also DD is everyone’s wank fantasy now).” I never thought I’d be reading these words, let alone agreeing with them. But credit where credit’s due.