As the fifth episode of Rivals begins, Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) runs into Taggie (Bella Maclean) who was coming to see him. Bas (Luke Pasqualino) takes some leftovers from Taggie while Rupert tries to get away as quickly as possible. In private, Rupert tells Bas he promised Declan he wouldn’t go anywhere near her. Declan (Aidan Turner) listens to a news report about Thatcher’s upcoming interview. They question whether Declan is the most powerful man in television. Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) is not happy. Enid Spink greets Declan and talks to her about the interview. Before long, Sarah Stratton (Emily Atack) and James Vereker (Oliver Chris) welcome Enid to their show. James immediately messes up her name. Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams) sets up a Miss Corinium beauty pageant because the IBA wants it.

Someone points out that it was Daysee Butler’s (Lara Peake) brainchild. Cameron insults her and Daysee hears it. Declan promises to get Daysee an autograph from Thatcher. Joyce Madden (Denise Black) receives a list of approved interview questions from Margaret Thatcher. Declan talks to Cameron about the interview. He accuses Thatcher of selling the state off to the highest bidder. Tony wants to see him. Charles Fairburn (Gary Lamont) tells Declan that a friend slipped him something from Westminster. It’s a draft of a white paper. Declan finds out that the government is trying to pass a law that prevents schools from teaching that homosexuality is acceptable as a family relationship. Tony barges in with the list of approved questions. Cameron and Declan argue that they should agree and ask whatever questions once Margaret is already there. Tony leaves and asks for James. It appears Tony wants James to interview Thatcher.

James runs into Declan and tells him there are no hard feelings. Then, he tells Sarah that he might even get a prime-time slot after the interview. They talk about Paul and Lizzie. James doesn’t know why Lizzie bothers writing because her works keep getting rejected. Sarah begins flirting with him. Declan confronts Tony about his decision. He tells Tony that he doesn’t own him. Tony says otherwise since he paid his tax bill and he got an insurance policy. He has pictures of Maud having sex with Patrick’s godfather. Declan says he and Maud don’t have secrets. Tony suggests Maud would be upset though. He tells Declan to cancel his plans for Friday because he’ll be judging a beauty contest. Declan returns home and says he’s taken the week off. Taggie and Maud (Victoria Smurfit) learn about James getting the Thatcher interview. Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson) helps James practice for the interview.

She tries to get flirty only for James to remind her she’s not 26 anymore. Next, Lizzie lets Carol read her book and he loves it. Carol suggests she isn’t writing about James. She suggests the man is too good not to be true. Freddie Jones (Danny Dyer) ends up running into Lizzie on the train. They continue the conversation in first class. When an employee approaches, they hide in the bathroom so they don’t have to pay for another ticket. Once they get off, Lizzie realizes she left her chapters. Freddie runs up and tries to get them for her. Tony goes to work and speaks to Cameron in private. She reminds him that the country wants to see Thatcher locking horns with Declan. She urges him to call Declan. Tony thinks they should go to Spain. They go outside and wait for Thatcher to arrive. Declan watches the show from home while drinking.

Taggie returns home and learns he’s watching the interview. Although she said Maud should’ve stopped him, Maud doubts she could. Maud goes upstairs to call Malhar. She says she needs to see him. Rupert comes over and speaks to Taggie about her father. He finds him outside trying to mow the lawn. Rupert says the PM knew he’d never show her caring side so she dodged the fight. Rupert and Taggie manage to get him inside. Taggie admits it is all on her now that Maud has given up. Rupert agrees to try to bring Declan around. Freddie reads Lizzie’s chapters. Valerie (Lisa McGrillis) tries to get him out of bed for their exercise. She asks if he was looking at pornography. Later, Freddie returns the papers to Lizzie. He asks Lizzie if she’d agree to come to lunch with him somewhere discreet. Lizzie admits she’s been hoping he’d ask, but she now realizes that she can’t. Freddie says the chapters are brilliant and sexy like her.

