The production team behind new TV drama series Rivals, which starts streaming this evening after being shot in Bristol last year, have praised the city as the perfect filming location.
The highly anticipated and “unabashedly risqué” – according to the Daily Mail – dramatised adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s celebrated novel was the first to film at The Bottle Yard Studios’ premium TBY2 facility, which opened in 2022. 
In addition to studio filming, a number of locations around Bristol and the wider West of England region were used, with close support from Bristol Film Office.
The eight-part 1980s-set Disney+ series, starring David Tennant, Danny Dyer, Aidan Turner and Emily Atack, pictured, has already garnered huge attention for its raunchy scenes and widespread critical praise, with The Guardian describing it as “packed with sex, excess and fabulous awfulness”.
Producer Eliza Mellor said: “Bristol and The Bottle Yard Studios were the perfect production base for Rivals, which is set in the glorious countryside of the Cotswolds.
“We were very excited to be the first production to use the two main stages of TBY2 and they certainly lived up to our expectations,” she added. 
“We were able to build the TV studio, complete with a 1980s control room, on one of the stages and used the second stage for other Corinium TV interiors, the Priory kitchen and sitting room and many other small sets that were needed across the series.
“We also had our production and art department offices on site at The Bottle Yard and the staff were on hand to help with all our requirements.
“We were able to find all the locations within a 30-mile radius. And one of the big attractions of filming in the Bristol area is that there are so many local crew of a very high calibre to choose from.”
ITV Studios head of production Gary Matsell added: “Shoots like this rely on the skilled crew base that is local to the region. Bristol has lots of very experienced and talented crew and it was a pleasure to work there.
“The core crew was approx. 120, but there were lots of dailies, suppliers, second unit crew etc, who would come and go. Probably 90% were local to the West of England. We had trainees in every department, most of whom were also local.
“Overall, Bristol worked well for Rivals because of the variety of locations and facilities we required. Access to the studio as well as more urban locations, but easy access to the Cotswolds and other areas around Bristol, was key to creating the fictional Rutshire of Rivals.”
Bristol Film Office facilitated a range of city locations, including near St Nicholas Markets on Corn Street, where exterior scenes were filmed with guests arriving for a lavish TV awards full of 80’s glamour, posing for paparazzi on the red carpet.
Elsewhere, Bristol’s streets doubled for 1980’s London; red double deckers were a common sight and in Queen Square, cast members were filmed driving Sinclair C5s – the one-person electric tricycles from the era.
Filming also took place on board the iconic Concorde at the Aerospace Bristol museum in Filton, reflecting with the jet-setting period in which Rivals is set. A similar supersonic passenger jet features in the opening sequences of episode.
Bristol City Council head of film Laura Aviles said Rivals had been “an incredibly significant scripted title” for the regional film industry.
“It’s a truly West Country production both on the page and behind the scenes,” she added.
“With such a stellar cast, it was the ideal first booking for The Bottle Yard’s premium TBY2 facility. Thanks to the work of Bristol Film Office supporting city locations, plus the exceptional private locations the wider region has to offer and our highly skilled local crew base, the show’s producers found everything they needed right here.”
To coincide with its screening, Visit Bristol, the city’s destination marketing organisation, is already promoting eight ways to have an ‘80s Rivals inspired weekend in the city.
Rivals is executive produced by Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alexander Lamb, Felicity Blunt, Laura Wade, Jilly Cooper and Director of Scripted Content for Disney+ EMEA Lee Mason.
It is produced by Happy Prince, which is part of ITV Studios, and the series is written by Treadwell-Collins with Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade. Lead director is BAFTA-nominated Elliot Hegarty, who also serves as executive producer on episodes 1-4. Eliza Mellor serves as series producer.
