Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the final episode of Rivals.
Fans of the hit TV drama Rivals were left on the edge of their seats during the season finale, which ended on the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers.
If you need a refresher, the show ends with David Tennant’s character, Lord Tony Baddingham, slapping Cameron – with whom he’d been having an affair – across the face after learning she’d slept with the Conservative MP Rupert Campbell-Black.
In retaliation, Cameron, played by Nafessa Williams – then bludgeons Tony with a TV award she happened to have to hand, leaving a question mark over his fate as he lay bleeding on the ground.
Anyone who’s read the Jilly Cooper book on which Rivals is based will know this ending is a deviation from the original story, in which Cameron doesn’t hit back when she’s slapped by Tony.
Executive producer Felicity Blunt told Variety: “We didn’t want her to only be a victim in that scene.
“We wanted and needed her to have agency and strength, but you wanted to feel really scared going into that scene.”
Other key scenes in the show were lifted from the original book, even if tweaks were made to make them more palatable to a modern audience.
An example of this would be when Alex Hassell’s character Rupert Campbell-Black gropes Taggie, played by former Sex Education star Bella Maclean.
“There was never a disagreement amongst any of the EPs that we wanted to [show that],” Blunt added. “In the writers’ room undoubtedly it was something we really talked about. Because in talking about it, you sort of examine it from every side. What is the repercussion for that character? Are we going to be able to still root for him?
“We are in 2024, we are not in 1986 — so what is an audience reaction going to be to that?”
She added: “Any of those physical scenes, whether we’re talking about an act of violence or an act of sex, they can only be justified if they are telling a story. Otherwise it’s melodramatic or exploitative.”
Despite calls from fans for Rivals to return for a second season, the fate of the show is yet to be confirmed.
Rivals is available to stream now on Disney+.