How Involved In Rivals Season 2 Was Jilly Cooper?

The “naughtiest show on television” is finally back, and Rivals’ second season pays homage to the late Dame Jilly Cooper, who wrote the source material beloved by millions for decades.

Dame Jilly, the author of Rivals and 10 other novels set in the world of Rutshire, died suddenly in October 2025 at the age of 88, but before her death, she gave her input into the second series.

According to the show’s creative team, Jilly signed off on all the scripts for season two, and was giving production team notes up until a few days before her death.

“Jilly signed off every script of the 12 and was on set for quite a lot of production as well,” executive producer Alexander Lamb told Tech Radar.

“So it feels that this series totally has Jilly’s seal of approval. She’s an exec producer, which she’s credited for, and was giving me notes on the Thursday before she died on episode 12.”

“Her fingerprints are all over this series, and we’d also sat with her and talked about season three and the future, about how to mould the other books around Rivals,” he added.

“We’ve got her blessing on things. We’ve got her notes written down. She’s always with us.”

Jilly’s agent, Felicity Blunt, was one of the executive producers of the show and, according to the showrunner and self-proclaimed Jilly Cooper superfan Dominic Treadwell-Collins, was “Jilly’s representative on Earth, like the Pope is for God.”

“Jilly always said that her job was to entertain,” Felicity told Deadline. “We all try and ensure that that is our North Star. So this season is 150% a tribute.”

The show frequently pays tribute to Jilly with the author even making a cameo in season one.

While the series has expanded beyond Jilly’s source novels and characters, the writing still takes inspiration from the literary icon.

“If you are a Jilly aficionado, you will be able to point to certain scenes, beats or words that she uses,” Felicity – who also happens to be the sister of Emily Blunt and wife to Stanley Tucci – told the outlet.

“We are able to play out the repercussions of some of the bigger dramatic beats of series one, and I think we do that really effectively and still utterly in sync with Jilly’s voice and her storytelling practice. She read every script, celebrated all our choices and gave us complete permission to deviate from the text.”

At the season two premiere of Rivals, Emily Atack opened up about losing the novelist mid-way through filming the series.

“Losing her halfway through the shoot, it was really kind of bizarre and it just gives the show a whole new layer of love and sentiment to it,” she told the press.

“All we want to do is make her and her family proud and it’s a love letter to Jilly this.”

Rufus Jones, who plays Emily’s on-screen husband, also revealed at the premiere that Jilly did manage to see some of the second season before her death.

“She saw some of the assemblies and some of the episodes, you know, the rough episodes, so she got to see something,” the actor explained.

According to Emily, Dame Jilly was “nothing but complimentary and happy” about the episodes.

“You know, she was a mate by the end of it. It’s still a big loss,” Rufus added.

Looking at the rave reviews from critics and 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, we’re sure the late Dame would be proud of how well her characters have been brought to life.

The first three episodes premiere on Friday 15 May, on Disney +, followed by one a week until 5 June. The second half of the season will air later in 2026.