Rivals is a British period drama about the 80s high-stakes TV wars for a South West U.K. area television franchise between two arch-”rivals,” the nefarious, power-lusting Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), head of the fictitious Corinium Studios, and the Ex-Olympian showjumping playboy rake with a heart of gold turned MP, Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), who is allegedly based on an amalgamation of many real-life British figures, but notably, Michael Howard, the Earl of Suffolk and Andrew Parker Bowles, ex husband of the now Queen of England.
Into this combustible mix comes Poldark aka Aidan Turner (Keri Russell’s boy toy in the latest season of the The Diplomat) playing fiery and provocative Irish journalist Declan O’Hara, formerly making a pittance at the BBC before being lured away by Tony’s money, swagger, and promises of artistic liberty and agency, alongside his aging stage actress wife Maud (Victoria Smurfit) uprooting their family to live in a castle in the Cotswolds, and you have the makings of a madcap relationship-centered clashing-of the-cultures-and-classes drama where hotter heads will prevail.
And there will be explosive results.
Rivals in a snapshot?
Think 80s Dynasty-level soap opera hedonism, spiked with modern-day feel-good updates, of a Ted Lasso variety, with the competitive, cutthroat rigor of a Succession, though not taken to quite that degree. Throw in a problematic age gap romance for good measure that everyone can’t stop talking about (and rooting for).
Side Bar: Amazon Studios’ YA romance Off Campus hockey locker room antics and green-flag boyfriends + Rivals Cotswolds lust, power, and bare rumps make up at least 80% of my Instagram feed.
It wouldn’t be fitting to go on this Rivals romp without Claire Holden, a Substack friend and fellow Jane Austen and Bridgerton enthusiast who finally got me to hit “Watch” on my Hulu player when this show’s flashy advert came up yet again with its second-season launch.
It was via one of Claire’s notes, perhaps the one below even, that had my FOMO reaching altitudes I wasn’t willing to concede to. If you watch the first 5 minutes of the show, you will see the double entendre in this sentence.
After willfully ignoring Rivals’ first season for reasons unknown (Hulu wants me to watch. I will resist!), this past week I binged all ten episodes of its first season and awaiting weekly drops 🙁 of this show’s second season with bated breath. Too bad they’re splitting up the sophomore season’s 12 episodes because of the World Cup, but honestly, the shit sandwich tracks. This is England, after all. Where football reigns supreme. Even if some of us want our drama, scripted and spicy, and served chilled with the other kind of red flags.
So let’s dive into the analysis now…
Claire, what first turned you onto this show? And as a U.K. native, can you speak a bit to how “Rivals” author Jilly Cooper’s work is generally regarded in England and within the broader cultural zeitgeist?
I think what drew me to Rivals was the cast, to be completely honest. An adaptation of an ‘80s ‘bonkbuster’ wouldn’t naturally be something I’d eagerly anticipate, but the list of names involved started to indicate that this was pitching itself as prestige television.
I have to admit to not having read much of Jilly Cooper’s back catalogue, apart from the inevitable ‘sex education’ received at the hands of somebody’s mum’s copy of Riders doing the rounds at school (upon graduating from somebody’s older sister’s copy of Judy Blume’s Forever).
Cooper was an incredibly successful author, but there was undeniably an easy dismissal of her importance because of the genre her novels fell into. So it’s especially glorious that she lived to be part of this reclamation of her work.
Her warm, witty, and mischievous personality, along with her deep expertise in character creation, is beautifully captured and translated through both the writing and performances in the series. Laura Wade is an incredible writer (fan girl alert) and, along with Dominic Treadwell-Collins, has expertly woven a deep knowledge and respect of Cooper’s books into an adaptation reveling in the delight and the despair of considering the ‘80s through our modern lens.
Beth: As mentioned earlier, Claire was the one to convince me to watch. And I stay for… Taggie and Rupert - our star-crossed lovers. Taggie, the 20-year-old daughter of Declan and Maud, is the show’s emotional center and moral compass, perpetually tasked with putting these rakes in check, whether it’s Rupert or Tony’s half-brother Basil, who seems to be starting something up with her this season. Then again, Rupert is busy protecting Cameron from Tony, but really finding reasons to bed her.
Taggie is underestimated by both her parents, but especially her mother (they are polar opposites in the best ways), and she’s often written off as a silly girl, when in reality she has more layers and nuance than almost anyone else in the ensemble, with the possible exception of Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), the compassionate and kind, romance writer and long suffering wife of TV personality, James.
Top storyline for me (no surprises here) is the Taggie and Rupert romance, which many have understandably filed under the “problematic age-gap” category, given she’s 20 on the show and he’s in his late 30s. Life-experience-wise, they’re drastically different, and yet they fit together. She brings out his integrity and deepens his capacity for care, while he empowers her to speak up for what she believes in and be her best self.
And their chemistry speaks for itself in every tension-filled stare and thinly veiled moment of want they share — whether out in the sparse fields tending to the animals or across a crowded room full of loud personalities, where they somehow block everyone else out and exist entirely within their own orbit. See below.
