Around half a million of us tuned in to watch Rivals – a television series based on the book of the same name by Jilly Cooper.
Set in 1986 and following the cut throat world of television, our screens were flooded with steamy scenes between the racy residents of the aptly named Rutshire.
And it seems one television set in Buckingham Palace was lit up with the same raunchy eight-part series – as it’s been revealed that Queen Camilla is a fan of the show on Disney+.
The King’s wife, 77, even had a copy of the bonkbuster delivered to her early, according to The Times.
Assistant Editor Kate Mansey wrote: ‘I am told that [the Queen] adored Rivals, the racy television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel.
‘So keen was Camilla, a former horsewoman, to see the programme that a preview copy was dispatched to her before it was available to the public.’
To the shock of many fans, nine seconds into the first episode of Rivals, viewers are treated to the naked bottom of polo-loving lothario Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell, as he joins the Mile High Club in a bathroom on Concorde.
Jilly Cooper has since revealed that the charming ex-Olympian show jumper turned Tory MP character was inspired by none other than Andrew Parker Bowles – Queen Camilla’s ‘famously naughty’ first husband.
The Queen is a fan of a number of popular TV shows, having previously admitted to binging Netflix‘s Bridgerton, BBC‘s Wolf Hall and ITV‘s Coronation Street.
‘The King? Not so much,’ Mansey continued. ‘He is known to use a tablet on which he is more likely to watch documentaries that have been recommended to him by friends.’
Meanwhile, speaking to the How To Fail podcast, Jilly confirmed she based her lead aristocrat – described in her raunchy 1988 novel as ‘the handsomest man in England’ – on Army officer Parker Bowles.
‘He’s been a great friend for a long time… so he’s very like Rupert. He’s beautiful and blond and stunning,’ said Jilly.
In her books, Campbell-Black is described as ‘well-constructed. Usually, men with such long legs had short bodies but Rupert, from the broad flat shoulders to the lean muscular hips and powerful thighs, seemed perfectly in proportion.’
The writer has always maintained she gleaned only the best bits from her various high-society pals, saying she was inspired by ‘their charm and glamour’ and that her character’s ‘naughty behaviour’ didn’t come from them.
However, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that not only was Parker Bowles once seen as a dashing figure, he was also something of a ladies man.
In The Duchess: The Untold Story (2017), one of Britain’s top royal authors Penny Junor claimed that ‘everyone who knew the Parker Bowles well was aware of Andrew’s serial unfaithfulness to Camilla’.
She alleged: ‘One night, at a dinner party, the woman sitting next to Andrew Parker Bowles turned to him and smiled. “I’m really hurt, Andrew,” she said teasingly. “I’m the only one of Camilla’s friends you haven’t made a pass at. What’s wrong with me?”
‘All too often, the women were indeed friends of his wife, and showed scant loyalty to her by succumbing to his charms.’
But the royal expert claimed that ‘Andrew’s affairs were just a fact of life and not something Camilla often spoke about’, noting how there ‘was never a tense atmosphere in the couple’s home’.
Indeed, Parker Bowles and Camilla, who divorced in 1995 after 22 years of marriage and two children: food writer Tom, 49 and Laura Lopes, 46, an artist, still remain good friends.
But according to Penny, Camilla was ‘bitterly hurt’ by her ex husband’s ‘infidelity’, which started even when they were just going out.
Then during their marriage, Andrew would apparently ‘never be short of opportunities to be unfaithful’ when spending his weekdays in London, where his regiment was based.
‘Today, looking back, [Parker Bowles] would admit that if blame were to be apportioned for the way his marriage ended, he’d feel obliged to take a full 80 per cent of it,’ wrote Penny.
British author Petronella Wyatt also previously discussed Parker Bowles’ alleged unfaithfulness with the Daily Mail in 2022.
She wrote: ‘For three decades, beginning in the late 1960s, Andrew was the lothario of London, and the name on everyone’s lips.
‘Tall, handsome and athletic, he was sophisticated, witty, and priapic. Unusually for a man of his boarding school-educated class, he enjoyed talking to women and they responded. Half the women who knew him were in love with him and the other half panted to meet him.’
