Rivals has officially returned with a three-episode season premiere. It is chock-full of dramatic twists, like Tony airing out Rupert’s past on live television, and romantic drama, like Freddie and Lizzie struggling to stay apart, even when they know it’s the right thing to do. It brings in new characters like Malise Gordon, Rupert’s former mentor, alongside the return of Helen Gordon, Rupert’s ex-wife. However, in Season 2, she is played by Hayley Atwell. There’s also a feat of a sequence in Sarah Stratton’s kitchen that will leave your mind whirling in the most delightful way. So, ahead of the new season, I interviewed Rivals executive producers Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alexander about all of that and more.
Of course, getting to return for a second season really opens Rivals up to all of these new opportunities. “We were desperate to come back. We had such a good time Season 1,” Treadwell-Collins shared. “It’s lovely being in Jilly World, all the crew and all the cast wanted to come back. We all get on really well. We all work really hard. And we love creating the show,” he added.
“Jilly World” is an affectionate name for this rich on-screen world that comes from the late Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles books. I’ve noticed more and more copies of Rivals and Polo, the third book in the series, popping up in bookstores around me since the show’s debut on Disney+ and Hulu in 2024.
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“The international fever that Season 1 caused was so exciting. We really set out to make people’s favorite show. And we felt we’d done that. So then, to come into Season 2, we had more of a swagger, more of a confidence. Everyone knew the show we were making, and we knew the audience were with us,” Treadwell-Collins explained.
Alexander Lamb spoke about how they “could hear the voices” of the characters more clearly, heading into the second season, and Treadwell-Collins enthusiastically agreed. “Because you know, we were making series one when the show wasn’t cast. You know, but now it was cast, we could feel it, we could feel the locations. It was just fun to go back and play in that world that we’d all built,” Lamb continued. That familiarity and excitement are palpable in the show’s confident return. Treadwell-Collins says that Rivals is “a lovely world to be in,” and that sentiment is felt in every frame of every episode.
“You know, we’re a world that’s silly and naughty and fun. And this season has been about getting going deeper and richer and finishing the book, but also going back a little bit into Jilly’s first book, Riders, and going on to Polo a little bit as well. So layering all of our stories,” Treadwell-Collins shared. For example, Sebbie and Dommie Carlisle – the polo-playing twins in the season premiere – jump onto the scene in Cooper’s Polo.
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The mention of Cooper’s other books also made me wonder about my own theory about who Holly Cattle may be playing. Her character is only in a few episodes of the first season, and neither Treadwell-Collins nor Lamb would give me much more. All Treadwell-Collins did was zip his lips with a smile.
The executive producers were more willing to talk about why they brought in other characters, like Helen and Malise. Lamb said “one of the things” that the second season is about is “consequences.” He added, “Lots of things have happened in series one that now people have to, their chickens are coming home to roost. They need to deal with it. So it was really important for us to meet Helen and the children and Malise.” Lamb pointed out that all of those characters are “mentioned a little bit” in Cooper’s Rivals.
Lamb said that the second season wanted to “really go deeper so we could understand Rupert more and see him more 360, as he’s changing from the man that he was at the start of Rivals through to the end.” It was also important, per Treadwell-Collins, that Rupert “be reminded about, actually, what he did to Helen. And him to think, I don’t want to do that to Taggie. ‘I love Taggie so much.’” Treadwell-Collins spoke about Taggie teaching Rupert how “to be a better man” in Season 1, “and, actually, as a consequence of that, he looks after Cameron and rejects Taggie, which is our own fault.”
Treadwell-Collins smiled as he said, “If only she hadn’t made him such a good man, taught him some morals.” Because that’s it, isn’t it? Part of the enjoyment of Rivals is seeing these characters grow and change for and because of love.
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It’s a big journey, and Rivals is only at the start of that this season. There are certainly more twists and turns and heartbreak and happiness awaiting us. That last one feels particularly relevant. On Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast, Jilly Cooper said, “I like making people happy,” in response to a question about her work. In honor of her, I wanted to know what Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alexander Lamb hope that people take away from Rivals Season 2. Their answers did not disappoint.
For Lamb, it’s all about “big emotion.” It’s about “big emotion and joy and happiness, but also sadness. You know, we are going richer and deeper with our characters, but we want everyone to be hit here in the heart. But also, we want tears.” Treadwell-Collins took the baton to add that they “want to make a show that stays with people, and, like life, that’s happy and sad at the same time.”
Treadwell-Collins shared that “we ran everything past Jilly, and Jilly’s fingerprints are all over this show. And we want to make her proud. We want the show to be even bigger than the last series.” I’d say Rivals is off to a good start with those jaw-dropping first three episodes. Treadwell-Collins and Lamb lit up when I complimented them on that incredible sequence in the second season. It took a smaller sequence from Cooper’s book and expanded it for the screen.
“And we hopefully do that all the way through,” Treadwell-Collins said. “We keep taking bits of the book and throwing them up in the air and playing with them. We love the book. We love Jilly, we love her world, and we really want to make sure we do her justice.”
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