Rivals Returns: Disney's Rutshire Soap Finds Grief Under the Backcombing

Disney has split the second series of Rivals into two parts of six episodes each, and the Rutshire faithful have waited five months for the reckoning. The Guardian's review confirms it: part two opens at Monica Baddingham's funeral, and it isn't just backcombing, betrayals and bonking anymore. There are, the paper says, moments of real poignancy.

The setup, for those who lost track during the hiatus: we left Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) breaking the news to his arch-rival Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) that Tony's wife Monica (Claire Rushbrook) was dead. She had driven off into the Great Storm of 1987 after discovering Tony's affair with Maud (Victoria Smurfit) — his bitter enemy's wife — and demanding, at last, a divorce. One tree later, Monica's dreams of freedom and future happiness ended.

Who is Tony Baddingham now?

The Guardian dubs him "Tony Worse-ingham, more like." Tennant, the review notes, is "having the time of his life as the unrepentantly villainous mogul." Hassell's Rupert, meanwhile, is described as "a sex god by way of Hugh Laurie and once you notice this you can't unsee it." A compliment, presumably. It reads like one.

The funeral itself is the set piece. The Guardian reports that "never has there been more lustful inter-pew side-eyeing." The inventory:

• Taggie (Bella Maclean) and Rupert — now christened "Rupert Reformed-Bounder-Question-Mark" — yearn across the aisle.
• Freddie's moustache quivers at Lizzie, and Lizzie's perm quivers right back (Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson, respectively).
• Gerald (Hubert Burton) and Charles (Gary Lamont) carry "the love that dare not speak its name," carefully, in front of Gerald's new fiancée Muffy (Eliot Salt) — though they find a way to express it non-verbally in the car after the service.
• James (Oliver Chris), inevitably, "doubtless is transfixed by the vision of himself in the nearest reflective surface."

What elevates it beyond a romp?

The review's central claim is that the new episodes deliver more than shoulder pads and scandal. The critic singles out Bella Maclean for "doing such fine work with what could be a tremendously boring character" — a verdict that suggests the writing has given Taggie somewhere to go beyond mooning. The promise of poignancy, arriving in a show previously sold on raunch and corporate skulduggery, is the news here.

Why Disney chose the split remains unexplained. The Guardian suspects reasons "best known to streaming giant Disney's revenue-maximisers." Six-episode halves, a five-month gap, two subscription renewals. You can do that arithmetic at home.

The fuller review, published 11 November, sits behind the Guardian's continue-reading link. Whether the poignancy holds across six episodes of Rutshire mourning — that is the question part two now has to answer.

By Daniel Okafor