Rivals
Comedy-drama seriesWikipedia
13
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 13 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Rivals".
Sep 11, 2026
speaker_2HOST
Disney+ is not just for kids anymore.
speaker_2HOST
On Wednesday, November 11th, they're dropping the six-episode second season of Rivals.
speaker_3HOST
Adapting the infamously raunchy 1988 novel by Jilly Cooper, this is the absolute zenith of the bonkbuster genre.
speaker_2HOST
Okay, we definitely need to define bonkbuster for anyone who didn't grow up near a British bookstore in the 1980s.
speaker_2HOST
But the synopsis makes it clear that the corporate warfare is secondary to the romance.
speaker_2HOST
Fans are rabid for the forbidden love stories between Taggy and Rupert, played by Bella McLean and Alex Hassell, and Freddie and Lizzy, played by Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.
speaker_3HOST
In an era dominated by prestige television that demands deep psychological labor from its audience, Rivals functions as a vital pressure release valve.
speaker_2HOST
It really does.
Hayley SproullHOST
We love doing this.
Hayley SproullHOST
And I've finally been watching Rivals that Fletch has been going on at me about for a long time.
Hayley SproullHOST
It's on Disney? Yep.
Vaughn SmithHOST
Yes.
Vaughn SmithHOST
He's so good.
Vaughn SmithHOST
He's
Hayley SproullHOST
brilliant in Rivals.
Hayley SproullHOST
That's on Disney.
Terry StoneHOST
Sky described the show as a comedy about broken families and that role let Danny be funny, chaotic and damaged without needing to be a cartoon.
Terry StoneHOST
In Disney Plus's adaption of Jilly Cooper's Rivals, Danny plays Freddie Jones, a self-made electronics millionaire who does not fit neatly into that posh, status-obsessed world around
Danny DyerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
him.
Danny DyerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
No tatties, Fred Fred.
Terry StoneHOST
And audiences loved him in it.
Terry StoneHOST
Suddenly Danny Dyer was not just back, he was being talked about as a romantic lead.
Terry StoneHOST
The Guardian writing in 2026 as Rivals returned described him as moving from hard man to heartthrob and becoming an unlikely national treasure.
Terry StoneHOST
That is a mad journey from the football factory to Jilly Cooper heartthrob.
Saanje BjörksonHOST
What year did you guys get rid of lead piping? Almost just everyone making television in the 90s in the UK constantly on crack cocaine.
Mike DunbarHOST
Have you seen the Disney Plus show The Rivals based on Jimmy Cooper's Rutscher Chronicles romance novels?
Saanje BjörksonHOST
no
Mike DunbarHOST
no so it's a new show with like Dave Tennant and various other people in but it's based it's based on the premise of that is like in 1980s late 80s TV warring TV production companies like one called Caridian people called Ventura and they like The stuff they're making on that show is pretty much what television was like in the UK in the 80s and 90s.
SarahHOST
And then I see him in stuff.
SarahHOST
He's in Rivals.
SarahHOST
He's in other things.
SarahHOST
And I think...
FletchHOST
Yeah.
Vaughn SmithHOST
I was finishing, uh, my favorite television show of late, Rivals.
FletchHOST
Oh, so I went to start-
Hayley SproullHOST
I haven't started it
FletchHOST
...
FletchHOST
Rivals, but I haven't finished the last s- last season of The Bear.
Vaughn SmithHOST
Ugh.
FletchHOST
So I'm gonna finish The Bear, and then I'm onto Rivals.