Racing certainty

A new RTÉ/BBC co-production set in the world of Irish racing has chosen to ignore the adage, 'never work with children or animals'. B ut will Rough Diamond be a winner, asks Gemma Tipton

Thinking about how central horses are to a particularly Irish way of life, it's odd that there hasn't been a TV drama series before about the horse scene. Yes, they turn up here and there, in The Irish RM (1983) for example, but I can't think of an Irish series that focuses on the world of horse breeding, training and racing. This is a bit of a surprise when you realise that last year 1.45 million people went to meetings at Irish racecourses (and that total on-course betting reached €261.9 million). Perhaps it's got something to do with the adage, "never work with children or animals". But it seems that Rough Diamond, a new RTÉ/BBC co-production, was a series waiting to happen.

Billed as "the heart-warming story of a man who thinks he has nothing . . . and a horse who just needs a chance", Rough Diamond is actually the tale of two rival yards: one wealthy and slick, with not a blade of grass out of place; the other ramshackle, dilapidated and on the brink of bankruptcy. So we all know whose side we're on - right? Well, not exactly. The rich and slick yard is owned by Charlie Carrick, played by Stanley Townsend, and even though he is meant to be the evil genius figure, bent on acquiring his neighbour's land, it's very hard not to love him, because Townsend is so brilliant.

Producer Peter Norris (who introduced us to Colin Farrell in Falling for a Dancer) disputes the notion that the series is all about the four-legged cast members: "It's not," he says. "It's about the people who live in the world where horses are trained and bred. However, there are," he concedes, "horses in almost every scene," a fact which made shooting difficult at times. Having a horse myself, which, rather than just "needing a chance", is actually often on his very last chance, I was curious to know how they managed.

"Oh God, it was very difficult," says horsemaster Irene Lawler, who worked with both animals and actors on set. One of the problems was that the real star of the show, the horse who just needs a chance (known in the series only as The Colt) was played by a sweetheart of a horse which didn't have a bad bone in his body. "He was such a gentleman," Lawler says. "I liked him so much." So how do you teach a lovely, well-behaved horse to act like a crazed loon? "Patience," says Lawler. "And peppermints," adds Conor Mullen, who plays Aidan Doherty, the only man who can handle The Colt. "I worked on the theory that bribery was the best way to gain respect; and that all horses like mints." Mullen's strategy worked so well that The Colt (real name Forever Fantasy) was nicknamed Polo by the end of the shoot because of his passion for peppermints. "He was very keen on them; he even bit me a couple of times looking for them. We did turn him back into a gentleman again afterwards," Mullen reassures me.

Stanley Townsend, who went straight from the shoot to take on the role of Saddam Hussein for Channel 4's Saddam's Tribe, is one of the few actors in the series who doesn't have to ride a horse, spending most of his time in a suit. "On the first day's filming, I was wearing a very nice suit," he recalls, "and I saw one of the heads over a stable door, and thought I should say hello to this long nose. Then someone called me, and as I turned away I felt the shoulder of this very expensive jacket being munched. So I decided I should stay away from them in future." But horses are, he agrees, "the heart of the thing. And if the horse in your shot gets it right, then that's the take."

As well as Townsend and Mullen, the cast of Rough Diamond includes Lorraine Pilkington, Eamon Morrissey and newcomers Ben Davies and Muireann Bird. All spent time getting to know the Irish horse-racing scene, and - where the role demanded it - learning to ride. In this, Mullen and Bird had a head start, both having ridden before (although in Mullen's case, there was a 25-year gap between then and now); but 17-year-old Ben Davies (playing Doherty's long-lost son Jonah) was a complete novice. "I took four days off school to do hours of lessons, and when I went back in to class, I was walking like John Wayne. There were a couple of embarrassing moments," he adds. "Like when I mounted and fell off the other side. But Irene had me cantering bareback; she was really good for my confidence."

"He was brilliant," says Bird, who plays Charlie Carrick's daughter Sheridan. "He learned so quickly. It took me two years to learn to ride properly, but Ben was a natural." Bird grew up around animals: "I've always lived in the country, and we have horses, chickens and dogs, so that was the perfect background for this. Having said that, I'd only ever ridden ponies before and horses are a completely different story. Ponies have such a personality, they'll do all sorts of nasty things to try to get you off, but the horses we were riding were all so well behaved and well trained." In fact, Bird may be being unduly modest for, as horsemaster Irene Lawler points out, some of the horses used in the series were real racehorses rather than schoolmasters.

Rough Diamond is an unexpected break for Bird, who had never done an audition before, and who was planning to study science after her Leaving Cert. "I had been going to stage school at the weekends, and my teacher put me forward. Filming lasted 14 weeks and it was the time of my life. It was so hard to go back to school," she says. "But my friends say that it doesn't matter whether they like me in the series or not, they're still going to slag me." With the Leaving Cert ahead of her, Bird says her future is "up in the air. This time last year I was going to be a chemist. The possibility I could be an actress wasn't even in question; it was like the possibility of being a rock star. Now I'm going to fill in my CAO form and apply to drama school too. I'll have to wait and see."

Along with horses and actors, the landscape is a scene-stealing star of the show; for this is an Ireland where everything is incredibly beautiful. From the opening scene, where Doherty is sleeping out under the Irish skies at Powerscourt Waterfall with his trusty horse for company, we're treated to an Ireland that I, for one, would very much like to live in. Norris agrees that the beginning is a bit of a cheat. "We bring Doherty from Powerscourt to Meath as if they are down the road from each other," he says. "We're not exactly specific to place."

I wonder if it would be cynical to assume that a drama set, as the BBC puts it, "in beautiful rural southern Ireland" might be a bit like Ballykissangel? "It's not," Norris says. "That was a bit twee. But it was important we set this in Ireland. If you put it in the UK you'd get tied up with issues of class. Ireland is far more egalitarian." Norris thinks the series will touch "a raw nerve" in both Britain and Ireland. "People like shows that bring them back to the elemental things in life."

In terms of a co-production, though, I wonder sometimes how much the BBC really "gets" about Ireland. The BBC website misspells Doherty (as Docherty) throughout, and talks about the series being filmed in "County Mead", which does just about sum up that sort of "stage Oirish" that we too often get from dramas set in this country (including those made by RTÉ).

And what about the horse-racing set? What are they likely to make of Rough Diamond? "They're not really any different from people like us," says Norris. "Like us, they're obsessed with what they do. I found them fascinating. We went to The Curragh, Leopardstown and Fairyhouse, and to the bloodstock sales. Everybody gave us support; they were very open and generous."

In fact, some memners of the racing set are looking forward to the first episode. According to Mark Costello, deputy editor of racing bible, The Irish Field: "Some of them will actually be in the series, as the programme makers canvassed the industry for extras during the summer and autumn. I think all of us will be fascinated to see how the sport is presented. Generally speaking, Irish people have a great affinity for horse racing, but sometimes the sport attracts the wrong sort of publicity, especially in novels and films. Hopefully there won't be any unrealistic plotlines involving doped horses and dodgy jockeys."

I don't know whether any dodgy jockeys turn up in Rough Diamond, although the characters do include stock figures such as the chancer-in-the-pub and the stern official with a heart of gold. What I do know is that, unlike Footballers' Wives, where you never see any football being played, the end of the series turns on a final, crucial race. Will The Colt win? Will the Do[ c]hertys be saved? We'll find out in six weeks u

The first episode of Rough Diamond will be broadcast next Friday at 7pm on RTÉ 1