When we return to the copulating county that is Rutshire, it is as if no time has passed. It is still high summer. The Cotswolds community remains a hive of bed-hopping, and that TV franchise battle rages on. Rivals arrives for its second outing with the swagger of a show that knows it has already won us over. Its 2024 debut was a hedonistic phenomenon, bringing eighties nostalgia, strange prawn canapes, and oodles of taffeta, plus endless bonking. How good it feels to be back.
Mercifully, little has changed. Minutes into the first episode, we are poolside at a party, with a gratuitous zoom on a pair of quivering budgie smugglers. If that does not sound naughty enough, moments later, a set of identical twins forego their bathers to dive in the buff. There is a long, lingering shot, lest we miss any of it. There are many more marmalade-dropper sex scenes to follow, including one very Cooper-esque one in front of rapt dogs. The most quintessentially Rivals entry unfolds between Maud (Victoria Smurfit) and Declan (Aidan Turner) under the pelting jets of a showerhead. I cackled. You will too.
These 12 episodes, only three of which I was privy to for review, comprise the second half of Jilly Cooper's Rivals novel, part of the legendarily filthy Rutshire Chronicles. If this season is as much of a smash as the first, there is no doubt the next books in the sequence will be drawn upon too. The plot is sort of incidental, but Corinium and Venturer are still embattled over the regional TV franchise. It is mostly a MacGuffin to tee up the arch rivalry between Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and the miraculously still living Tony Baddingham (David Tennant). The episodes cohere around a big Rutshire event; in the first, there is polo, the second a dinner party (by far and away the capstone), and the third an election, which is timely.
We return to the thick of that three-pronged romantic entanglement between Rupert, Taggie (Bella Maclean), and Cameron (Nafessa Williams). It has been shrouded in Disney-decreed confidentiality, so you will have to wait until Friday to see who he has picked. There is solemnity to go with the fluffy frolics of Rutshire. Emily Atack delivers a poignant performance as Sarah Stratton, pushed into a misogynistic corner by an unexpected pregnancy. The horror rapist Reverend returns as a reminder of one of the most tonally strange moments from the first series. Plus, Rupert is volleying from one personal blight to the next. Whether such storylines carry too much emotional weight for Rivals' flimsy footing will be decided by how they are resolved later in the season.
The superb cast, most of it homegrown, seems delighted to be back. In a stack with names like Tennant and Turner, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer's turns as Lizzie and Freddy remain the highlight, with thus far not enough screentime for my liking. Oliver Chris's James Vereker takes the cake for comedic value. The newbies are mighty: Hayley Atwell and Rupert Everett play Rupert's ex-wife and his former trainer, her new lover. These additions are coupled with some intriguing character reconfigurations, so things do not go stale. Lord and Lady Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook) go toe-to-toe and forge a scheming partnership, which is far more thrilling for Rushbrook than her character being forever stranded solo on the manor sofa.
The House of Mouse coin has been well spent. Rivals looks and feels fabulously retro. The soundtrack touts the earworms of Sade, David Bowie, and Shocking Blue. The wardrobe, buffeted hair, and certain set designs look purposefully tacky. Rivals has somehow bucked the TV trend in recent years towards fewer sex scenes and 'eat the rich' antics. These toffs cannot get enough of each other. Nor us them.
Verdict: Three episodes out of twelve is not much to go on, but so far, it is as high camp and fun as the first go around. Rivals returns for season 2 on Disney Plus on May 15.
