Must Watch reviews: Rivals, Believe Me, and Legends

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Campbell join Naga Munchetty to review ‘Rivals’, ‘Believe Me’ and ‘Legends’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

The first review is the second series of Rivals, which our reviewers loved when it first landed in 2024. It's the series based on Jilly Cooper's novels, which is ostensibly about two rival TV companies in the Cotswolds, but if you've seen any of it you'll know it's a lot more than that…

Scott and Hayley both think the second series of Rivals is a Must Watch.

Scott says, “I think this show goes from strength to strength. It really does not let up.”

“Sometimes I got more fascinated by the TV franchise auction part of the programme, but then I was thinking to myself, is that just my autism?”

He describes the acting as “superb” and the show as “a little bit silly, incredibly 80s, and not taking itself too seriously.”

“My only criticism is that there's quite a few characters and it can be quite knotty, sometimes it feels like 11 competing storylines.”

Hayley says, “Of course this is a Must Watch!”

“I had a snobby idea of what a Jilly Cooper novel was and then I ended up bingeing all of the [first season] in one go.”

She says the show is about “class, petty human jealousy, sex, and love”.

“I was watching it at the screening in Soho and there was one sex scene with Declan O'Hara, played by Aidan Turner, that made me laugh so hard that my friend sitting next to me leaned over and asked if I was OK.”

Hayley adds that the new season introduces new characters but that “they’ve all had Jilly Cooper's sign off because she died while they were about halfway through shooting the season. They’re very Jilly Cooper world characters”.

The first four episodes of the second series of Rivals will be available to watch on Disney+ on Friday 15th May. You can currently watch series one now.

Believe Me is a new four-part true ITV crime drama. It looks at the survivors who launched legal action against the police following their investigation and arrest of the taxi driver Jon Worboys – a serial sex offender who was convicted in 2009. He is played by Daniel Mays in the show.

Hayley and Scott think Believe Me is a Must Watch.

However, Hayley says, “I think this is really well done, but I kind of don't want to watch more of it.”

She describes the show as “a horrible, infuriating watch because it's done so well and it made me feel quite ill.”

“It's really good at showing how even reporting a rape is an invasive, re-traumatising thing to do. I like how the director focuses on the face of the women when they're undergoing the various swabs and exams.”

Hayley explains, “It’s easier to watch a man being evil than it is to watch the victims being disbelieved. I find it harder to watch the police being useless, it adds a kind of hopelessness to the horror.”

Scott says, “I agree with Hayley. I've seen all four parts. I saw this in one go.”

“It is a damning case and it's also incredibly uncomfortable.”

He says that he has “never been more angry at a TV show”.

“It really does hone in on the incompetence [of the police] and the consequences of that.”

But Scott adds that the importance of this show is that whilst this might be a news story you’ve seen reported on, it will resonate even more when “you see the victims being portrayed in this way and the years that they had to endure”.

All four episodes of Believe Me are available to watch on ITVX now.

Legends is a new Netflix series created by Neil Forsyth and based on a true story. It stars Tom Burke, Steve Coogan and Charlotte Ritchie. The show looks at a team of civil servants who become undercover agents to stop gangs bringing in heroin into the country back during Thatcher's Britain.

Scott and Hayley also think Legends is a Must Watch.

Scott says, “I’ve been a fan of Neil Forsythe for a while. He balances his journalist background with a really dark yet sarcastic sense of humour”.

“I never knew that a drama about customs officers could be so fascinating, but it's about them being out of their depth.”

He says the show is set in “an era that you don't normally see, back in ‘90s Thatcher’s Britain”.

“It does not shy away from the terrible human consequences of drug abuse and addiction.”

Hayley says, “It's not perfect, but I really like it.”

“They really do a really good job of making you feel uneasy the entire time.”

She explains that the civil servants are given three weeks of training before being sent to infiltrate gangs who are capable of killing them.

“It sounds like a kind of glamorous action job, but they've got no extra money to do it. There's a kind of Slow Horses dreariness to it.”

Hayley describes the story as “interesting and terrifying”.

All episodes of Legends are available to watch now on Netflix.

Listen to the full reviews of all three programmes on BBC Sounds.

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

We used AI to transcribe and summarise our Must Watch feature. This article was then written and reviewed by a BBC journalist. More on how the BBC uses AI.