Alex Hassell Returns as Rivals Series Two Brings Back Key Cast — Rivals (tv Series)

rivals (tv series) returns with Alex Hassell and Nafessa Williams back in the cast, while the production carries the weight of Dame Jilly Cooper’s death last October at 88. The Disney+ drama is not just resuming; it is doing so with its author’s notes still inside season two.

Alex Hassell said, “Her death in the midst of this whole show was really impactful.” He added, “We were always thinking of her anyway because we're completely in her world, her imagination and her taste.”

Rutshire stays at the center

Rivals is based on Dame Jilly Cooper’s novel and is set in the 1980s in the fictional English county of Rutshire, where a battle over the Central South West television franchise drives the story. The first series introduced viewers to polo, high society and scandal, and series two is described as even raunchier and more ruthless than the first.

Returning alongside Hassell and Williams are Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara, David Tennant as Tony Baddingham and Bella Maclean as Taggie O’Hara. Hayley Atwell joins as Helen Gordon, and Rupert Everett arrives as Malise Gordon, which gives the new run a larger bench of familiar and new faces without changing the franchise fight at the center of the show.

Jilly Cooper on set

Hassell said, “She'd come on set and be so encouraging, and she gave notes on all of the scripts in season two, which is so important.” That is the rare part of this return: the show continues after the author’s death, but the material still carries her direct input.

For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: season two is built to feel like a continuation, not a reset. The cast list is familiar, the setting stays in Rutshire and the scripts still reflect Cooper’s hand, so the new episodes should land as a return to the same contest for power, money and status rather than a soft reboot.