Rivals’ Emily Atack talks filming full frontal scenes for Disney’s racy new drama

Emily Atack has opened up about filming new TV drama Rivals. The actress stars in the eight-part Disney Plus series alongside the likes of Alex Hassell and David Tennant.

Adapted from Jilly Cooper's novel bearing the same title, Rivals plunges into the cut-throat world of independent television during the late 1980s. The narrative of both the book and series centres around the competition between ex-Olympic rider and Conservative MP Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Alex Hassell) and TV station controller Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant).

Emily, 34, takes on the role of Sarah Stratton, who uses her position as the wife of the Prime Minister's deputy, played by Rufus Jones, to bag a role as a TV presenter. When Sarah is first seen on-screen, she is playing tennis naked with Rupert.

Emily has spoken about filming the racy scene, which features in the novel, admitting she was concerned when she first read the script because she can't play tennis. She said the nudity scenes were "integral" to the storylines and there was good reason for them.

During an interview with Digital Spy, she said: "We keep saying that the nudity and the sex scenes are a huge part of this, but there's always a reason for them. We're not just getting our kit off for no reason. They're very integral to the storylines and characters."

She and co-star Alex instantly hit it off upon meeting, with Emily saying she felt "completely comfortable" with him. She also praised the rest of the Rivals team and the intimacy coordinators, describing the experience as "liberating" and "safe".

Speaking about filming the racy scene, she said: "We all knew each other really well by then. I think anybody that had nudity scenes and sex scenes, we all just really supported each other, so we loved talking about it. It was liberating and it was very safe."

Other stars appearing in Rivals include Aidan Turner, known for Poldark and Being Human, who will play Declan O'Hara, a presenter for Corinium TV. EastEnders ' Danny Dyer also features as the endearing self-made electronics millionaire Freddie Jones.

Some of the other big names include W1A's Rufus Jones, Our Girl's Luke Pasqualino and Sex Education's Bella Maclean, to mention a few.

Rivals is set to make its grand entrance on Friday, October 18, on Disney+. The show will comprise eight episodes, all available for binge-watching on the day of its initial release.

Rivals premieres on Friday, October 18, on Disney+.