Picking up new skills, whether it’s a specific dialect or a certain craft, is part of the job description for an actor. Learning how to ride – from scratch – was the task set for Alex Hassell (His Dark Materials and The Boys), who plays Rupert Campbell-Black in the Disney + TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals. Not only did Alex need to become adept at basic paces, but to be able to pass himself off as an Olympic gold medal-winning showjumper. He’d only ridden once before, “American cowboy style”, for another TV show.
“Where I was growing up, everything was about musicals, so I did singing and dancing lessons, ballet and tap,” says Alex, 44. “I ride a fair amount in this show and I absolutely loved it. You don’t get long to learn, and it was fairly alien to me, but I had very brilliant trainers who gave me a crash course in how to hold myself in a convincing way. It’s also about how you stroke them, feel confident around them.
“Rupert absolutely loves his dogs and his horse, Rocky, so I had to learn to feel how to express that as those relationships are so important to him.”
Alex wasn’t put to the ultimate test of jumping fences, but he learnt to canter – and did many of the stunts that would often be handed over to a double.
“I didn’t fall off!” Alex says. “I’m nearly galloping. I don’t think they’d quite let me gallop in case something goes wrong. But on the whole it’s me riding the horse – there are a couple of jumps they do in the hunting scenes, which isn’t me.”
The “amazing trainer” was Mark Atkinson, whose family business has been providing horses for TV and film for 25 years.
“Alex was keen and enjoyed it, so he was an absolute pleasure to teach,” says Mark. “I was hoping he’d have a light seat, and he was so easy because he’s very quiet and kind to the horse. He was always interested in how the horse was feeling that day.
“For the first few lessons you’re just teaching them to ride, so that they feel safe. Safety is everything in this world. And then it’s like you have to smudge the painting a bit, to make him look as if he’s been riding all his life, picked up a few bad habits. So any bad habits are my fault, because I’ve told him not put his heels down, not to look forced.
“And it’s also teaching them to be around horses – how to gather up the reins, getting on and landing nicely in the saddle – but Alex is very fit and he’s not a heavy guy.”
Which horse did Rupert Campbell-Black ride in Rivals?
The directors of Rivals gave Mark freedom in choosing which horse would best suit Rupert Campbell-Black as his beloved Rocky.
“I read Riders on holiday when my wife passed it on to me, and I thought it was absolutely brilliant!” says Mark. “So I had a good idea of who Rupert was and the type of horse he should ride. He’s not going to be on a big gypsy cob…”
He selected “Lockie”, a flea-bitten grey Irish Draught who stands at 17.1hh. He was previously a showjumper and did a bit of hunting before Mark took him on five years ago.
“Rupert Campbell-Black” with “Rocky”
“Lockie belonged to a friend of mine and I’d seen him out hacking and always said ‘if you ever want to sell him, can we have him?’” Mark says. “The first day I rode him, it was hot, so I took off my shirt and waved it around his head and eye, to see how he was, and he was brilliant.
“He’s perfect for this job because his flatwork is really good and he can pop a fence if we need him to, although for Rivals, he had a double called Stig ridden by Alex’s double Dan Adams. The hero horses don’t usually jump or do any fast work.
“The horses need to be comfortable to ride, because if you’re learning and have to look as if you’re having a great time, you don’t want a horse that hits the ground with his shoulder. Lockie is like a big armchair.”
Lockie, who cut his teeth in the background on shows like Poldark before progressing to be a “hero’s horse” is also a pro with lights, cameras and tracking vehicles, although he doesn’t like being the only horse on set.
“We have to make sure there’s another horse in sight, though it can be quite far away,” says Mark. “Another thing we had to do is match him up well with another horse, because if you have two friends riding along together, the horses need to get along too.”
Rupert Campbell-Black rides out with Bas Baddingham, played by Luke Pasqualino, and Mark chose a stunning dun Polish horse as his mount.
“The two horses really like each other,” says Mark. “Donk, the dun, is like a big dog! He actually did his own jumping as his double wasn’t right that day – and he did it very well. I’ve got a soft spot for him, but I have a soft spot for all my horses. We are famous for never selling them. They retire on our farm – we’re lucky; we have the land.”
And another Rupert Campbell-Black thing…
When Mark was young, his passion was showjumping and Harvey Smith his idol – whose autograph he remembers collecting on a scrap of chewed up paper as a six-year-old.
“Years later, I was showjumping a young horse and for some reason we had to ride up to the commentary box and say who you were and the name of your horse,” Mark says. “It must have been the time Riders came out, and it was hugely successful – I must have just come back from my holiday. So rode up to the box and said, ‘I’m Rupert Campbell-Black, riding Revenge’. They absolutely didn’t know, so duly introduced me as Rupert Campbell-Black on Revenge. A lot of ladies were laughing!”
A few decades later, and Mark is helping another bloke to be a perfectly credible Rupert.
Rivals premieres 18th October exclusively on Disney+
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