SPOILERS Rivals Season 2 🥳

[Blossombunnyy]

On Disney in May 15th 2026

Who's excited?

I can't wait the trailer looks so good.

The first time we met Dame Enid I thought that voice sounds familiar.. like Victor Meldrew’s wife. Lo and behold the actress is Annette Crosby’s daughter.

I'm also waiting for Lizzie's slimy, selfish husband James Vereker to get his comeuppance - surely someone will give him a slap soon?

Fred Fred and Shelly are my favourite characters.

Who's Shelly, @Blossombunnyy ?
I've only read the books so far but I don't remember Shelly from them.

On a different subject, Declan and Cameron definitely slept together on location in the book "Rivals", but I don't know if that was made explicit in the series.

Shelly is actually Tracey Makepiece from the books, her and her brother’s characters have been adjusted somewhat and Shelly has a bigger role in the story it seems.

I think the scriptwriters have tried to portray the women characters more sympathetically as Helen and Valerie were both vastly different in the books than in the series. Plus Cameron got a pasting in the books and did not fight back the way she does against Tony in the show

Ahh!
Thanks very much, @ohyesido 💐
That's very interesting 🤔

Cameron admits to Patrick she slept with Declan at the end of the book IIRC

Yes. Patrick tells her he realised that Declan was late for The Merry Widow (assume all that happens in the series?) because of his guilt at sleeping with Cameron and she agrees.

Yes, I had forgotten that. I just remember it being left ambiguous at the time whether they had or not.

In the book, wasn't it Patrick that remembered Taggie's birthday? But I am really liking all the expanded roles, like the Makepieces!

I was delighted when Perdita was finally introduced. That suggests Polo is coming in the future

Polo is a parallel story to Rivals, the story sort of happens at the same time. For example, when Polo starts Rupert is still seeing Beatie Johnson, and as we know he has dumped her quite early on in Rivals. From memory, when they go to pick up RFL from prison, Beatie is in the car with Rupert (Polo). I think Polo starts after Riders, but ends a couple of years after Rivals, so that's must be why we are seeing Polo coming into it more now.

For example, when Polo starts Rupert is still seeing Beatie Johnson, and as we know he has dumped her quite early on in Rivals.

Exactly. And Rupert and Taggie's wedding happens in Polo.

Perhaps it will be amalgamated into the same story then. Surely we can expect the truth about the relationship between Perdita and Rupert to play out

I thought they did a great job of picking someone who looked like the actor playing Rupert even though neither of them look anything like the book!

I haven't even seen Poldark but I knew it was a Poldark reference when he was on the horse 😂Great episode, love Dame Enid & Monica

Also Fred & Lizzie 💔

She really does look like Rupert, doesn’t she? It’s quite uncanny, and brilliant casting.

Perdita reminds me of Effy from Skins

That scene with Declan and Cameron by the fire was perfection. Pretty much verbatim from the book and Cameron even stands up and puts her thumbs into her belt to accentuate her tiny waist. Definite fan service to the readers. Loving this series but ep 5 has been incredible.

Regarding the books being ‘of their time’ my DM (no prude) read and disapproved of them, claiming they were sexist and that the male characters’ behaviours towards women were condoned/presented as romantic and the women characters poor. I think she thought Jilly C put up with too much shit from her DH.

I read a little bit as a teen but was put off by the countryside setting!

enjoying the series and now plan to read at least one of **them!

What happens at the beginning of 'Polo'?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Could Be Plot Spoiler >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Unlikely as they won't do this storyline though

.................................................................................................................

Ricky France Lynch and Chessie France Lynch have a little boy Will

Rickys favourite pony Matilda breaks her leg and though they try to save her , she is euthanised .
Chessie is bored with no money , bored with being second to the ponies , bored with Ricky not cow-towing to his boss ( Bart ), leaving the afterparty to go with his pony
She starts an affair with Bart , leaves Ricky .
Ricky storms round to Barts house , sees Chessie dressed up but also sees she has bruises (Bart is into S&M, so is Chessie , she said Ricky was as useless AF in bed )
He grabs Will , drives off , drunk and crashes his car . Will is killed .

So drunk driving , child endangerment , death by dangerous driving , SM violence .

They are doing a drunk driving and child injury story on Eastenders this week, so that wouldn't be a problem. There is plenty of sex on Rivals not sure a bit of S&M would rile people, I think Polo will be a sort of side story just to get Perdita into RCB life.

Polo spoilers (sort of)

I think there are too many parallels with Declan & Ricky - difficult men that choose work over family life, beautiful, selfish wives that they are devoted to but who have affairs with their direct rivals, great leaders etc.

But they could follow Perdita’s career, Freddie as Dancer Maitland, Tony as Bart Alderton. Perdita’s struggles to be accepted by Rupert.

I don’t know. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Fascinated to find out but annoyed that we might have to wait months!

I have my doubts on whether additional characters from Polo (Ricky, Chessie etc) will even be introduced. There is enough to get on with, with the characters they already have. Probably won’t happen unless there’s a season 3 and most of the Rivals characters’ stories have come to a close.

And they’ll likely see how season 2 does rating wise before renewing for another series.

Who took the tapes?? Maud??