Could you have forgotten Rivals since we last visited the copulating county of Rutshire? The Disney Plus show is quick to remind us of its rhythms as we roll into season two.
Back is the lust and those lavish parties. Both factor in our first set piece, at a pool party with identical twins who, rumour has it, are only dissimilar inside their pants.
Because Rivals would never leave us in doubt over such matters, the pair soon get their kit off and whirlybird into the pool. (The difference is, indeed, evident).
‘We had to call it silly willies,’ producer Alexander Lamb tells Metro, articulating the nickname with a cheeky chappie trill.
Showrunner Dominic Treadwell-Collins describes it as a ‘silly fun reminder early on’.
‘This is Jilly Cooper. It’s Rivals and look: willies.’
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Writing the second season, particularly its first episode, they were conscious of not falling prey to ‘second album syndrome’ and copying their first dazzling effort.
Having watched the first three episodes, there’s a confidence there. ‘We have a swagger. We know what we’re doing. We know the audience are with us. So we can go in some new places,’ says Treadwell-Collins.
There’s license to be ‘dafter’ (see, helicoptering penises plunging into pool), but also ‘darker and sadder’ (much of which involves a stellar Emily Atack as Sarah Stratton).
We all want to make this even better and bigger than season one, in Jilly Cooper’s memory
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When any of the cast or creatives speak to me of the late Dame Jilly Cooper, it is with awe that they got to spend time with her. The 88-year-old died after a fall at her home, when production was two-thirds of the way through shooting.
‘She gave notes on everything,’ recalls Treadwell-Collins of her input. Her assistant would ring him up and announce, ‘You’ve got a call from the Dame’.
She had sway, too. A collection of season one scenes in which Taggie was more ‘active’ were culled after Cooper pointed out that wasn’t really who the character was. ‘Her instincts were always right,’ he says.
Are you excited for season 2?
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Yes – I loved the first
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Not for me
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I need to catch-up on season one
Their recollections of the author’s set visits sound magnetic: ‘bright blue eyes’, ‘so full of admiration’, but also ‘so naughty’.
A tribute at the close of episode one trumpets a sensational picture: Cooper reclining on a chaise longe, hair buffeted into the stratosphere, wearing a pair of fishnets and little else. There’s no doubt this is the woman who wrote Rivals.
The cast was in full attendance at Cooper’s January memorial service. Alex Hassell and Bella Maclein – who play Rupert and Taggie – read an excerpt from Rivals (the New Year’s Eve party scene).
‘It was really beautiful to get to be part of the tribute and to be the physical manifestation of these characters that she cared so much about and invested in so much, and so many people have invested in,’ says Hassell, who seems in awe of the event. Queen Camilla was in attendance, and Joanna Lumley also gave a reading.
‘There was a lot of joy in that room, in the celebration, and then ultimately, a lot of champagne, ‘ he says, which Maclean notes Cooper would have ‘loved’.
‘We all want to make this even better and bigger than season one, in her memory,’ says show director Elliot Hegarty. ‘To make sure her legacy is fit and strong and moving forward to – fingers crossed – season three.’
The team have the rights to Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series, of which there are eleven (!) books. Seasons one and two are so far only one of them.
Treadwell-Collins compares Cooper’s novels to Game of Thrones or the MCU, even if it took a couple of decades for commissioners to see his vision for adapting them.
‘And some of the people that I pitched it to pretend they don’t remember,’ he says, conspiratorially. ‘They go, “Well done, Dominic, so great. It was always such a good idea.” I’m like, you didn’t…’
Treadwell-Collins has had the last laugh. ‘I’ve always known. They’re such good books, in the way that people keep adapting Dickens and Austen.
‘These books were sitting there with these amazing characters and this social satire pulling apart Britishness. But also this pining, yearning love story between Rupert and Taggie that keeps you turning the page.’
Not to mention those silly willies.
Rivals returns for season 2 on Disney Plus on May 15.
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