Rivals star Bella Maclean cuddled her on-screen lover Alex Hassell and branded her co-stars ‘family’ in a new social media post.
Season two of the hit Disney+ show returned last month, with producers ensuring they maintained their status as the ‘naughtiest show on TV’.
Taking to Instagram on Monday, Bella, 28, shared behind-the-scenes snaps from filming the bonkbuster.
In multiple snaps, the Taggie O’Hara and Rupert Campbell-Black actors looked happier than ever as they beamed for cosy shots together.
She also included selfies with Catriona Chandler, Jamie Bisping and a fun photo with the cast.
Bella finished her photo dump with snaps of her enjoying food in between takes and shots behind the camera.
Rivals star Bella Maclean cuddled her on-screen lover Alex Hassell and branded her co-stars ‘family’ in a new social media post
Season two of the hit Disney+ show returned last month, with producers ensuring they maintained their status as the ‘naughtiest show on TV’
The actress penned alongside the post: ‘That’s family!’
It comes after it was revealed Dame Jilly Cooper scolded the team behind Rivals and told them to stop making her ‘macho men’ cry on screen.
The show, which also stars Danny Dyer, David Tennant and Emily Atack, is based on the best-selling novel written by Dame Jilly who died unexpectedly last October, aged 88, after suffering injuries from a fall at home.
Now, an executive producer on the show has said Dame Jilly had dished out one memorable piece of criticism on set.
Speaking at Hay Festival, Laura Wade, writer and executive producer of Rivals, said: ‘We were so lucky to have Jilly… You would expect someone to be quite strict about what you do with their key characters, and she really wasn’t.
‘She would tell us, if I was making Rupert (Campbell-Black) cry too often, that was one of her favourites – “stop making my macho men cry all the time”.’
Set in the 1980s, with the backdrop of the Cotswolds countryside, Rivals follows the high-stakes world of British television as careers, marriages and reputations hang by a thread when professional and personal lives collide.
Dame Jilly was an active part of its production and served as an executive producer.
Elsewhere at the festival, Victoria Smurfit, who plays Maud O’Hara in Rivals, recalled the moment the cast and crew found out about Dame Jilly’s sudden death.
Taking to Instagram on Monday, Bella shared behind-the-scenes snaps from filming the bonkbuster
Bella and Alex could be seen checking their tapes
The actress posed for a sweet snap with Catriona Chandler
The star included lots of snaps with her co-stars (pictured with Catriona and Jamie Bisping)
Bella finished her photo dump snaps of her enjoying food in between takes and shots behind the camera
The actress said: ‘I came back (from a break) and Eliza Mellor, our extraordinary on-set producer, was in the room and everything about her 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.’
Dame Jilly died from a head injury after falling down a flight of stairs at her Cotswolds home, an inquest heard last year.
The writer – known for raunchy novels such as Riders, Rivals and Polo – was found by family at her Grade II listed home in Bisley, Gloucestershire, at around 5pm on October 4.
They called for an ambulance and upon arrival, paramedics found Dame Jilly alert and referring to a ‘severe headache’.
She had no memory of the events prior, but had a ‘vague recollection’ of falling down, the inquest heard.
Rivals Series two: Reviews
The Guardian
‘If I could give this exquisite bonkbuster 10,000 stars, I would… Its fabulous escapism is beyond earthly praise’
The Telegraph
‘Rivals continues to refresh the parts that other television cannot reach – a heady mix of guilty pleasure, trenchant satire, rambunctious comedy and out-and-out trash.’
The Times
‘Despite its deliberate corniness, this is also gloriously uplifting television. It is unashamedly celebratory and perhaps even better than the last series.’
The Independent
‘There is a sense, across the cast, that everyone is enjoying themselves immensely, whether they’re romping on a pony or romping on a staircase.’
Financial Times
‘Some of the storylines, particularly those about the TV industry, drag a little. Rivals needs more slapstick, more of those capers, to keep things as light as they need to be for it to really work.’
Metro
‘Rivals arrives for its second outing with the swagger of a show that knows it’s already got us all on side… How good it feels to be back. Mercifully, little has changed.’