Sex and shoulder pads: Victoria Smurfit on bringing the Irish touch to the new season of Rivals 

Victoria Smurfit and Aidan Turner play the Irish bohemians in the adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel

Victoria Smurfit originally encountered Jilly Cooper's work through her mother's copy of Rivals. Picture: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for NTA

The scandal is bigger, the shoulder pads are sharper, and the sex is even more outrageous — but beneath the champagne-drenched chaos of Rivals season two runs something far deeper: heartbreak, ambition, insecurity, and an aching need to be loved.

At the centre of the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s salacious novel is the O’Hara family: Irish bohemians who find themselves, almost inevitably, at the heart of everyone’s attention. With Victoria Smurfit back in action as the wildly dramatic actor Maud O’Hara, she says, despite their issues, Maud’s relationship with her broadcaster husband Declan, played by Aidan Turner, is the most straightforward of any of the show’s couples.