Trainer

Overview:

Trainer was a British television series transmitted by the BBC between 1991 and 1992. Filmed in and around the village of Compton near Newbury, the series was set in the world of horse racing. It starred Mark Greenstreet as Mike Hardy, an aspiring horse trainer keen to set up his own stables. Other major characters included local gambler John Grey and widow Rachel Ware. Trainer lasted for two series and was the last TV project for producer Gerard Glaister. The theme song, "More to Life", was performed by Cliff Richard. The song was written by Simon May and Mike Read. The first series of 13 episodes was given the prime time Sunday night slot on BBC1 which had previously been occupied by another Glaister creation Howards' Way and a horse-racing storyline from that earlier programme provided much of the inspiration for Trainer. However, with ratings of around 6 million, the second series was reduced to ten episodes and shown on Wednesday evenings. Many changes were made to made for the second series to try to increase its popularity. The self-contained story-per-episode format of the first series made way for a more soap-like continuous story, new characters were introduced and storylines focussed more on their intertwined personal lives. However, the midweek slot and racier plots did not bring in the additional viewers needed to justify a third series. The last episode of the second series ended with a murder-mystery cliffhanger, which would never be resolved.