Disney Plus has released first images from their exciting new
RIVALS eight part series set against the backdrop of the excess and antics of the power-grabbing social elite of 1980s England and delving into the ruthless world of independent television in 1986. In the fictional county of Rutshire, along-standing rivalry between two powerful men is about to boil over.
Alex 
Hassell plays dashing ex-Olympian, Tory Member of Parliament and incorrigible rake, the dangerously charismatic Rupert Campbell-Black.
David Tennan
is Ruperts ambitious and egotistical Rutshire neighbour Lord Tony
Baddingham, controller of Corinium Television. A long-simmering power
struggle between them threatens to boil over when the two men lock horns
over the future of Corinium.
Caught in the crossfire is TV presenter Declan OHara, (
Aidan Turner). Fiercely intellectual, with an even fiercer temper, he is wooed to Corinium TV from the BBC by Baddingham himself, but feels he’s been swindled when Tony refuses to deliver on his promises. Furious with Tony, Declan vows to get his revenge.
Victoria Smurfit is Maud OHara, a former actress and Declans bohemian, fickle wife.
Bella Maclean
is Declan
and Mauds tender-hearted yet strong-willed
elder daughter, Taggie. She holds the O Hara family together and keeps an
eye on her younger and wilder sister Caitlin (
Catriona Chandler).
Nafessa Williams is Cameron Cook, a ferociously talented American TV executive who is brought to Corinium by Tony
to produce Declans new prime-time talk show. She soon finds herself
caught between the two powerful men who deeply underestimate her at
their
peril.
Katherine Parkinson is Lizzie Vereker, a romantic
novelist consistently overlooked by her preening and self-centred TV
presenter husband, James Vereker (
Oliver Chris).
Danny Dyer
is Freddie Jones: honourable, loyal and lovable, he’s a self-made
electronics millionaire. Freddie's got the money, but finds himself,
along with his social-climbing wife
Valerie (
Lisa McGrillis), an outsider to Rutshires cliques. But when Rupert and Tony come to him with a business proposition, all that could change.
Claire Rushbrook is Lady Monica Baddingham, Tonys dependable,
upper-crust wife who has absolutely no interest in the dramatic
goings-on within her husbands empire.
Luke Pasqualino is the charming Basil Bas Baddingham,
Tonys younger brother and the proprietor of Cotchesters hot spot, Bar Sinister.
Emily Atack is Sarah Stratton, the new wife to Deputy Prime Minister, Paul Stratton (
Rufus Jones).
Sarah is ambitious and not afraid to use her looks to get to the top.
Paul, on the other hand, is in the throes of a midlife crisis – everyone
knows it.
to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to
his sinister will. Season two plunges even its most beloved and
vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, 
challenging each
to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of
calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as 
friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of
good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to
them most of all… each other.
to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to
his sinister will. Season two plunges even its most beloved and
vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, 
challenging each
to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of
calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as 
friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of
good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to
them most of all… each other.
