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Every morning on the Rivals set, I'd be asked the same question.
"What are we playing today?"
It earned me the nickname "master of fun" from Claire Rushbrook, which I'll take to my grave.
Over two series of filming, board games became as much a part of the Rivals set as the polo costumes and the Cotswolds countryside. Here's what we played, who was brilliant, and who surprised us all.
BANANAGRAMS
It started on day one.
Before a single scene had been shot, Aidan Turner had already broken out Bananagrams with Luca Pasqualino and Bella Maclean. The tone was set immediately.
Bananagrams became the game of choice for quick bursts between takes — fast, loud, no setup required. Claire Rushbrook was the undisputed queen of it. Highest win rate on the entire set, and she made it look effortless. David Tennant was a regular opponent and gave her a proper run for her money.
If you've never played, it's essentially a faster, more chaotic version of Scrabble with no board. Perfect for a film set.
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CODENAMES
If Bananagrams was the warm-up, Codenames was the main event.
For those unfamiliar — Codenames is a word association game where one player acts as Spymaster, giving single-word clues to help their team identify the right words on the board. The Spymaster role is everything.
Danny Dyer was our MVP Spymaster on Series 2. Watching him and David Tennant go head to head was genuinely one of the highlights of filming. Both completely committed, both highly competitive.
But the secret weapon was Catriona Chandler. When she was Spymaster, everyone wanted to be on her team. Her clues were precise, lateral and somehow always worked. She was extraordinary at it.
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SPLENDOR
I didn't know I was a ruthless competitor until I played Splendor.
Bobby Lockwood and Maxim Ays — who play the twins in Rivals — will confirm this. The three of us played whenever we could grab a moment between takes, often alongside chess games that were already in progress. At some point I stopped being a friendly participant and became someone who blocked other players' gem acquisitions with what Bobby described as quiet menace.
I was surprised by myself.
Guy Siner, who plays Bishop Brenton, was the ultimate Splendor player though. Methodical, patient, and he won. Every time.
Splendor is a gem-collecting strategy game — simple to learn, genuinely hard to master. It rewards exactly the kind of patient, long-game thinking that I apparently do not have.
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CARCASSONNE
Selina Griffiths, who plays one of the most stylish characters in Rivals - Dame Enid Spink - is not a competitive person. She will tell you this herself. She approached Carcassonne with complete relaxed indifference.
She destroyed everyone first time she played.
It was genuinely baffling. Carcassonne is a tile-laying game where you build medieval landscapes — cities, roads, farms — and score points based on what you complete. It rewards strategic thinking and careful planning. Selina appeared to do neither and somehow won comprehensively.
We are still talking about it.
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THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY
We also played Dixit and Chameleon regularly — unfortunately without cameras nearby.
Dixit is a beautifully illustrated storytelling game — one of the most creative games I've ever played. Worth getting purely for the artwork. And it's for up to 8 players - which is why no one took a picture - we were all playing.
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Chameleon was Gilbert Kyem Jnr's gift to us all on Series 1 and we played it constantly. This was basically when Rival Board Game club started. It's a bluffing game where one player secretly doesn't know the topic — and has to bluff their way through without being caught. On a set full of actors, this was either very easy or very hard depending on who was playing.
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A NOTE FROM THE MASTER OF FUN
I brought the games. I asked every morning what we were playing. I took it seriously — perhaps too seriously in the case of Splendor.
But honestly, some of my favourite memories from two series of Rivals happened around a table with a box of cards or tiles between us. It's a particular kind of fun that I'd recommend to any cast, any set, anywhere.
Claire Rushbrook was right. Games matter.
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