{"id":668674,"date":"2026-07-01T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/668674\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:08:09","slug":"rivals-cast-used-fake-cigarettes-due-to-smoking-ban-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/668674\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivals cast used fake cigarettes due to smoking ban in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cast of the Disney+ hit show Rivals were confused when given fake cigarettes while filming in Wales due to a smoking ban in the work place, one of its stars has said. <\/p>\n

Oliver Chris, who plays self-centred TV presenter James Vereker in the show, said it was a pleasure to play someone who was “unremittingly horrible all the time”. <\/p>\n

The series, based on the second novel of Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles, features an all-star cast including Danny Dyer, David Tennant and Emily Atack.<\/p>\n

“I remember everyone being very confused when they were handing us these odd plastic numbers,” Chris said.<\/p>\n

While the series is based on the fictional Cotswolds countryside town of Rutshire, the cast filmed scenes in Wales for both series.<\/p>\n

Llanhennock House, a seven-bedroom country house in Monmouthshire, was used as a set in the first season while Foxfield, a \u00a38m mansion equipped with pond and tennis court, was home to Danny Dyer’s character Freddie in the second series<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Behnaz Akhgar on Radio Wales<\/a>, Chris recalled filming in Freddie’s house in Wales. <\/p>\n

“In Wales it’s illegal to smoke in the work place, and that includes TV sets. <\/p>\n

“So in Rivals where everyone is smoking all the time, we all had to have e-cigarettes when we filmed in the house. <\/p>\n

“If you go back to those episodes, everyone is smoking fake cigarettes and I don’t know if they digitally changed them afterwards. <\/p>\n

“But I remember everyone being very confused when they were handing us these odd plastic numbers,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cast of the Disney+ hit show Rivals were confused when given fake cigarettes while filming in Wales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-668674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}