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Rivals star Alex Hassell has shared his hopes for season two to be an ode to Dame Jilly Cooper’s legacy after her recent death.
The 45-year-old actor plays the dashing Rupert Campbell in the hit Disney Plus series which is an adaptation of the late Cooper’s 80s bonkbuster of the same name.
After a widely-acclaimed first season, filming for the second season was well underway when the author’s death was announced earlier this month, aged 88, after a fall.
In a statement shared by her children, they wrote: ‘Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.’
Tributes for the renowned and beloved writer flooded in from people across the industry, including the cast of Rivals, with Hassell writing on Instagram: ‘This magical woman changed my life,’ in a poignant message.
The His Dark Materials star, whose new prison thriller Wasteman recently premiered at BFI London Film Festival, spoke to Metro about Cooper’s impact on the TV adaptation where she served as an executive producer.
He said: ‘We’re all devastated. She was on set just the week before and, obviously, her voice and her character and her sense of creativity were such a huge driving force of the show in terms of the source material.
‘She would okay everything, or we would hear that things have changed because she didn’t think that certain things characters do are quite right or representative of her view of the characters.’
As for his hopes for season two, in light of her unexpected death, he added it’s ‘going to be a challenge for us all [the cast] to continue.’
Reflecting on his hopes, he said: ‘But we also really want to honour her, as you say, and try and do our best to keep making the show as good as possible.
What did Dame Jilly Cooper think of the Rivals TV adaptation?
The author was delighted that her popular Rutshire Chronicles was coming to life on screen and showered praise on the TV production.
‘I’ve adored seeing the world fall in love with my beloved characters – Rutshire’s finest. It has been a fairytale come true working with Happy Prince and Disney+ on the first season,’ she said after season two was renewed.
Ahead of the Bafta-nominated first season, she told The Guardian: ‘It’s got this fantastic cast of gorgeous men, and fantastically pretty girls… lots of desirability in it now. It’s very sexy, but it’s very well-acted too.’
As for her own perspective on how involved she was, she said she didn’t ‘have much’ influence.
In a chat with the BBC, she added: ‘I did occasionally say, “No, I don’t think they should be jumping on each other quite so early in the story” and things like that,
‘And really, season two is so much [more] interesting because it’s bigger, it’s funnier, it’s darker, it’s more serious, it’s more challenging. It’s brighter as well, it’s wilder. It’s everything pulled into it, every dimension.’
Thankfully, Cooper’s influence over the new episodes will be just as present, as Hassell noted.
‘She did get to see every single one of the scripts and had notes about every single one of [them].
‘She saw the first three episodes (I think) and was just absolutely over the moon about it, which means so much to us all that she was so renewed by it.
‘So, yeah, it’ll be really tough when it comes out that she wouldn’t have gotten to see it [all] but nonetheless, [it] is our tribute to her.’
Hassell’s co-star Danny Dyer echoed his sentiments about what to expect from the second season, earlier this year.
‘This series is so much better than the first. It’s that difficult second album thing other than the writers and producers have absolutely nailed it. I can’t wait for people to see it, it’s a beautiful job for me.
‘If you want a bit of naughtiest in your life, go and watch it. Rivals has plenty of naughtiness,’ he said at the time.
There is currently no release date for Rivals season two. Season one is available to stream on Disney Plus now.
Wasteman will release in UK cinemas on February 20, 2026.
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