Trainer (TV series)

Trainer was a British television series transmitted by the BBC between 1991 and 1992. It was produced by Gerard Glaister as a follow-up to the long-running series Howards' Way.[1]

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 (David McCallum) and widow Rachel Ware (Susannah York).

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 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 mid-week 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.

Trainer ran for two series and was the last television project for producer Gerard Glaister, who commissioned Simon May to compose the theme music, following their collaboration on Howards' Way. The opening titles of Trainer were accompanied by an instrumental theme. As had been the case with later series of Howards' Way, it was decided to add lyrics for the version for the closing titles. Mike Read was commissioned to write lyrics for May's composition, and the resulting song, "More to Life", was performed by Cliff Richard, entering the UK singles chart at No. 23.[1]