Similar to how Campbell-Black is painted in Cooper’s novels, Wyatt reported one of Parker Bowles’ exes as saying: ‘”Andrew is like a drug. You can’t really get him out of your system.”‘
Meanwhile, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, one of Camilla’s Queen’s Companions, has said of Cooper’s muse: ‘Everybody loves Andrew. He’s a real charmer but he’s always terribly misbehaving.’
Known as ‘The Brigadier’ in reference to his former career as an army officer who served with the Blues and Royals and was awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in Zimbabwe, Parker Bowles, now 84, has always batted away the more exaggerated stories of his bedroom conquests.
Parker Bowles first met Camilla in the late 1960s and they dated on and off for several years before marrying in 1973.
Having divorced in 1995, Parker Bowles was a guest at Charles and Camilla’s wedding in April 2005, attending their service of blessing at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
The two are still the friendliest of exes, with the King’s wife, 77, said to still be ‘joined at the hip’ to the former army brigadier – despite infidelity on both sides during their 22-year marriage.
Camilla and Andrew – who is dating TV presenter Anne Robinson – have maintained a strong and close friendship – and he even had a special invitation on the guest list to the King’s Coronation.
Their firm alliance comes despite a turbulent marriage spanning the two decades in which they welcomed their two children, but both committed infidelities.
Camilla was famously Charles’s ‘mistress’ during her marriage to Andrew, while the latter is described by friends as having been ‘very naughty with women’ throughout.
But it seems any differences have been put aside as the pair are ‘joined at the hip’, as one insider previously put it – claiming they are constantly in touch and make a great team.
‘They are joined at the hip,’ according to a friend. ‘He arranges so much for her. They have lunch together the whole time. He’s right in there. He was always, and still is, Camilla’s co-conspirator.’
Andrew and Camilla divorced in 1995, saying in a statement that ‘throughout our marriage we have always tended to follow rather different interests, but in recent years we have led completely separate lives.’
The following year, he married his long-term mistress Rosemary Pitman. They were together until Rosemary passed away in 2010 of cancer, aged 69. At the time of her death it was reported that Camilla was ‘deeply saddened’ by the news.
Even before his marriage to Camilla, Parker Bowles has moved in royal circles for decades; as a 13-year-old, he served as a page to Lord Simonds, then the Lord High Chancellor, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
‘My mother was a good friend of the Duke of Norfolk,’ he recalled. ‘The Lord Chancellor had no children so Bernard Norfolk suggested me to Lord Simonds. I have to say that he was the nicest man alive and gave me a very nice set of cufflinks.’
He described a sword fight during the dress rehearsal, saying: ‘All the pages had these little swords. If a group of bored small boys all have swords, you know what’s going to happen.’
Prior to marrying Camilla, he had a brief fling with Princess Anne, but his Catholicism is said to have dampened the prospects of marriage. They remain great friends, however, and she later named him godfather to her daughter Zara.
He also played polo on the same team as Charles when both men were young and rode in the Grand National in 1969, coming 11th.
Released earlier this year, the highly-anticipated Disney+ adaptation of Cooper’s 1988 bonkbuster Rivals won over a whole new audience to the author’s literary talents.
The story is set in 1986 and follows the cut throat world of television, including the tense rivalry between polo-loving lothario Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant).
During a series of parties and luncheons in Lord Baddingham’s country pile, steamy affairs and star-crossed yearnings are explored.
Some of those watching took to social media to rave about the racy scenes in the show, including a fully nude tennis match featuring Cooper’s most famous cad Campbell-Black and Emily Atack‘s Sarah Stratton.
One viewer was lost for words, simply declaring: ‘THE NAKED TENNIS SCENE!’
Others said they were hooked on the show by the opening scene, explaining: ‘I was completely hooked the moment RCB walks out the lavatory on the Concorde and struts down the aisle to the sound of “Addicted to Love”. Just perfect.’
Another social media user joked they were watching Rivals for ‘the plot’, alongside shirtless pictures of Aidan Turner and Hassell.
Most agreed that the Disney+ original was ‘binge-able’. One said: ‘I don’t normally binge watch, but I just finished Rivals. It’s SO good and I want more.’
