BBC TV Series TRAINER Any good?

Thought was crap.

Kim Mazelle gets her ample bosom out, funny how you remember small things, well not so small in her case.

It was ok I suppose, the lovely Susannah York made it a little more bearable than it would otherwise have been.

Good idea - But, of course, with a Drama(Entertainment) Series written bu NON-Racing people - Acted by NON-Racing people - Directed by NON-Racing people etc, etc - it could never come across a credible to the RACING PEOPLE viewer.

Compulsory romantic affairs and the like written into the plots, of course (for Joe Public viewer) but deemed irrelevant by the Racing fan viewer.

However, if you accepted it for what it was - light entertainment - in the Howard's Way vogue - then it was relaxing Sunday night viewing.

Cracking Theme Tune sung by Cliff Richard, though    - entitled  'More to Life'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVynPivCoBk

Amateurish junk. Avoid at all costs.  Mark Greenstreet, the title role, still remains relatively unknown. David McCallum played the inevitable gambler, and Susannah York (the inevitable widow), who was gorgeous as always, died in 2011.  That's it.

Here is another version - with Visual (good) Lyrics - and some info on the Series later in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbqd74PFYt0

Load of rubbish.

Mark Greenstreed was considered for the role of James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) before Timothy Dalton was cast.

never to be heard of again

Thanks for the replies. Did it revolve around one racecourse?

Filmed in Compton.

What was the ITV series ... late 70s? which was a drama (of sorts) about horse racing ... I remember Wetherby was shown so might have been a Yorkshire TV production of the day?

i think so as it says filmed in and around the village of compton near newbury

there was also luck starring dustin hoffman (2011) and the adventures of  black stallion (90-93)

Really enjoyed Luck. Apparently season 2 was stopped due to the number of horses having accidents.

i dont tend to watch many gambling related tv series/films as many have a terrible plot

It was not very good. There was a book of the series which you might be able to pick up cheaply. There was a tipster who kept his readers in the dark over a coup and a pro punter who blackmailed a steward iirc.

though i did watch a film the other week about a guy who knew he was going to jail and entrusted his 100k to a friend in a rucksack along with some rope and other items, if he held on to it for a few months he would give him some of the money as a thank you, so the guy went on a gambling spree and the film had a pretty crap ending as  i remember

@geordie1956 -- ITV had a series based on Dick Francis stories called The Racing Game. It was not very good but was released on DVD if you look around.

casino starring sharon stone, robert de niro and joe pesci was a decent movie,reccomend watching that

cheers Ramruma

found a film called ride like a girl starring sam neill, The inspirational story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup despite facing odds of a 100 to 1

Was Sam Neill convincing as Michelle?

As for Trainer, yes, a right load of old rubbish, although i'd happily watch an episode or two at the moment just for a laugh and a reminisce..

Was Sam Neill convincing as Michelle?


that doesnt even deserve a reply

Trainer was the biggest load of garbage ever made.

Based on the life of Jenny Pitman.

Geoff Deacon trains from the yard now.

Ot was rubbish

May 12, 2020 -- 11:38PM, themightymac wrote:

Trainer was the biggest load of garbage ever made.

Would still watch it in the current climate.

Johnny_Mustang  13 May 20 07:35 

Geoff Deacon trains from the yard now.
----------------

The yard was originally where ATTY CORBETT trained from.

A lovely small yard - Owned by cunning and successful trainer KEN CUNDELL - brother of top Jumps trainer Frank Cundell  who had a bigger yard am mile or so away down in the village of Compton, with an Indoor School, paid for from Winnings with King of Spain.

KEN CUNDELL was the brother of top Jumps trainer Frank Cundell, trained at Aston Tirroid

Their father, Len, had trained at Chilton - But the Government requisitioned his stables and created RAF Harwell, for the Second Worldd War  - hence he moved to Aston Tirroid, after the war, when racing resumed

Ken Cundell's yard is now, and has been some time, a housing estate - as -despite his father's talent, and illustrous relations, son Peter Cundell could not make a go of Training - despite eventually becoming President of the National Trainer's Federation.

There was a misnomer - if ever there was one.

