Bonfire Night went off with a bang in Rivals, but the fireworks weren’t just in the sky in Rutshire.
Throughout the first half of Rivals’ second season, Maud O’Hara and Tony Baddingham’s affair had been threatening to come out into the open.
And during the Bonfire Night festivities in one of three new episodes that premiered this week, Tony finally declared his love for Maud, only to be rejected.
Declan O’Hara then arrived to discover his wife had been having an affair with his sworn enemy, prompting a surprisingly muted reaction from the usually hot-headed TV presenter.
Aidan Turner, who plays Declan, has revealed that not every version of this confession scene that was filmed showed the character as calm and emotional as the final edit.
In fact, a cut exists where Declan is at his usual level of furious.
The former Poldark actor told Radio Times: “They cut some stuff out – angrier stuff.”
Instead, in the version that made it to our screens, Declan was seen breaking down over the state of his marriage.
Aidan explained: “It’s different for Declan this time. There have been infidelities and affairs before but there was an understanding they had between each other.
“I think he feels like that trust was broken and with the worst person he could’ve ever had a fling with.”
Further expanding on Declan’s response to learning about his wife’s affair, Aidan revealed: “I think it sends him into a spin really and I don’t think he can quite take that information in.
“That moment, he just sees a red mist. Lucky for him, there are people around.
“If that’s the way he’s behaving when there are people there, what would he be like if there weren’t? I think Maud probably knew that too and that’s why she ran. It’s violent, isn’t it?”
Asked if it was surprising that Declan went through such an extreme range of emotions in the scene, Aidan admitted: “It was actually. You don’t know how things are going to go or how things are going to feel and suddenly, you’re into the thing and it’s growing.”
“Your director can guide you through that and you can pull it down, land the plane however he wants to do it but then it begins to have a life of its own.”
Aidan also opened up about how Tony, played by David Tennant, being present on set changed how he played the scene.
“Every time we shot that scene and Declan walked into the kitchen, I could see Tony there, I could feel the temperature in the room change,” the Irish actor added. “It felt so out of place to see him in their house. It felt very out of place. It was fun to do.”
So will Maud and Declan come back from this infidelity scandal?
“I don’t know,” Aidan told TV Insider. “This is pretty big for Declan. There’s been infidelities before, and they’ve managed to get through it.
“[But] this is pretty huge. This is a big transgression. It’s a huge impasse for them, I think, and only time will tell, I suppose, for them. I don’t think Declan has fully processed it yet. I think it’s such a shock for him.”
Three new episodes of Rivals premiered on Disney+ on Wednesday 11 November, with the remaining three episodes of season two arriving weekly.
