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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Michael Howie

'A ray of sunshine': Rivals stars and Queen Camilla pay tribute to Jilly Cooper at London memorial service

The Queen has joined stars of hit TV show Rivals at a memorial service to celebrate the life of Dame Jilly Cooper in central London.

Dame Jilly died unexpectedly in October, aged 88, after sustaining injuries from a fall.

The successful author's fictional seducer and showjumper Rupert Campbell-Black, who appears in The Rutshire Chronicles, is said to be partly based on the Queen's ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.

Camilla previously described Dame Jilly as a "wonderfully witty and compassionate friend" and a writing "legend".

At the service, Queen Camilla, who was welcomed at the cathedral by the Very Rev Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark, viewed a picture of Dame Jilly which was on display outside.

Among those also at the Southwark Cathedral service are Rivals stars David Tennant, Victoria Smurfit, Alex Hassell, Aidan Turner, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.

Dyer said the service was “wonderful” and Tennant added it was “beautiful”.

Irish actress Smurfit paid a heartfelt tribute outside the cathedral, saying we have lost "a ray of sunshine".

“I feel extremely grateful and unbelievably lucky that a woman who's been in my life for nearly 40 years as a name as an author, her voice has been in my world for 40 years, that I got to live in her presence and be part of her world,” she said.

“It's going to be terribly sad today and surreal and oddly making it real that she is gone.

“We will keep her memory and stories alive for as long as we can.

Rivals star Victoria Smurfit outside Southwark Cathedral (Getty Images)

“I think what it means for me to be here today is really to support her family. I think that's the most important thing because it's a tough time. I mean, what a girl.

“We've lost a ray of sunshine. We really have.”

Others in attendance are Dame Jilly's literary agent Felicity Blunt and her husband, actor Stanley Tucci.

He paid tribute to the late author and told media: "She lived an incredible life.

"She also changed the lives of so many people for the better with her books, my wife being one of them.

"She was an extraordinary person, a brilliant writer, nice person and naughty."

Rivals star Aidan Turner and wife Caitlin FitzGerald attending the memorial at Southwark Cathedral (PA Wire)

Blunt wore a tote bag that said "I love Jilly Cooper" on it.

Arriving for the service, Alan Titchmarsh said he was friends with Dame Jilly for 40 years and described her as "hugely genuine".

He joked: "Her only failing was her appalling hand drawing."

Asked what it meant to be there at the service, Titchmarsh said: "It's a way of saying thank-you really. Such a loss of a great friend."

Rivals star Alex Hassell and his wife Emma King arriving at the service of thanksgiving (PA Wire)

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth paid tribute to the "fabulous" and "amazing" Dame Jilly.

He said: "Whenever I think of Jilly Cooper, I think of one word, a three-letter word: fun, fun, fun, fun.

"That sums her up.

"This is, of course, terribly sad, but also it's a celebration of an amazing life, an amazing writer, an amazing human being.

Paying her respects: Joanna Lumley pictured on Friday morning (Ian West/PA Wire)

"Champagne is being popped in heaven today and I'm honoured and delighted to be here amongst so many celebrating an amazing writer."

He continued: "I first met her nearly 60 years ago. We were both young authors. We sat at the back of a bus. I held her hand, and she decided to talk to me about sex.

"I saw her a few weeks before she died. We sat in the back of the bus, we held hands, we talked about sex. She was fabulous."

Other guests included Dame Joanna Lumley, actor Rupert Everett, former football player Tony Adams, actress Lisa Maxwell and comedian Helen Lederer.

Dame Lumley told the Press Association after the service she felt "elated and full of champagne", adding: "It was very touching, sometimes very funny, just sometimes very moving and very beautiful."

Dame Jilly Cooper died in October aged 88 (Ian West/PA) (PA Archive)

The author was known for her steamy fiction novels which focused on scandal and adultery in upper class society, with titles including Riders, Rivals and Polo, part of The Rutshire Chronicles.

Rivals, set in the 1980s against the backdrop of the Cotswolds countryside, was recently adapted into the award-winning eponymous Disney+ TV series starring David Tennant, Alex Hassell, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer.

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