Alex Hassell is a serious, classically trained actor. He has played Henry V to great acclaim at the RSC, but you might know him better for his bottom. Hassell is starring as the lothario Rupert Campbell-Black in Rivals, a series described proudly by one of its writers as equal opportunities objectification.
“There is,” Dominic Treadwell-Collins has said, “a willy for every pair of tits.” To the delight of everyone, and possibly even the man himself, Hassell is objectified right from the start, where he joins the mile-high club on Concorde. Today, he bounds into a café near his home in north London, smiling broadly, hand outstretched, a bit nervous, but happy to discuss the serious issues thrown up by adapting Jilly Cooper’s novel