A young Jersey actress has landed a role in Disney+’s latest series of Rivals, the comedy-drama based on Dame Jilly Cooper’s bestselling novel.
Amelie Child-Villiers, 17, plays Beatrice Baddingham, the on-screen sibling of David Tennant’s real life daughter, Olive in the 1980s drama set in the Cotswolds.
Child-Villiers auditioned for the role in March 2025 through a self-made tape and got a call back to audition in person.
When she was told she had got the part, she said she “screamed and jumped in the kitchen” with her mum.
“I was so nervous, I got my dad to read me the lines for two hours straight,” she said about the audition.
Child-Villiers’ role is “bratty, snarky and different from her on-screen kind and sweet sister”, she said.
She has already appeared in Apple TV’s The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
“I was doing drama clubs and an agent came along, picked a couple people out and put them up for roles,” she said.
Child-Villiers is inspired by the likes of British actress Florence Pugh to “bring a lot of range, and do both comedy and emotional”.
The new series of Rivals is set to be released later this year.
