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Rivals favourite Alex Hassell reveals season 2 part 2 scene that changes everything for Rupert Campbell-Black
Rivals star Alex Hassell tells Radio Times he's nothing like arrogant egotist Rupert Campbell-Black – and he’s determined to find the rotter’s good side.
Disney
- Emma Cox
Published: Monday, 2 November 2026 at 5:00 pm
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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
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As a sensitive young boy, Alex Hassell dreamed of starring in musicals, and walked around his Essex village dressed as Bugsy Malone in a charity shop suit and fedora.
He went on to have a moderately successful career in theatre and television, but nobody was more surprised than Hassell himself when he was cast as the ultimate alpha male, Rupert Campbell-Black, in the screen adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals.
Now, with one and a half seasons of Rivals already aired to great acclaim, and further episodes to air from this week, Hassell says the part has given him a life-changing confidence boost that he could never have imagined as that young lad who loved to sing and dance. “Playing Rupert has been a transformative experience,” he says.
“I had to be convinced to audition because sometimes you go through a period of getting repeatedly punched in the face by not getting the part and you think, ‘I don’t want to put myself through that again’.
“I’m the son of a vicar and a nurse, and I went to a comprehensive. I didn’t think I could exude what Rupert has. I still watch things now and think, ‘He would have been a great Rupert’. But people responded in a way that makes me feel validated. This is uncomfortable to talk about without seeming like a pr**k! But it’s not false modesty.
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I was fearful of playing Rupert because I had an inherent feeling of what a man should be, and I didn’t think I was capable of playing that alpha, macho lothario.”
Watching Hassell as Rupert, it’s hard to imagine he struggled to believe in himself. As he struts onto the polo field, takes his sunglasses off in slow-mo or strips off for one of many sex scenes, he is the epitome of smooth. Yet Hassell, 46, admits he initially found it hard to lean into Campbell-Black’s most macho extremes, particularly in scenes with love interest Taggie (Bella Maclean).
Early in the first season, Campbell-Black shockingly puts his hand up the young ingénue’s skirt during a dinner party, humiliating her to tears, before forcing her to dance. Hassell says, “For a while, I was trying to make him likeable. When he danced with Taggie, I felt he would be tacitly apologising to her, but Jilly said to me, ‘No, he grabs her and tries to break her like a young horse’. I was like, ‘Woah!’”
Bella Maclean as Taggie O'Hara and Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black in Rivals season 2. Disney+
The fact that Hassell is a sensitive being is, possibly, partly why he was cast. As one of the raunchiest shows of all time, producers have openly said they made sure every actor was a decent and kind person, to ensure nobody would feel uncomfortable while simulating sex.
Hassell, who lives in London with his wife Emma King, an actor and writer agrees. “Women in the cast say, ‘It’s great that you’re nothing like Rupert’. I care about their experiences, and I’ve been married for 16 years. I’m in a very solid, loving relationship, so that makes them feel safe.”
To get into character, Hassell made a playlist of sexy music by the likes of Robert Palmer and INXS, and practised stepping out of sports cars with panache. He studied 80s fashion photos and worked on catching the right light and angling his body as if he was having his picture taken. Then, of course, there was getting into shape for the endless naked scenes.
“Rupert is an athlete,” he explains. “Different body shapes can be attractive but there’s a heightened, cover-of-a-pulpy-novel look, and that’s Rupert.
“There’s also the fact I have to take my clothes off on a massive TV show, so that’s complicated and I’m not immune to that. I used to hate looking at photos of myself. I do think it’s important to say that I had a personal trainer, and I didn’t do any crazy diets. It’s not that people are just supposed to look like that – it took a lot of work.”
One thing Hassell didn’t do in preparation was to model himself on Andrew Parker Bowles, Queen Camilla’s ex-husband and one of the original inspirations for Campbell-Black. The pair were introduced at one of Cooper’s legendary garden parties, but only after Hassell had already begun filming.
“I was half trying to pay attention to how he moved and talked, but we were kind of into it by then,” says Hassell. “It was surreal. I was still in the throes of thinking, ‘God, am I doing this OK?’ when we were introduced to Jilly’s friends whom the books were based on. It was a lot to be taking on, so I don’t remember much!
“But I saw the court that inspired the famous naked tennis scene, and the little hut where Jilly wrote. She pointed out that if her house was Rupert’s house, that’s where the O’Haras' would be, over the valley. It was really moving.
“I’m so glad to have met her and to have spent time with her and to be told explicitly by her that she was really proud of what I was doing. That’s one of the last things she said to me, and that’s really moving to remember and think about. It’s really important to me.”
Bella Maclean and Alex Hassell in Rivals season 2. Disney
Interestingly, just as Hassell has grown in confidence playing the Lothario, Campbell-Black has softened, and the two men are meeting somewhere in the middle. The first six episodes of season 2 aired in the summer and ended with Lady Monica Baddingham dying in a car crash after discovering husband Tony’s (David Tennant) affair with actress Maud O’Hara (Victoria Smurfit).
The second half of season 2 airs this week and contains a flashback to Campbell-Black comforting the dying Monica in the car wreckage, where she begs him to end the rivalry between his media company Venturer, and Lord Baddingham’s, Corinium.
It’s life-changing for Campbell-Black, who begins to show a more vulnerable side while trying to steady his relationship with Lord Baddingham, curb his bad-boy urges and provide solace to other Rutshire residents affected by grief.
In some ways Campbell-Black becomes one of the more emotionally mature characters in the stiff upper-lipped world (summed up by Monica’s own sister, Araminta, saying, “No more boo-hooing” at the wake).
“Yes, who would have thought?” laughs Hassell. “It’s so far from where we meet him. What Monica says to him as she’s dying is massively impactful. It throws him into a much more reflective place.”
Hassell has grown in confidence playing Campbell-Black in this season. Disney
It’s hard to reconcile this Campbell-Black with the man who thrust his hand up Taggie’s skirt. “Absolutely,” agrees Hassell. “Now you feel that he would leap to a woman’s defence. He still struggles to deal with strong emotions, but he’s becoming more like me, which is sensitive and vulnerable. He still wants to win, but what he wants to win feels a bit different.”
Hassell says that while he gets recognised in the street now, it’s not overwhelming and he’s nowhere near the levels of his co-stars Tennant, Danny Dyer, Katherine Parkinson and Aidan Turner, who have been household names for years. The biggest change to his life has not been the fame, but the way the role has made him feel inside.
“The difference between the way you see yourself, and the way others see you, can be a head-spinner,” he says. “But that’s the great thing about acting: sometimes it pushes the edges of how you see yourself, in a way that can be revealing and healing. I’ve spent a lot of years working to reach this place, and it does feel hard-won.
“I’m thankful for Jilly’s endorsement of me playing a character that meant so much to her, and to have spent that time with her. I know how much Rupert means to fans, and I love doing it. I always feel like I can’t wait to get back into his clothes and under his skin every time.”
The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.
Rivals is available to stream on Disney+. Season 2 continues on 11 November 2026. Sign-up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month.
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Emma Cox
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