Rivals star Bella Maclean has shared a warm batch of behind-the-scenes photographs from the filming of the show’s second series, cuddling up to on-screen lover Alex Hassell and branding her co-stars “family” in a post that offered fans a rare glimpse behind the curtain of Disney+’s most talked-about drama.
The 28-year-old actress, who plays Taggie O’Hara in the bonkbuster adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s novel, took to Instagram on Monday with a photo dump from the set. Multiple shots showed Maclean and Hassell — who plays Rupert Campbell-Black — beaming together in cosy embraces, alongside selfies with cast members including Catriona Chandler and Jamie Bisping. She rounded off the post with candid snaps of herself eating between takes and exploring what lay behind the cameras. “That’s family!” she wrote alongside the images.
The post arrives as the second series of the hit show, which also stars Danny Dyer, David Tennant and Emily Atack, continues to air on Disney+, with producers having made clear their intention to maintain their reputation as the makers of the “naughtiest show on TV.”
The behind-the-scenes warmth captured in Maclean’s post sits alongside a more poignant backdrop. Dame Jilly Cooper, on whose best-selling novel the show is based, died unexpectedly last October at the age of 88 after suffering a head injury from a fall down a flight of stairs at her Cotswolds home. She had been an active executive producer on the production and had been involved across multiple series right up until her death.
Speaking at Hay Festival, writer and executive producer Laura Wade recalled Dame Jilly’s involvement fondly and revealed the one piece of criticism she was most consistent about delivering. “We were so lucky to have Jilly,” Wade said. “She would tell us, if I was making Rupert cry too often, that was one of her favourites — ‘stop making my macho men cry all the time’.”
Victoria Smurfit, who plays Maud O’Hara in the series, also spoke at the festival about the moment cast and crew learned of Dame Jilly’s death. “I came back and everything about our on-set producer was devastated, and I remember walking in and going, ‘Oh God, someone’s died’. And it is a testament to Jilly’s sparkle and her champagne-soaked soul of heavenly delight that at 88 there was not one iota of me that thought it might be her. She’d been across all the episodes, she’d been across season three, she’d been across everything, and she dropped and rolled. And now she gets to have fun up there.”
Set against the backdrop of 1980s Cotswolds and the cutthroat world of British television, Rivals continues to draw audiences with its blend of ambition, scandal and glamour — a fitting legacy for the woman who first put those characters on the page.
