{"id":363627,"date":"2025-08-22T03:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363627\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T03:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:28:12","slug":"david-tennant-spotted-in-first-look-at-new-season-of-returning-period-drama-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363627\/","title":{"rendered":"David Tennant spotted in first look at new season of returning period drama Rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Tennant has been spotted as Lord Tony Baddingham on set of the hotly-anticipated second season of Rivals.<\/p>\n

The raunchy TV war romper will return to Rutshire for round 2 of the Jilly Cooper’s adaptation. <\/p>\n

In a photo obtained by Digital Spy<\/strong>, Tennant is outside the Corundum Television studios with co-star Antony Byrne, who plays Tony’s right-hand man Ginger Baines. <\/p>\n

What to Read Next<\/p>\n

There, Tony greets Maud O’Hara (Victoria Smurfit), who steps out of her Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet in a dramatic entrance. <\/p>\n

Declan’s (Aidan Turner) on-again, off-again wife Maud deliberately lets her sunglasses slip to the ground, only to scoop them up again with a cheeky, seductive flourish, prompting a flirty exchange with Tony.
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\"david<\/p>\n

KGC-102<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Doctor Who star is really leaning into the 1980s fashion for his big return as Tony, rocking square glasses, suspenders and a combo of navy, striped slacks and a red polka dot tie.<\/p>\n

While Tony seems to be doing well, at least judging by this snap, his fate had previously been left ambiguous after he suffered a major injury at the end of season 1.
<\/p>\n

In May this year, it was confirmed that Tennant would reprise the role of Tony<\/a>. This means that the character has recovered from the head injury that producer Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams) gave him by attacking him with the award they’d just won.<\/p>\n

Tennant is joined by a host of returning stars from season 1. Not just Williams – Alex Hassell is also back as Tony’s rival Rupert Campbell-Black, as well as Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara, Victoria Smurfit as his wife Maud O’Hara, Katherine Parkinson as Lizzie Vereker, and Danny Dyer<\/a> as Freddie Jones.<\/p>\n

\"antony<\/p>\n

Sanne Gault\/\/Disney+<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two newcomers have also joined the cast<\/a>. Announced just yesterday, Rivals season 2 has just welcomed Marvel star Hayley Atwell and My Best Friend’s Wedding’s Rupert Everett. <\/p>\n

Atwell is set to play Helen Gordon, Rupert’s (Alex Hassell) ex-wife and the mother of his two children, while Everett will portray Helen’s latest husband Malise Gordon. <\/p>\n

Rivals<\/a> will return to Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK and internationally. All episodes of Rivals season one are currently available to stream on Disney+.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s new print issue is here! Buy Oasis – Live in ’25<\/a> in newsagents or online<\/a>, now priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong>
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\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times<\/a> and Digital Spy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Tennant has been spotted as Lord Tony Baddingham on set of the hotly-anticipated second season of Rivals.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,127495,1331,77,1330,127494,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-363627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-dd51b339-9a6a-4afd-8557-01f9cb3f51c9","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-shorttitle-david-tennant-spotted-in-first-look-at-rivals-s2","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115070298141491363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}