Claire: Favorite Storylines?
Lizzie and Freddie: They quickly became the beating heart of the show in season one and the layers of their romance are perhaps even more compelling this time round. While most others around them consistently give in to their impulses without a thought, Lizzie and Freddie are giving us yearning. They want to be together, they are made for each other and deserve better than the unhappy marriages they’re stuck in, but their thoughtfulness and compassion and caring about not hurting others (again utterly refreshing in this show) is what attracts them to each other as well.
Charles & Gerald: I’m so glad Charles and Gerald are being given room to grow as a storyline in season two. The tenderness between them is just gorgeous (particularly in a heartbreaking moment in the most recent episode), and like Lizzie and Freddie they are a couple whose stakes are very high. They are both hiding or diluting their sexuality in different ways to make themselves more acceptable in society.
Forbidden love plays out sweetly between Charles and Gerald Uneven Power Dynamics: Fighting for equality within a relationship is a recurring theme across the show, and goodness only knows where that fight is going to take Declan and Maud this season (ducks as plates and Irish-accented expletives fly across the room), but I’m actually most interested in watching that play out in the Strattons’ car-crash marriage. Sarah Stratton is constantly trying to build success on shifting sand. That woman hustles HARD. Actress Emily Atack (her enormous hair) and Rufus Jones, who plays her husband on the show, work so well together.
How would you describe the show to a friend?
Claire: Rivals is a work of surprising genius. So many people, myself included, were not expecting Rivals to be such a rich delight. Yes it’s silly and sex-mad (probably best to broach this up front, depending on the friend!), but it’s also smart, nostalgic, funny, romantic, dramatic and brimming with fascinating characters.
It’s expertly well-crafted froth, which is so rarely achieved and therefore supremely satisfying to watch.
Where do you hope the show goes?
Beth: This season is missing some of the yearning I felt in the Taggie and Rupert romance in season one, especially as they’ve been estranged for the first four episodes and barely interacting. To your point about Sarah Stratton, Claire, she’s barely had any onscreen time in season two! I need more of these people.
I need less of the Maud + Tony flirtation. It’s too repulsive even for me. If every spouse starts sleeping with each other’s partners, I think it’s going to get too silly for me. I can’t do Declan + Cameron either. It’s too convenient to have former partners hooking up. What is this, Shania Twain’s life?
Claire: Honestly, just more of the same please. The writing is of such high quality, I trust them implicitly. It’s refreshing to see a large and exceedingly talented cast utilized so well, and great that the more peripheral characters from season one are now enjoying more time in the sun.
I think I need to witness comeuppances for Tony (eaten alive by peacocks?) and loathsome James (eaten alive by Deidre?), and I’d obviously love HEAs for Lizzie and Freddie and Charles and Gerry.
With such a broad set of characters and the next generation (of horny offspring) chomping at the bit, this show could run and run.
HELLO HULU: Spin-offs We NEED NOW
Beth: The Young Monica Diaries: Lord Tony Baddingham’s wife Monica (played by Claire Rushbrook) is quietly becoming the most compelling side character on this show, and arguably the one with the richest untapped backstory. She perhaps even warrants her own Lizzie-style midlife love affair of the heart. Paging Dame Enid Spink…
Unlike Tony, who clawed his way up from grammar school and still fundamentally lacks class, Monica is the one who brought money, pedigree, and social legitimacy into the marriage. She grew up in the same world as Rupert and Muffy’s mother, and every so often the series teases flashes of who she once was: gutsy, intellectually alive, even daring — a young woman who once played Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and clearly possessed a dramatic, spirited streak beneath the polished exterior.
What makes Monica fascinating is the tension between that younger self and the woman she’s become. As the kids say, it’s her LORE! You just know she has a treasure trove of stories you want to hear about that have led her to become who she is now. She’s the epitome of stoicism and shrewdness, someone who understands power intimately and survives by mastering emotional restraint. Yet those glimpses of her past suggest a woman who may once have wanted more than survival: romance, artistic passion, freedom, maybe even joy. Yes, give us this version of Monica. We will take all of them.
On May 16th, I moderated an historical romance authors’ panel at the Ashland Library (co-sponsored by ReadMyLipsBoston) with celebrated authors Loretta Chase, Eloisa James, Caroline Linden, and Gabe Cole Novoa (he/him)
Sound Off:
Are you watching Rivals?
What ARE you watching?
Half Man - It’s brutal. I can’t watch Richard Gadd’s character, Ruben, literally beat someone to a pulp one more time. It’s happened more than once. Episode 5 nearly ended me. But there’s only one episode left. I think I can handle it…
Read more about WHY I'm watching at all
Brought to you by Widow’s Bay, episode 3. This show proves to all of us a few things:
Next to Rivals, it’s the best show on TV
Stephen Root has improved with age, even if his Office Space role was the most memorable character to emerge from that film. He always steals the show.
Widow’s Bay is written and directed by a woman - Who else would make a “sea hag” villain who kills her male victims by sitting on their faces. 🙌
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