How ‘Rivals’ Helped David Tennant Fall for Romance

The second season of Disney+ drama Rivals features a shocking episode six cliffhanger that alters the course of the show, based on Jilly Cooper's novel. The mid-season finale involved the exposure of an affair between Tony Baddingham, played by David Tennant, and Maud O'Hara, played by Victoria Smurfit. Maud is the wife of Tony's nemesis Declan O'Hara, played by Aidan Turner. Meanwhile, Maud and Declan's teenage daughter Caitlin, played by Catrionate Chandler, loses her virginity to Tony's teenage son Archie, played by Louis Landau. Cameron Cook, played by Nafessa Williams, realizes her lover Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell, is in love with the eldest O'Hara daughter Taggie, played by Bella Mclean. Lizzie Vereker, played by Katherine Parkinson, also resumes her affair with tech millionaire Freddie Jones, played by Danny Dyer. All of these dramatic developments unfold against the backdrop of a major storm.

According to The Conversation, the storm acts as both a metaphor and an agent, ultimately killing Tony's beleaguered wife Monica, played by Claire Rushbrook. Early in the episode, Caitlin and Archie discover a naked photo of Maud with Tony's voyeuristic reflection in a mirror. Monica sees the photo, burns it, confronts Tony, and walks out into the storm. Her journey brings her to Lizzie's doorstep, where the two women share tea and brandy. The show deviates from Cooper's novel, in which Monica eventually divorces Tony and lives happily in an open relationship with Dame Enid Spink. In the TV adaptation, Monica dies when her car is crushed by a falling tree during the tempest.

The Telegraph reports that as the second series resumes with episodes seven through nine, characters discover their spouses are cheating with neighbors. Even Monica's funeral in episode seven features an aphrodisiac quality as mourners sneak away from the wake. The funeral introduces a new character, Monica's glamorous sister, played by Rachael Stirling. Baddingham becomes increasingly embittered in his widowhood, while a heartbreaking relationship unfolds between two secretly gay characters under the looming spectre of the Aids crisis. Additional characters include vain TV anchor James Vereker and pompous politician Paul Stratton, played by Oliver Chris and Rufus Jones, alongside a fun appearance by Felicity Kendal as Lizzie's literary agent who boasts about taking a Greek lover. The series also involves a spy story concerning commercial leaks from Declan's television production company, Venturer, to Corinium, Baddingham's larger franchise.