Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Marcus Gilbert) is a rich and upper class Englishman at the top of the world of international show jumping, while his arch-rival Jake Lovell (Michael Praed) is a man of humble gipsy origins now funded by his Sloane Ranger heiress wife Tory (Caroline Harker).

Lovell is driven by an intense hatred of Campbell-Black, who had bullied him mercilessly as a small boy at their English prep school, and their fights over riding prizes and women reach a climax at the Los Angeles Olympics.

Anglia bought the film rights to the best-selling book and hired Charlotte Bingham and her husband Terence Brady to produce a script, giving the job of director to Gabrielle Beaumont.

Writing in The Independent, Allison Pearson said: "Jilly Cooper's Riders (ITV), allegedly about mounting excitement, came with palpitating publicity.

[3] Rowan Pelling has suggested in The Daily Telegraph that the outrageous Fleet Street columnist Janey Lloyd-Foxe is based on Jilly Cooper herself and the young Camilla Parker-Bowles.