Still, he has had a comfortable life living at Roden House, bolstered by the sale of the land for the housing.
------------

Here is what I posted on an ATTY CORBETT Thread on here 9 years ago

onlooker • December 4, 2011 7:34

T A 'Atty' CORBETT - started training around 1958 in Compton Berkshire.

He had 12 Jumpers listed in 1959 - with the Earl of Caernarvon as one of his owners.

The Earl, later to be known as Lord Porchester, was Her Majesty The Queen's Racing Manager -
and is the father of Harry Herbert - current supremo of Highclere Thoroughbreds and Racing.

'ATTY' trained out of 'the top Yard'-  on the way to the Ridgway Down gallops from Ken Cundell's yard.

He later moved to Lagrange, at Newmarket, in 1967, having switched to Flat Racing.

By 1968 he had 45 horses - He ceased training in the mid-1970s, and had 24 horses in 1974.

Some of his more familiar, latter, horse were ...

Scots Fusilier - who was still in training as a 13-yr-old in 1972
Sweet Revenge
Kiboletto
Pericet
Tilario
Hopping Hill
Perdu

- and from the mid 1960s ...

Brief Case
Colour Blind
Le Dauphin
Silicon
Kibenka - won the Free Handicap in 1966
Report
mange • December 4, 2011 7:37 PM GMT
propper M8

onlooker • December 5, 2011 7:38

Incidently -

The 'top yard at Compton' - that I referred to - where Atty Corbett first trained, was the Yard used  to film the BBC Drama Series TRAINER - which was shown on Sunday evenings in 1991 and 92.

Strewth - How do I know all these things.

- and, Blimey! - was it really 20 years ago.

TRAINER was the follow on from HOWARD'S WAY - which had run it's course - and aimed to capture that Sunday evening audience.

The series did not get a particularly good response from the critics -

But that was predictable - as those critics would know sod all about racing - and the intrigues of the plots, etc.

Likewise, followers of racing rather turned their noses up at TRAINER - as the story lines, understandably, majored on 'love affairs', the consequent jealousies, and general posturing for social positions - rather than raw racing stories.

It wasn't as bad as both factions portrayed  it, though - if you accepted it for what it was -
which was - Sunday evening light entertainment melodrama.

The opening titles and closing credits, were filmed at Newbury racecourse, showing Starting stalls, a race, crowd reaction, etc - and those were, indeed, well done ...

- and were perfectly complimented by Cliff Richard singing the theme tune - entitled 'More To Life' ...

- which could, in itself, be many a punter's theme tune.

Unfortunately, I cannot find a video of the opening titles/closing credits ....

- so you will just have to listen, instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDZxEACbc6w&feature=related

You've got something the wrong way round there, he was Lord Porchester as a younger man, then became the Earl of Carnarvon (when he inherited Highclere). I remember standing next to him one fine spring day in the 80s, in the paddock at Kempton.

Im sure we all remember those fabulous colours of crimson, with a royal blue collar, white cap, carried by horses such as Lyric Fantasy, Niche, Drum Taps, Lemon Souffle, Roseate Tern and Caramba.

If anyone does watch Trainer - it was poor - note the episode where there are 2 horses in a match race at Goodwood.

All the bookies in the betting ring are going 11/10 both of them.

If only...

Well - thank you - fairweather for your rather ungracious riposte

That part of my post is a RE-post from 9 years ago ... where were you first time around then?

I would like to think that the vast majority on here will be well aware that my specialist subject is Flat Racing, and not the Peerage (that being poster Ged's Province)

Apologies Onlooker, but I couldnt let it go unsaid

Fairweather - Carnarvon's colours were Scarlet not Crimson (Hollingsworth'ish), with a Blue collar and White Cap. He should have kept his previous colours imo - Eton Blue with Black hooped cap and his Mrs's Sea Green with a Sapphire Blue Cap.

There was one realistic and accurate depiction in Trainer. David McCallum, as the professional gambler, always sat on the barstool at the left hand end of the main bar leaning back against the wood paneled and frosted glass wall in the Crown & Horns, East Ilsley.

That was my seat!