Even the opening scene, which depicts a noisy, theatrical bonk in the toilet of a speeding Concorde, is executed with such startling conviction that you'd be almost - almost - tempted to applaud at the climax.
If we can be serious for a moment, Rivals is trash, but it's enjoyable trash, the kind that looks as if it was designed with one thing in mind, and that is to get viewers talking. Excite them first, tell a story later.
Everyone here is in on the joke, and everyone is decent in it. In Rivals land, the sun is always shining, the soundtrack keeps on giving (ZZ Top and Wham! follow Palmer) and our own Aidan Turner, a fine actor who knows a thing or two about what happens when his shirt falls off on television, looks to be enjoying himself.
Champagne popped, Alex Hassell's Rupert Campbell-Black finally emerges from the loo with a cheeky grin on his face. "Did we break the sound barrier?" he asks the flight attendant.
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