Rivals boss addresses adaptational changes with show’s gay love story: "I have a humanity agenda"
"What was really important to us was alongside the heterosexual love stories, telling a big, swooping gay love story.”
Rivals executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins has opened up on why the series’ divergence from the original novel and addition of a gay love story is “really important”.
The first season of the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1998 novel Rivals, which was released in autumn 2024, introduced a secret romance between Charles Fairburn (played by Gary Lamont) and Gerald Middleton (played by Hubert Burton) that isn’t present in the book.
Speaking with Gareth McLean for Radio Times ahead of the release of season 2 later this month, Treadwell-Collins said of the storyline: "In the book, Charles and Gerald are both gay characters, but they never actually cross. What was really important to us was alongside the heterosexual love stories, telling a big, swooping gay love story.”
Charles and Gerald's storyline in Rivals is set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, as well as Thatcher’s Section 28 policy, which banned schools from teaching children about homosexuality.
But when asked if this is an example of what some quarters will argue is 'pushing a gay agenda', the response is clear. “I have a humanity agenda,” Treadwell-Collins said. “It’s about making everyone stop thinking about themselves and instead empathise with other people.”
He added that Cooper herself was absolutely fine with all the changes. “We never did anything that Jilly didn’t approve of and if there was something she didn’t like, we changed it."
He continued: “She signed off every single script and she was watching rushes up until the week before she died [in October 2025]. So we’ve got her sign-off and her voice is all the way through it all.”
Read the full interview from Gareth McLean in this week’s Radio Times magazine out on 12 May 2026 – subscribe here.
Rivals is available to stream on Disney+. Season 2 premieres on Friday 15 May 2026. Sign-up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month.
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Authors
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
