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Rivals:

Season 2

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Rivals

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Summary

Jilly Cooper’s racy drama continues, with intensified rivalries, scandal and ambition driving chaos across Rutshire’s elite society. David Tennant, Alex Hassell and Aidan Turner star.

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Episode 1: Episode 1

Summary

Tony Baddingham is scarred, but alive, and more dangerous than ever. With a wounded Cameron on the run, heartbroken Taggie struggles with Rupert's absence, unaware of the risks he is taking. Declan O'Hara returns to the BBC, pitching a documentary on Yeats, but will his laser-focused career ambitions get in the way of his attempts to rekindle his marriage with Maud, who is now living and working in London?

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Released on

2026-01-01

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rolenameTony BaddinghamDavid TennantDeclan O'HaraAidan TurnerMonica BaddinghamClaire RushbrookRupert Campbell-BlackAlex HassellLizzie VerekerKatherine ParkinsonBasil BaddinghamLuke PasqualinoFreddie JonesDanny DyerMaud O'HaraVictoria Smurfit

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Review

Jack Seale

What a pleasant surprise this show was when it debuted in 2024. Those who knew Jilly Cooper’s bestselling books expected the TV version of her Rutshire Chronicles series to be shameless trash, and it sort of was – but as real aficionados of Dame Jilly might have predicted, the show had wit and heart to go with its tales of lust and power in the Cotswolds in 1986.

Now it’s 1987 and malign media mogul Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) – who, like all the men in Rivals, seems to have been lightly sprayed with weatherproof varnish – renews his enmity towards his emotionally inert rival, Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and the rising star of Rupert’s operation, the thrusting Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner).

A viciously contested polo tournament is just the start of a fresh round of backstabbing and philandering that’s full of cheeky laughs – but, away from the battlefield, and the bedrooms where illicit liaisons take place, there are various characters whose romantic feelings provide the fuel for just a dash of properly rewarding drama.

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7.7/10

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