Rupert finds Caitlin O’Hara (Catriona Chandler) hitchhiking so he brings her home to Taggie. Rupert decides to take Declan out. Maud left already. She visits Malhar. Meanwhile, Rupert takes Declan to look at a horse. Freddie ends up arriving because he’s made a better offer than Rupert. He offers them a syndicate. They go out for drinks. Freddie tells Declan and Rupert that he’s never had another girlfriend. Declan learns that Rupert and Freddie are friends because they don’t like Tony. Cameron learns that Reverend Penney is running late. She’s upset because he’s the most important judge. Seb Burrows (Milo Callaghan) agrees to let Daysee take his car to get him. Sarah role plays for James when he returns to his dressing room. They end up having sex. Daysee rushes to pick up Reverend Penney. Declan remembers he’s supposed to be judging Miss Corinium.

Penney asks Daysee to pull over at a nearby field. While the show continues, Penney tries to learn more about Daysee. He grabs her and tries to kiss her. Penney ends up raping Daysee. Cameron admits Daysee was right about having a big number. Daysee drives Penney to Corinium. Cameron speaks to Wesley Emerson (Gilbert Kyem Jnr) who is in the makeup department. Reverend Penney finally arrives. Tony runs into Daysee who begins crying. He promises to make them pay. Joyce Madden tries to convince her to report him. When Daysee says it was Penney, Tony asks if she led him on. Daysee insists that she was very professional. Tony admits Reverend Penney is very important to them. He urges her to forget this ever happened. Hermione helps Daysee change and admits nothing changes despite talks about equal rights. She tells Daysee to use the secret to get what she wants from them.

Declan finally arrives at the beauty contest. He suspects something is wrong with Daysee. James tells everyone that the winner will get a screen test to become the station’s new teatime weather girl. The judges are introduced. Taggie and Caitlin watch the show from home. Seb touches Daysee who recoils. Fergus Penney says he is looking for a healthy body and sound morals. Declan calls him a filthy, hypocritical old git before punching him. Cameron yells for the team to cut the feed. Declan tells Penney he’ll get what’s coming to him. Tony returns to his office and Declan joins him seconds later. Declan tells him he let that religious fraud get away with raping one of his employees. He’s out of this cesspit for good. Tony isn’t sure they can let him go just yet. Declan grabs him and pushes him against a wall.

He curses him and quits. Declan breaks a glass window using a golf club. Declan asks Daysee if he can give her a lift somewhere. He urges her to call the police and report Fergus Penney. Daysee says she didn’t need his help. She asks Joyce why she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Declan goes outside where he tells Rupert and Freddie he just quit his job. Tony tells Fergus that Declan will be dealt with. Deirdre is told to get a minicab. Tony tells Gingers Baines (Antony Byrne) to get the photos of Maud and Malhar to Beattie Johnson (Annabel Scholey). Tony suspects someone has been in his office because the pictures are missing. Maud approaches Declan to say she doesn’t want to be waiting for her husband to come home. She wants to go back to work. Declan suggests going back to London. Maud visited Malhar to see if she could audition for his new show.

There is nothing for her because she’s too old. Joyce Madden arrives and admits she shouldn’t have said anything about Fergus Penney. She gives Declan the photographs of Maud. Joyce says Tony sometimes needs a bit of help to steer the right course. Taggie goes after Gertrude until Rupert catches him. She complains about Rupert getting her dad drunk. Taggie says this is the only place she ever loved and they’ll have to leave. Cameron and Tony talk about what they should do now. She suggests Declan has a drinking problem. Tony admits that’s a good idea. Tony speaks to the media about Declan quitting. Rupert and Freddie barge into Declan’s house. They want to start a production company and let Declan run it. Declan thinks they should pitch for the franchise. That would mean the mother of all takeovers. Declan says they can drive Tony out of this town once and for all.

 

Rivals Review

The fifth episode of Rivals had some good moments so it seems to be heading in the right direction. At this point, viewers are either going to love this or they really aren’t going to care. It would be easy to fit into either group based on the quality of the series and characters through five episodes.

While the show has improved, it’s still got many problems with the bloated cast being one of the biggest. There has really been too much going on with too many characters and each episode has added at least one character. There is a good chance that most viewers only know a quarter of the names unless they’re familiar with the source material.

Many of the characters are mostly unimportant considering the fact that they’re being left out of episodes now. Ultimately, the story is stretched to fit eight episodes meaning everything is drug out and overly complicated. We should’ve already reached this point by now. Still, this was an improvement thanks to the serious storylines mixed into the mess.

The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Rivals can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.