Rivals series two more than lives up to its opening run, according to critics – with a string of five-star reviews heralding its return to screens on Friday.
Based on Dame Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel, the comedy-drama debuted on Disney+ in October 2024 and immediately became a huge hit. The eight-episode first series ended in December 2024 and was soon renewed for a second outing.
And the all-star cast of David Tennant, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer, to name just a few, is back for more raucous exploits in Rutshire.
Critics previewing the first four episodes have almost unanimously praised the second outing.
Sarah Dempster for The Guardian gives the show five stars but muses ‘how best to reward such exquisitely knowing escapism? Ten stars? Ten thousand stars? Rivals is beyond earthly praise’.
The Telegraph’s Benji Wilson agrees with another five-star write-up, as he declares that ‘Rivals continues to refresh the parts that other television cannot reach – a heady mix of guilty pleasure, trenchant satire, rambunctious comedy and out-and-out trash’.
Rivals series two more than lives up to its opening run according to critics heralding its return
Carol Midgley for The Times says ‘despite its deliberate corniness, this is also gloriously uplifting television. It is unashamedly celebratory and perhaps even better than the last series’.
Den Of Geek’s Lacy Baugher praises the show’s ‘sprawling cast’ who ‘remain thoroughly excellent throughout’.
Baugher singles out Emily Atack ‘who steals much of this run of episodes, and makes her Sarah feel indispensable to the larger world of Rutshire in ways few of us likely expected’.
Rebecca Nicholson for the Financial Times is one of the few to not award five stars, giving the second series three instead.
‘Some of the storylines, particularly those about the TV industry, drag a little,’ she writes. ‘Rivals needs more slapstick, more of those capers, to keep things as light as they need to be for it to really work… Rivals is at its strongest when it embraces its silly side, and accepts its lot as a jolly old romp.’
Nick Hilton for The Independent knocks one star off but says there is plenty to rave about, particularly in the acting. ‘There is a sense, across the cast, that everyone is enjoying themselves immensely, whether they’re romping on a pony or romping on a staircase,’ he writes.
‘That’s what makes Rivals such a rare treat in today’s television landscape. It is well-written and well-acted, but it aspires to nothing more than being fun. Real, associable human emotions are kept at arm’s length in favour of stylised bucolic horniness.’
Based on Dame Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel, the comedy-drama debuted on Disney+ in October 2024 and immediately became a huge hit
With the new series tipped to be the raciest yet, Rivals star Alex Hassell has recalled the ‘physically unsexy’ and ‘deeply uncomfortable’ sex scenes in a new interview.
Alex Hassell, who plays Rupert Campbell-Black, told The Times: ‘You’re covered up where you need to be and there’s padding between you.
‘But it’s a deeply unsexy environment and quite physically uncomfortable because I’m all oiled up and trying to hold Nafessa in place.’
It comes after other cast members addressed what’s in store for viewers.
Danny Dyer, playing electronics businessman Freddie Jones, who is having an affair with romance author Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), explained: ‘We’re delving into the complications of two people who are madly in love but married with children to other people.
The all-star cast of David Tennant, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer returns for more fun in Rutshire
‘There are a lot of people rooting for infidelity, which is quite rare.’
Aidan Turner stars as TV journalist Declan O’Hara, who has faced a struggle balancing work demands with former actress wife Maud (Victoria Smurfit).
He described a steamy shower sex scene between the couple as ‘fun’ to film, telling the Daily Mirror: ‘Victoria and I are very comfortable with each other.
‘We’ve worked together quite intimately since the first series and we just clicked straight away – it might be the Irish thing.’
Rivals returns on May 15 on Disney+.
