Rivals' David Tennant and Emily Atack laugh off Jilly Cooper comments

David Tennant and Emily Atack have opened up about starring in the upcoming Disney+ adaptation of bonkbuster, Rivals, ahead of its highly-anticipated release next week.

The raunchy show is based on the 1988 novel by famed writer Jilly Cooper and follows the cutthroat world of independent television in 1986.

The story focuses on the tense rivalry between David's character Lord Tony Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), while Emily stars as the promiscuous Sarah Stratton.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, the co-stars discussed getting into character and working with author Jilly, 87.

David, 53, explained it was a lot of fun getting to revisit the 1980s in the series, but admitted that it was very different to his experience in the time period, in which he was a teenager.

He quipped: 'It's not the 80s that I remember living through in paisley with my NHS specs with sellotape on the side.'

Meanwhile Emily, 34, also joked at her expense as she described her character in the show, the wife of Rufus Jones' Deputy Prime Minister, Paul Stratton.

Her sexy character Sarah is described as ambitious and not afraid to use her looks to get to the top.

Emily said: 'Sarah Stretton is chaos, she's very manipulative and conniving. She was great fun to play, absolute car crash of a woman', before joking: 'I don't know why they cast me?'

The pair also chatted about working with Jilly, with presenter Richard Arnold probing them about their thoughts on the novelist's controversial comments about 'woke' culture.

David revealed that they worked with Jilly a lot and she had been on the set regularly, while Emily praised her for her groundbreaking oeuvre.

She said: 'She's great, to write the way she did back then was actually very brave.'

But the duo both broke into laughter in response to Jilly's opinion about gender stereotypes changing and being politically correct.

Last year, the author complained to The Sun that male characters are too often depicted as 'submissive', while women are 'so bossy', adding that 'political correctness is a bore'.

Jilly said: 'Every time you see women on the telly now they are so bossy and dominant. Men have to be much more submissive, which I think is a shame.

'I like the sexes to cherish each other, to appreciate their good qualities. Men are a lovely sex and they ought to be strong and confident. Women ought to be confident as well.'

Recalling a decision in 2015 to 'tone down' the cover of her 1985 novel Riders, which had featured a man patting a woman's behind, she added: 'I don't know why they took the hand off the bum. Political correctness is a bore, isn't it?'

Laughing off the remarks, David said: '[Political correctness] has its place and I'm a great supporter of a lot of it.'

He pointed out: 'Looking at a world before that arrived, you might not want to live there, but it's quite fun to witness.'

In the upcoming adaptation, Disney+ has promised to bring a '2020s lens' to the 1980s classic - a notoriously politically incorrect tale of sex and scandal in the English social elite.

The racy eight-part series is set to air from October 18 - but many viewers have been left wondering how its themes would be translated for a modern audience.

According to Disney+, Rivals is a 'joyously mischievous rollercoaster ride, steamy in its love stories and packed with larger-than-life characters.' 

The cast includes Poldark heartthrob Aidan Turner, Sex Education actress Bella Maclean, EastEnders' Danny Dyer, Skins star Luke Pasqualino and Alex Hassell, from BBC fantasy series His Dark Materials.

The book, part of the Rutshire Chronicles, soared to the top of the charts and sold more than a million copies.

Rivals will be released on October 18 in the UK and internationally, and on Hulu in the United States.