Danny Dyer: How my daughters watch Rivals with my raunchy sex scenes

As soon as I walked into the room to speak to Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson for Rivals season 2, I was immediately hit with a wave of warmth.

‘Watch your nut on that mic,’ Danny warned kindly, as I ducked to avoid hitting the boom mic with my head while taking my seat for our Metro interview.

Talk quickly turned to my bright pink blazer, complete with 80s shoulder pads. But as much as I would have loved to natter on with them both for ages, chatting like I was with my mates, we had pressing matters to get to – the second season of their brilliant show.

Rivals is full of copulating couples, steamy trysts and salacious gossip – but amidst all of the gasp-inducing raunchiness, their characters Freddie and Lizzie bring something different to the rolling hills of Rutshire – tenderness.

‘That’s what makes it interesting. It’s two decent human beings who are in sort of loveless marriages, who are not treated very well, who find their soulmate at the wrong point of their life, but they can’t help but act on it,’ Danny, 48, says.

Fans of the TV show might love watching Freddie and Lizzie’s slow-burning romance heat up, with each graze of the finger and lingering look making their pulses race, but there are some people in Danny and Katherine’s lives who can’t bear it: their families.

As sensitively as the relationships in Rivals are treated on and off-screen, one can only imagine what it’s like for the friends and family of the actors to watch their loved ones in a TV show that’s been dubbed a ‘bonkfest’.

‘Well, my daughters are very much going, “Dad, I need time codes,”’ Danny admits, referencing his daughters Dani Dyer, 29, and Sunnie Jo Dyer, 19. Danny also shares a 12-year-old son, Arty Dyer, with his wife, Joanne Mas.

Katherine, whose character Lizzie appears to draw parallels with the late great Dame Jilly Cooper, the author of the books, has two daughters with her husband, actor Harry Peacock.

The IT Crowd star says that she ‘completely respects’ her father not wanting to watch her in the series.

‘My brothers haven’t watched it. Completely respect that. My brother’s wife loves it,’ she continues.

‘I think my husband really respects it. And said, “Go for it” in the first series, but he doesn’t want to watch those scenes, and I, again, completely respect that. I would not want to watch if the shoe was on the other foot, but I think to honour their storyline and to feel free in the moment to tell stories is great.’

‘Of course, it’s an odd job we do. I love it,’ Danny summarises. ‘You’ve got to commit to these things.’

As much as fans love Lizzie and Freddie’s storyline, Katherine stresses: ‘It’s not us.’ While this might sound like an obvious thing to say, it’s still an important reminder.

‘I read an interview with an actress who said she’d feel unfaithful to her husband, and I disagree with that, because it’s acting in the same way that if I played a murderer, I wouldn’t feel like I’ve murdered someone.’ 

In the first season of Rivals, self-made electronics businessman Freddie and romance author Lizzie resisted their connection for a while.

However, in the end, they couldn’t deny their magnetic attraction, with their flirtations building to a crescendo, and the pair finally sleeping together.

Despite them cheating on their respective partners, Val (Lisa McGrillis) and James (Oliver Chris), the audience roots for them to do so. The affection that they have for one another is genuine, and they give each other happiness that they otherwise don’t have in their lives.

‘I think there’s a stage where she thinks there’s hope in her marriage still,’ says Katherine, 48, whom I spoke to days after her win at the Bafta TV Awards.  

‘But I think when you use the word tenderness, that’s what it is. It’s a tender dynamic. From those first early meetings, when I asked him what he loves most about his job, and he says, “What a lovely question.” And on the train, when she accidentally says an innuendo, and he laughs at her. It’s gentle, and it’s wholesome, and it’s tender, and I think really makes it feel like its own thing in this show.’

Danny chimes in: ‘In this show full of beautiful people – I’m not saying we’re not beautiful, because I think we are very attractive people. We are the underdog in that. We’re not people that dress up, peacocking and giving it big. 

‘So our little moments, our tender moments, are right there where there’s something quite real and vulnerable. As it goes on, they become a lot more confident with each other and their sexuality.’

At the end of season one, Freddie and Lizzie had their happy ending… but the story doesn’t end there. They both have spouses and children, and they’re at opposite ends of the Corinium versus Venturer TV network rivalry.

It’s all well and good for viewers to want Freddie and Lizzie to get together – especially because Lizzie has endured her husband James continually neglecting her and cheating on her with his TV co-host Sarah Stratton (Emily Attack) – but they also have to face the consequences.

‘I think it tells the story of an affair really well, because it’s like, sort of trying to fight it, enjoying it, and then the ugly consequences of it,’ Katherine says.

‘People were rooting for infidelity, but there are people involved in this, and we have to delve into that a little bit more,’ Danny adds.

‘The children – my [on-screen] children are of an age of, I think one’s 16, one’s 17. So they’re young adults, and they love their dad. They struggle with Val a bit because she’s not very maternal. She just gets it wrong. She’s always thinking about herself.

‘So the idea of their dad leaving – that’s what Freddie’s torn with. Will I swan off with the love of my life, leaving Val with the kids? No.’

‘Although we got a happy ending in the first series, what happens after the happy ending? That’s kind of what we deal with,’ Katherine shares.

Rivals is available to stream on Disney Plus, with season 2 episodes being released on Fridays.

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