The second season of Rivals has launched on Disney+ today – and within just the first ten minutes viewers are confronted with naked skinny dipping at a pool party and a racy sex scene between two of the lead characters.
Continuing its theme of being the ‘naughtiest show on TV’, there’s no shortage of passionate trysts in the fictional county of Rutshire – inspired by the Cotswolds – in the three episodes available (a total of 12 will be released throughout the year).
But with its quintessentially English villages built with honey-coloured limestone, wholesome county shows and picturesque rolling hills, is the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that influenced the late Dame Jilly Cooper’s novels really that racy?
Not according to some locals, who told The Daily Mail how today, the Cotswolds is ‘more M&S than S&M’, with everyone busy fretting over ‘potholes and planning restrictions’, not bed-hopping.
Read on to discover what really goes on in the region from the residents who insist that raunchy Rivals has got it all wrong…
The second season of Rivals has launched on Disney+ today – and within just the first ten minutes viewers are confronted with naked skinny dipping at a pool party and a racy sex scene between two of the lead characters. Pictured, Emily Atack as Sarah Stratton
‘Why the Cotswolds is more M&S than S&M’
Writer Georgina Fuller has been a Cotswold resident for over 15 years and says locals are ‘more concerned with potholes and planning restrictions than parties’.
She says: ‘I can understand why people might think, after watching the roaring romp, Rivals, that the Cotswolds, which racy Rutshire is based on, is a hotbed of extramarital trysts and naked tennis but, sadly, I’d say it’s more M&S than S&M. More joggers than jodhpurs.
‘Yes, we might have our fair share of glamorous A-listers from the dazzling Amanda Holden to Simon Cowell, Jeremy Clarkson and of course, the Beckhams, but I’d say many of the locals are more concerned with potholes and planning restrictions than parties. You’re more likely to find us swapping recipes than spouses.
Writer Georgina Fuller (pictured) has been a Cotswold resident for over 15 years and says locals are ‘more concerned with potholes and planning restrictions than parties’
‘Having grown up reading Rivals, I thought, when I moved back here in 2010, that it might be more Lady Chatterley’s Lover than Midsomer Murders. Sadly, it’s more sleepy than swinging where we live though.
‘Alongside a fair few retirees, there has been quite an influx of moneyed millennials but they are more likely to order a matcha than a martini on an evening out.
‘At our local pub, you’re more likely to hear the men bemoaning the state of HS2 and our rubbish Wi-Fi than trying to chat up someone else’s wife.
‘That said, there has been a long-standing rumour about an S&M dungeon in one of the country houses in a nearby village.
‘Back when our village, which is on the edge of the North Cotswolds, used to have an annual ball there was one table who seemed to know each other really rather well.
‘Sadly though, I think the myth of tasty toffs and Rupert Campbell-Black types seducing bored housewives in the pantry probably died out with our beloved Jilly.’
‘It’s more wholesome farmer’s market than fumble in the hay’
Jenny Holliday, 48, from Chipping Norton says: ‘The naked tennis scene that opens Rivals and is now synonymous with the show – and the Cotswolds – makes me guffaw every time I think about it. Naked tennis? You’re more likely to see a farmer in a fleece gilet than a polo player’s chest rug.
Jenny Holliday (pictured with one of her beloved pets), 48, from Chipping Norton
‘I moved to Chipping Norton in August 2020 craving a quieter life after two decades working and partying in London.
‘”Chippy” as it’s known, with surrounding villages and nearby Soho Farmhouse is where you might imagine we “play Rivals” but the raunchiest thing you’ll see round here in the bedroom department are cotton pyjamas in a local boutique.
‘It’s all much more farmer’s market than fumble in the hay – outdoor nookie here would involve having to get down and dirty in the sticky mud (it’s impossible to get off your boots) and risk running into one of the myriad dog walkers or a herd of Kaleb Cooper’s cows.
‘Skinny dipping in the pool with a cocktail might float the Rivals’ boat but our local Lido is much more serene and even offered cold water swimming in the winter season (surely no one on Rivals would be seen in a cold pool to affect his manhood!).
‘As for wild parties, we have annual Blossom Day and Apple Day in the community orchard, where the most panting you’ll hear is from people trying out the hand-operated apple press.
‘When it comes to media moguls our ‘local paper’, the Chipping Norton News (where I do volunteer writing) is more into potholes than the mile high club.
‘One thing that is a bonus to this quieter life is I can get a Rivals-worthy Cotswolds wardrobe in the charity shops – if only I had raucous parties in manor houses to wear them to!’
‘There’s no naked tennis. Think Fish and Chips Fridays, falconry and fishing’
Jane Druker, fashion and beauty editor and contributor at Wildflower magazine says: ‘I – like pretty much every woman I know – am salivating at the return of Rivals.
Jane Druker (pictured) fashion and beauty editor and contributor at Wildflower magazine
‘Outrageously funny, saucily sexy and thoroughly British – it feels like a throwback to a bygone, simpler era.
‘The original, based on the famous 1988 bonkbuster novel by the late beloved Jilly Cooper, landed on our screens two years ago and the nation swooned in delight.
‘From the opening scene we were witness to high society, sexual debauchery plus class and power tension.
‘Set within the fictional, affluent English county of Rutshire, we all knew it was actually based on the Cotswolds where Jilly lived for over 40 years.
‘How the times and sexual climate have changed in the intervening years since pen was first put to paper.
‘Back then the phones we owned were brick-sized and used rarely, if at all. We are now in an era of unlimited distractions and glued to our digital devices from the second we rise… who has the time anymore for real life dangerous liaisons?
‘Dare I say it but the rural Cotswolds of today has more in common with TV’s Clarkson’s Farm with its loving family set-up, strong sense of community and deep pride in its land, handsome towns and picture-perfect villages.
‘Good morals abide, cheerfulness and keep calm and carry on rule. A hotbed of handsome, cunning, charmers who are sex-obsessed and rebellious stallions, it is not: Have you ever seen naked tennis? Me neither.
‘Instead think fish and chip Fridays, falconry and fishing, rambling long Sunday lunches at the local gastropub and bed at 10pm.
‘No bother, we can escape to the land of 1986 for our fill of rascals with no rules. I know that I shall be putting my feet up Friday with a glass of bubbly (it’s cocktail hour somewhere after all) and toasting to its innate fabulousness.’
‘I haven’t see any Rivals-worthy action… and as a divorcee, I’ve looked!’
Journalist Ateh Jewel, who lives near Chipping Norton and is a committee member for Soho Farmhouse, grew up in central London before moving to the Cotswolds back in 2018.
Journalist Ateh Jewel (pictured), who lives near Chipping Norton and is a committee member for Soho Farmhouse, grew up in central London before moving to the Cotswolds back in 2018
She says: ‘When I first moved here I did hear rumours from locals of the hedonist good old days of Rivals-worthy trysts and wife-swapping house parties.
‘However, sorry to burst any bubbles, but I haven’t seen a whiff of any Rivals type action, and believe me, now I’m divorced after blowing up my 26-year marriage, I’ve looked.
‘I do think all that racy behaviour was before the Cotswolds turned full on glam and like a baby Notting Hill in the countryside.
‘Instead of illicit affairs and sneaking around out of boredom, you can find plenty of fun pub times in the Cotswolds, whereas before, people had to find other forms of action.
‘These days you can also find the elite set of the Cotswolds working out their frustrations in the new super glam social hubs of Pilates and work out studios with celeb-loved trainers, when perhaps in yesteryear they would get their kicks and cardio in other ways… Rivals is amazing, but sadly, a thing of the past.’
