During the panel discussion at Hay 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.
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 sold more than 11 million books in the UK alone, and was an active part of the show’s production, serving as an executive producer.