What a romp this is. Any notion of second season nerves for the surprise Disney+ hit Rivals (Jilly Cooper was hardly hot property) are quickly dispelled in a gleeful continuation of the bonking, big hair and hilarity where there’s a belly laugh every 30 seconds. It picks up straight from the end of last season, when boss of Corinium Television, Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), was struck around the head with an award by his former mistress Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams), and left to bleed to death on the floor of his office. Did he succumb? Far from it. Baddingham survives to plot his revenge, Tennant never better as his character warps into out-and-out cigar-chomping villain.
Meanwhile his rivals at the new TV company Venturer — led by the fragile alliance of Olympian showjumper turned Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Irish TV presenter Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner) — are riding high (and often; on stairs, in the shower, etc etc) after their apparent triumph, celebrating with a willies-out pool party at the house of Freddie Jones (Danny Dyer).
Tony works his dark magic to lure Cameron away from the protection of Rupert, and back by his side in the Corinium fold, only to have the tables turned on him again in order to reset the playing field. Taggie (Bella Maclean) is still crushed out over Rupert, Freddie is still crushed out over Katherine Parkinson’s Lizzie, while her morning TV presenter husband James (a brilliantly repellent Oliver Chris) is trying to shag anyone other than his wife. And on we go… the key to the series being performances which fully commit to the absurdity and excess of these characters, while still making them loveable.
Emily Atack is given more to do this time around as Sarah Stratton, the TV anchor married to another Tory MP, Paul Stratton. In one brilliantly handled scene, with Taggie’s help, she pretends to cook for a dinner party intended to woo Tony and ends up trying to host while guiding unwanted guests in and out of pantries and closets, and dealing with the news that she’s pregnant. Atack is masterful here, sympathetic and hilarious in a Fawlty Towers-level farce.
Also joining the fun are Hayley Atwell as Rupert’s ex-wife Helen, and Rupert Everett as her new husband Malise. They both have a ball playing important roles when the good times end for Rupert as the full extent of his sexual proclivities are shared with the world, courtesy of Tony.
The 1980s are still the naffest decade in history but our current time is so repugnant that this very naffness feels quaint, even sweet; the politically incorrect prejudice is depicted as a product of ignorance rather than cruelty. In this way Rivals has a somewhat soft satirical edge regarding the realities of Thatcher’s Britain. The upper classes are ultimately loveable buffoons, with Rupert too much of a good guy to convince as the purported Tory bastard.
And yet, the series also has a marvellously subtle trick of showing individuals who are marginalised from the conversation; the damage caused, but also how you have to adapt. This is a man’s world, but one where women use their sexuality to hold the reins and spank the buttocks.
