Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5623 in VHS
• Released on: 2002-07-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 198 minutes

Synopsis
Drama made for television based on the Jilly Cooper novel 'Riders' which focuses on the steamy goings-on in the world of international show-jumping.

From the Back Cover
The arrogant aristocrat Rupert Campbell-Black has social standing, women falling at his feet and is the undisputed darling of the show ring. But Rupert has a challenger, the brooding Jake Lovell, whose loathing for the beautiful bounder has driven him to the top. A bitter feud has been festering between the arch rivals. They have tampered with each others' horses, and fought and fornicated their way around the capitals of Europe. Finally the rivalry erupts in a showdown at the Los Angeles Olympics with disastrous consequences.

Riders, the first in the steamy series of Rutshire Chronicles by Jilly Cooper is superbly adapted for the small screen, taking the lid off international show jumping and offering a compulsive blend of sexual indulgence, romance and adventure.

Customer Reviews

Please don't make any more
So awful it's almost compelling. I love the book and of course the two are incomparable as it is too much to expect over 700 pages to convert to a few hours on screen. But the acting was atrocious & wooden, the characters totally lacking in charm (eg. Fen, awful, horrible girl), and how could anyone find Rupert the sexiest man on earth? Unbelievable. If you have read the book, the ending is a huge let down, it was meant to be set at the Olympics but the whole production showed a distinct lack of budget. Oh, and the obligatory shots of bare breasts in every sex scene became tremely tedious after a while.

Not good...
If you've read the books you'll hate this. Its a very cheap looking production with extremely odd casting- the good looking glossy characters you've imagined from the books are suddenly very boring looking in the film. More importantly though, bit have been altered presumably to cut costs - such as the death of Sailor the horse. In the book he dies of a heart attack after heroically tacking the olympics...in the film he dies in his stabe from colic (I think) - no mention of olympics anywhere. Overall a very poor and strange adaptation.

What happened to the time line?
Oh I loved this book! I was so pleased to hear it was being adapted for TV and then horribly disappointed, the plot swapped backwards and forwards, in the book Jake has won Gold at the Olympics BEFORE he leaves his wife for Helen. And what happened to Billy's wife's affair with his sponsor??
If you haven't read the book then this makes for enjoyable viewing, Michael Praed is very enjoyable as "Gypsy" Jake, Marcus Gilbert however is less believable as Rupert Campbell-Black, and Jilly Cooper fans everywhere will be shouting "That didn't happen then you idiot!" at the TV. On it's own merits, enjoyable, as a faithful replication of the book, incredibly poor!! Sorry!!