"I based Declan on my dad"
Aidan Turner plays Declan O'Hara
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When you got the script for Rivals, did a little part of you want to play romantic rogue Rupert Campbell-Black, as opposed to Irish chat show host Declan O’Hara?
No, not one single bit. Alex [Hassell] does it better. It’s a best person for the role thing. There are very few Irish actors who can do Declan O’Hara as well as me, know what I’m saying? My eyes were always on the O’Hara prize.
How familiar were you with Jilly Cooper’s books before you were cast?
I remember dating an Irish girl who loved Jilly Cooper. She was in the atmosphere, but I hadn’t read the books until I started shooting. On the first day of filming, I got into the trailer and there was a copy of Rivals. We already had all the scripts, but we could use the book as a reference for tone. It was great to have it there.
Declan has quite a distinctive look. Where did you go for inspiration?
There’s something of my dad, who had a moustache all through the 1980s and 1990s. I lightly based a lot of Declan’s character on my dad — he sounds like him and has his physicality. Plus Declan is a dad, and I’m a father now, too. I felt I made a lot of connections.
Was there a TV interviewer or chat show host you studied beforehand?
Declan’s an amalgamation. There are some modern British presenters, but someone I went to a lot was the host of the American debate show Firing Line, William F Buckley. His show was political, smoky, quite serious, slow-paced and high-brow — all the things Declan would love.
You’ve been interviewed many times before. What did you discover about life on the other side of the microphone?
When you’re interviewing someone, there’s power because you can ask what you want, but it’s about building up the trust. If you just lambast people, you won’t get to a second season — people have to respect you. These things are important to Declan. Even the word “chat” irks him slightly.
Rivals is set firmly in the 1980s. What would you like to bring back from that decade?
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The lack of telecommunications and mobile phones. As we see in the show, it forces people into situations that could be easily solved with a phone call. The characters can’t contact someone on the other side of the county, they have to show up unannounced at their house. There’s a lawlessness, a looseness, an unpredictability.
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