We had to do mad stuff but I was at ease doing sex scenes with Aidan, says Rivals’ Victoria Smurfit as film hits screens

ACTRESS Victoria Smurfit’s latest steamy relation volition stun fans who cognize her arsenic barmaid Orla O’Connell successful BBC play Ballykissangel.

She is making her TV comeback arsenic sex-mad Maud successful Rivals, the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Eighties bonkbuster.

And she was astatine easiness doing raunchy scenes with Poldark hunk Aidan Turner due to the fact that they person been friends for years.

Victoria, 50, recalls: “I retrieve gathering him and thinking, ‘What a good-looking man,’ and past watching him and thinking, ‘What a talented young man’.

“We had to bash immoderate beauteous huffy worldly unneurotic and astatine nary constituent did either of america consciousness successful immoderate mode uncomfortable. It was conscionable like, bosh, let’s go!”

The crippled charts the conflict betwixt amusement jumper turned Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black — histrion Alex Hassell — and Lord Tony Baddingham, played by Dr Who prima David Tennant, implicit a TV accumulation company.

In the archetypal scene, viewers volition beryllium treated to the show of Campbell-Black’s bare buttocks thrusting betwixt the thighs of a pistillate wearing reddish stilettos successful a level toilet cubicle.

The aerial hostess pops a champagne cork and soap squirts retired of the dispenser arsenic they scope the heights of ecstasy.

The eight-part series, which begins connected Disney+ connected Friday, is simply a romp done the lives of posh, privileged toffs bonking and backstabbing their mode astir sprawling mansions successful the Cotswolds.

Its formed besides includes Sherwood prima Claire Rushbrook, erstwhile EastEnder Danny Dyer, Humans histrion Katherine Parkinson and ex-Inbetweeners histrion Emily Atack who joins bed-hopping Rupert for a crippled of bare tennis and giggles astir thing being “ten inches” implicit the line.

The show’s enforcement shaper has said determination was an “equal opportunities” attack to nudity with “a willy for each brace of t*ts”.

Talking astir her character, mum-of-three Victoria says: “She likes a small tipple and loves to flirt.

“She’d flirt with the partition if she thought the partition would go, ‘You’re a good-looking beast there, missus’.”

Victoria argues that anybody who criticises Cooper’s racy penning indispensable beryllium sex-starved.

She says: “Every enactment country Jilly writes is breathtaking and aspirational.

“Every azygous quality is conscionable successful request of love, and that volition travel done being needy oregon misbehaving oregon whipping your equine oregon being mean to your wife, oregon being disrespectful to your husband, oregon having enactment oregon not having sex.

“It’s each powerfulness tools to find love. So to minimise each that she’s written into ‘a bonkbuster’ means, buddy, you privation you were getting some.”

As the bid is acceptable successful the Eighties, determination volition beryllium plentifulness of champagne, large hairsbreadth and enarthrosis pads.

‘I was grateful for the elasticated waists’

Glam Victoria is starting to announcement signs of ageing — and was gladsome of the show’s forgiving Eighties manner erstwhile she was feeling beneath par.

She says: “On days erstwhile I mightiness person had excessively galore bacon sandwiches, I was grateful for the elasticated waists and large jumpers.

“My disguise erstwhile I spell retired into the nationalist arena is simply a glamorous look.

“I truly privation to beryllium divested of that image.

“I’m watching those storylines alternatively than focusing connected myself, due to the fact that past you conscionable go nit-picky astir my wrinkles oregon immoderate boring happening that’s highly irrelevant.”

Victoria comes from 1 of the wealthiest household dynasties successful Ireland — but insists she is not posh.

Her gramps Jefferson Smurfit founded a cardboard container institution successful Dublin successful 1934.

The packaging business, Smurfit Kappa, is present the largest successful Europe and worthy billions.

And conscionable similar different celebrated Victoria, she was driven astir successful a Rolls-Royce arsenic a kid — though dissimilar Mrs Beckham, she had to cleanable the car to gain her pouch money.

Recalling her privileged childhood, she says: “People would beryllium charming to me, overly charming, oregon overly sniffy.

“And, of course, it would beryllium due to the fact that of the surname.”

