Rivals is a funny, unabashedly adult soap, carried by actors who understand how seriously to take its nonsense. The crowded plotting sometimes gets tiresome, but David Tennant and the ensemble make the indulgence worthwhile.
Rivals is an entertaining, cheerfully indecent soap that occasionally lets its crowded plot get in the way of its pleasures. The adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel understands that sex, social advantage and professional ambition can occupy the same conversation, and that none becomes more interesting merely by being treated solemnly. Its television-business setting gives the characters plenty of reasons to compete. We recommend it for the performances and the willingness to be ridiculous, with a warning that the plotting can become a chore.
David Tennant’s Tony Baddingham is the strongest reason to stay: his villainy is funny without becoming harmless. Tennant makes the excess feel purposeful, so that a broad performance still carries a threat. Aidan Turner, as Declan O’Hara, gives him substantial competition for our attention, while Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black supplies the sort of charm this material needs to keep dubious behaviour watchable. None needs the programme to stop and explain why we are watching them.
The women are given motives and tempers of their own. Katherine Parkinson’s Lizzie Vereker, Nafessa Williams’s Cameron Cook and Bella Maclean’s Taggie O’Hara help make the emotional stakes worth following amid the commotion. We wanted the programme to spend longer with them, rather than keep finding another strand to service. There is room here for irritation, vanity and hurt, as well as the obvious opportunities to flirt.
Dominic Hyman’s production design makes the 1980s conspicuous and inviting. Ashley Barron’s cinematography gives that display a glossy finish; the glamour helps explain why anyone would stay in such disagreeable company. The music by Jack Halama and Natalie Holt suits the scale of the performances, supporting emotions that are seldom expressed discreetly. These choices work for a soap whose characters feel everything strongly and would prefer everyone else to notice.
We laughed at the naked tennis, because the scene treats a plainly absurd combination of sport and nudity as something worth committing to. The joke survives being played out, without an embarrassed rush to move on to something more respectable. Directors Alexandra Brodski, Elliot Hegarty, Jamie Jay Johnson and Dee Koppang O’Leary deserve credit for sustaining that confidence across the series. The sexual comedy gives the actors room to play broadly, and the programme is generally happier when it lets them.
The difficulties come when the television-production drama, the sexual escapades and the more serious treatment of power all demand attention at once. Writers including Laura Wade and Dominic Treadwell-Collins have plenty to work with, but some stretches feel overstocked with people and short of a clear priority. The editing does not always help us feel which thread matters most. Our attention wandered when another shift of emphasis interrupted something already worth watching, and the performers then had to win it back.
If soaps usually exhaust our patience, this is unlikely to convert us. Its pleasure depends on enjoying people who behave excessively and being willing to follow them through the occasional unnecessary complication. We think the cast earns that latitude. Give it an evening when a naked tennis match sounds like a reasonable place to start
