Aidan Turner says Rivals cast ‘became pals’ and filming was ‘so much craic’

Rivals star Aidan Turner has said the cast of the hit show became “pals” and filming was “so much craic”.

The Poldark actor, who plays Declan O’Hara in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles book of the same name, said the reaction to the show felt “different”.

Speaking at Advertising Week Europe 2025, Turner said: “Even from the first week, I knew something was different once it was cast, and I hadn’t met a lot of the cast before but I kind of had an idea we might gel.

“But just immediately… (we) just became pals, and it became so much craic.”

Asked about the reaction to the programme, which has received widespread acclaim from critics and the public, Turner, 41, said: “Yeah, it felt different.

“People have come up to me, and it’s never happened before… everyone’s come up and said it looks like so much fun – I want to be in it. And they’re not actors.

“I think that that’s something that we all felt on set when we were shooting it.”

Set against the backdrop of the drama and shocking antics of the power-grabbing social elite of 1980s England, the story delves into the cut-throat world of independent British television in 1986.

Emily Atack, who plays Sarah Stratton, said she gets excited to talk about her character.

“In the past, I have been typecast,” the Inbetweeners actress told the event in central London on Wednesday.

“But there was something different about this because I feel that Sarah has been written with nuance and complexities, and she’s flawed.

“We are finally writing women the way they deserve to be written.”

“Sarahs have always been villainised in the past, and I think that the Sarahs are now, because of this show and talk about cultural shifts, they’re having a moment,” Atack, 35, said.

“Women like this are being more understood.

“I’m not afraid to say any more that I do identify with women like that.”

The eight-part drama has received six Bafta nominations and a memorable moment nod.

Producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said he wanted to adapt Cooper’s novel for television for years.

“For a long time, I was mocked for wanting to put it on television within the industry,” he said.

Treadwell-Collins worked with Cooper and her agent Felicity Blunt before writing the pilot script.

“There was a bidding war after that,” he said.

In December, Disney+ announced the show, which ended on a cliffhanger in series one, has been renewed for a second series.

Asked what he wants from season two, Turner said: “I’d like to travel and shoot some scenes in a different country.”

Atack joked: “Could Sarah have an affair with Declan?”

She added: “I would quite like Sarah Stratton to go really big and just take over the business.”

On producing the second series, Treadwell-Collins said: “When you’re sitting there story-lining the second season of the show… everyone has an opinion.

“What we’re trying to do is take, take what we did in season one and go bigger and bolder, and we are filming in other places.”