But astatine the tallness of The Troubles successful Ireland, her dada Dermot uprooted the household from their mansion successful Dublin to a £1.2million hunting lodge successful Surrey and Victoria was sent to an exclusive girls boarding schoolhouse astatine the property of 14, which she hated.

Victoria recalls: “Everybody determination was called Camilla and Lucinda and they each said, ‘Oh, my God! You’re Irish? Have you ever seen a bomb? Has your location ever been blown up?’

“Questions similar that, which were conscionable from not knowing immoderate amended and being 14 and surviving successful Surrey.”

Victoria’s parents feared for their children’s information aft the supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne was kidnapped for ransom by the IRA successful 1981.

She says: “Mum said to america naughty men had taken distant immoderate friends of dada and we had to beryllium careful.

“It was portion of our reality. It was a scary time.”

When she decided to determination into the showbiz world, Victoria ignored casting agents who advised her to alteration her antithetic surname and rapidly proved them wrong.

Following her breakout relation connected Ballykissangel alongside Colin Farrell, she got parts successful large movies including The Beach and About A Boy earlier making her sanction playing DCI Roisin Connor successful the TV adaptation of Lynda La Plante’s Trial & Retribution.

After moving to LA successful 2011 she starred successful the fearfulness bid Dracula connected Sky Living, earlier playing Cruella de Vil successful the US phantasy bid Once Upon A Time.

She besides appeared arsenic James Nesbitt’s person successful Cold Feet and teamed up with him again precocious successful gritty transgression play Bloodlands.

Victoria says: “I don’t privation recognition for thing my dada oregon uncle has done. That was their large success.

“I ever wanted to beryllium a moving histrion and I’ve managed to bash that.”

Victoria has 3 children — Evie, 20, Ridley, 17 and 15-year-old Flynn — with her erstwhile husband, movie shaper Doug Baxter. She struggled erstwhile they divided successful 2015 portion the household were surviving successful LA.

‘I would curl up connected bottommost measurement and enactment there’

Victoria says: “I mislaid a ton of weight, I couldn’t eat, I felt idiosyncratic had hands astir my pharynx truthful adjacent if I did enactment nutrient successful my mouth, there’s nary accidental of swallowing it.

“I didn’t consciousness bare for astir 9 months. That’s going into shock, I presume — but I took the kids to schoolhouse each jolly.

“The location that I was in, determination was a precise ample bottommost measurement astir 3 ft successful from the beforehand doorway and that’s arsenic acold arsenic I could get erstwhile I dropped the kids to school.

“I would prevarication down connected the bottommost measurement and curl up and enactment determination until I had to spell prime them up again.

“I’d conscionable prevarication determination and bedewed would conscionable determination retired of my eyes, down my cheeks and into the carpet.”

It took her astir a twelvemonth to consciousness mean again.

Then she relocated her household to London successful 2019 aft receiving a chilling substance informing determination could beryllium a gunman successful her kids’ schoolhouse — and they were hiding successful silence.

In 2021 she met millionaire banker Steve Jacobs and aft a whirlwind romance they joined past Christmas.

“Don’t archer him, but helium makes maine precise happy,” she says with a laugh.

But Victoria faced an agonising ordeal erstwhile girl Evie was diagnosed with macular dystrophy, a uncommon familial oculus disorder, and has since mislaid astir of her vision.

She says: “If determination is simply a occupation with your kid, you find a solution.

“But to beryllium successful a presumption wherever that is simply a overmuch harder happening to find, due to the fact that it hasn’t been created yet, it’s astonishing.”

Victoria has watched proudly arsenic Ridley has helped her elder sister.

She says: “I hadn’t realised conscionable however overmuch Ridley had to negociate for her, elemental things like, ‘No don’t transverse the roadworthy now’ oregon ‘I’ll archer you what’s connected the menu’ oregon ‘I’ll archer you what’s there, oregon spell that way, don’t spell this way’.”

There is simply a batch for Victoria to beryllium arrogant of — including her vocation — which acknowledgment to Jilly Cooper truly is riding connected a high.

• Rivals is connected Disney+ from Friday.