SPOILERS Rivals Season 2 🥳

[Blossombunnyy]

On Disney in May 15th 2026

Who's excited?

I can't wait the trailer looks so good.

I miss Billy and Janie
Wasn’t Billy Head of Sport at Venturer ?
In the books I mean

I agree. I think Jilly Cooper had a lot more fun writing the male characters and gave them interesting backstories. A lot of the women were a bit more thinly drawn.

I think that was because a lot of women were there to serve the plot and act as a foil which makes sense but wouldn't be all that palatable to the audience they want to draw in in 2026.

I suspect they lost Janie because they already have one female journalist (Beattie) now TV presenter and they have Lizzie as the resident writer but I agree she was one the best written female characters in Riders and had something of a character arc unlike some of the others.

Yes, he 'escaped' from the BBC. I think Lizzie and Bas fill his close friend of Rupert's role in the show.

Janie was one of my favourite characters! She used to do comedy things like only eat grapefruit for days so she could lose ten pounds and fit into some amazing dress, or paint her fingernails as it was easier than cleaning them 😂

Despite being the right age (60ish) to have read the books back in the day I never did, I was a bit tomboyish and would only read books about war, espionage, crime etc. So I read Riders, Rivals and Polo for the first time last year after Season 1. What a treat that was, but as someone who up in the 80s the TV series adds so much with the soundtrack, costumes, cultural references all bang on, it's a proper nostalgia-fest. I have wondered why there's no Billy too and agree the "foursome" was probably the most uncomfortable part of the books.

I can see why Billy and Janie weren’t in the first series cos they didn’t draw much on Riders at all in that one, but now they seem to be going back to it by bringing in Helen and Malise, and even explaining about Malise’s son who was killed etc, so I’m wondering where they’re going with that and if anymore Riders characters will crop up (little joke 😂).

I like Helen as a character - she was also quite well written, even though I get the impression Jilly didn’t really like her (or Jake) by the end of Rivals - so happy for her to be in it but they seem to have given her a new character along with a new actress so I’m intrigued. I kind of don’t want them to get too bogged down in Riders storylines cos I find Rivals more fun and, for me, the O’Hara family are the heart of the Rivals story and I think they are the heart of the tv show, but I haven’t read Polo, do they need to do some background about the Lovell stables to set up for Polo?

From memory the Lovells don't really feature in Polo - the action swings between Ricky France-Lynch's stables in/near Penscombe, Argentina and the Alderton stables in Miami.
Taggie, Rupert & Bas feature but there is a whole new cast of polo players, wives, and sponsors (although an overlap with Doggie Dins).
I don't know what they will use from Polo because there are some plot lines that would make the story quite unpalatable.

Jake and Tory Lovell don’t feature in any of the other books beyond Riders (other than brief mentions of them). Isa Lovell (their son) appears in Score! but none of them are in Polo.

I can understand why they haven’t introduced Billy and Janey into the TV show (although I would like to see them!). It works in the book because most readers of Rivals will have read Riders so know who they are. Trying to introduce them into the TV show might need too much backstory/having to come up with plots for them (because why bother introducing them if you’re not going to do anything with them?). They don’t really feature in Polo so no storylines from there to use for them and I wouldn’t really want them to start making too much stuff up just to give them something to do.

Ah thanks @Notonthestairs and @ChessieFL! I knew Isa Lovell appeared in later books so wondered if the Jake/Rupert rivalry is reignited in Polo but kind of glad it’s not. So they probably won’t dig up more characters from Riders, apart from Malise and Helen. That’s good I think. I hope they stick to the characters they’ve got in the main and stay in the Cotswolds. I do wonder what they will do with Rupert now he’s resigned and been ousted from venturer - I don’t remember that happening? Probably quite good they are deviating from the books to keep things interesting and allowing them to develop the characters they have established.

In the book, the Rupert exposè happens (in a newspaper not TV) the day before the key franchise presentation meeting, but he’s not locked out of Venturer and they all (except the Bishop) stand by Rupert and turn up with him to the presentation .

In the TV version they’re dragging it all out much longer than the book and have obviously decided it’s more dramatic if he’s kicked out (although I am expecting him to rejoin at some point!).

I don’t mind that they’re deviating a bit from the books/mixing the books up a bit - everything is still true to Jilly’s vision and it’s so good that anything that enables them to make more episodes is fine with me!

Yes! Where are the Lloyd- Foxes? Both are such great characters and Billy brings out the naughty side of Rupert and it’s all a bit work work work with out them.

Ohhhh I was right!

I’ve just watched and can guess what about. Another great episode.

Great episode again. Gosh Tony is even more awful in this than in the books.

The start with Declan declaiming Yeats was so good - we had that poem at our wedding - and the "Women love a rug" comment 😂

I loved the music again - So Macho, Can't Touch This and Word Up - amazing! Also really enjoying Monica's story line being expanded from the books.

Polo coming in now...

OMG!! Today's episode was absolutely fucking amazing!! Best one yet!!!!

Just started watching
Laughing already
So Macho !

I’m saving it for this evening. Can’t wait.

Love the sports event! So funny.

I am totally loving Monica..... so loyal to Tony, even though she knows he's an utter shit. At least there's now a glimpse of happiness for her.
And I think we've all worked out what the cliffhanger will be at the end of Episode 6, before they leave us on tenterhooks for months!

A complete throw back to ‘it’s a knockout’ 😂

I’m gonna have to pull you up slightly on the accuracy of the tunes..it was actually ‘super freak’ by Rick James being played. The base line was used as a sample by MC Hammer for ‘you can’t touch this’ 😉

Yes, I am a self-confessed pedant where 80’s music is concerned.

As soon as that came on I thought ‘U can’t touch this’ wasn’t in the 80s surely but then when the lyrics were different I realised it was a different song!

oh yes you're right @Netaporter my bad!

I love this so much. All the best bits of the book and none of the questionable stuff

David Tennant had found his person! Tony is so perfectly evil.