Only Fools On Horses

From show business to show jumping, 12 celebrities are chomping at the bit to raise money in BBC's Sport Relief presents... Only Fools on Horses.

 

The show will be on nightly in the week leading up to Sport Relief Day on 15 July, with the live final going to be one of the highlights in The Night of Sport Relief show on BBC ONE.

The celebrities taking part are: broadcaster Sara Cox; athlete and TV presenter Sally Gunnell; TV presenter Jenni Falconer; TV presenter Suzi Perry; interior designer and TV presenter Anna Ryder-Richardson; comedienne Ruby Wax; Blue Peter presenter Matt Baker; comedian and actor Felix Dexter; gardener and TV presenter Diarmuid Gavin; Hollyoaks actor Matt Littler, and actor and theatre producer Paul Nicholas.

 

They will have to compete in the physically and technically demanding sport of show jumping, with the added pressure of it being in front of a live audience. The competitors are riding professional show jumping horses, which they have to name, bond with and muck-out.

 

Trainer and celebrated British show jumper Tim Stockdale and his team will help the celebrities get to grips with their horses, the likes of which even the most experienced riders among them will never have ridden before.

 

They are true show jumping horses strong, tall, slightly scarey and they certainly don't tolerate fools.

 

Sport Relief presents... Only Fools on Horses will be primetime on BBC ONE and BBC THREE, with an early evening competition, followed by a results show later in the evening on BBC ONE. Presenters and judges will be revealed at a later date.

 

 

Starting today all of our celebrities will be introduced to their horses, which they will quickly name. But that's the easy part.

 

Over the next month our show jumpers must get themselves to the level needed to compete nightly over jumps that will become increasingly difficult.

 

For the duration of the show the celebrities will live on-site at the stables in Braintree. Within the stables are: a living/dining room; bedrooms; a tack room; a trainers room, which will be their classroom; the show jumpers kit room, and a training area.

 

In the week leading up to Sport Relief day, our show jumpers will jump-off against each other live on BBC ONE every night. They accumulate points for each jump successfully cleared. Judges from the cream of the show jumping world will appraise their performances.

 

The viewers will then vote for who they want to save. The viewers' votes and riders' scores will be added together.

 

The three riders with the lowest scores/votes will do a jump-off and the judges will save one of them. All the saved riders then vote for who they want to save and the rider with the least number of rider votes will be hoofed off the show.

 

By Saturday 15 July, the 12 riders will have become four. The Grand Final will take place into the flagship Sport Relief show, The Night of Sport Relief. There won't be any horsing around, this is going to be serious fun.

 

For interviews, news and updates visit bbc.co.uk/sportrelief.

 

BBC Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, Jon Beazley said: "It's great news that these 12 celebrities are giving their time for no fee to help raise money for Sport Relief.

 

"It's a big commitment, spending over a week living on site with the horses and working with them all day before the show is on air each night.

 

"They have been training hard already, and it's been particularly tough for the ones who can't already ride or haven't ridden a horse for years!

 

"The commitment required to take part in the show shouldn't be under-estimated; this will be a real test for all of them. We're looking forward to an exhilarating show, and want to encourage people to vote to raise funds for this great cause."

 

Chief Executive of Sport Relief, Kevin Cahill commented: "We're really excited about this programme, it's going to be hugely entertaining throughout the nine days and one of the many highlights of Sport Relief Saturday.

 

"Not only will it be a whole lot of fun, but the money raised from votes is really going to make a huge difference to people's lives, here in the UK and in the poorest countries of the world."

 

The nine-day event is being produced by the team behind Comic Relief does Fame Academy, under Executive Producer Louise Rainbow. She adds: "It's going to be a whole new world for this lot a world of rosettes, shiny brass, squeaky leather and horse manure."

 

The show will be broadcast nightly from an arena in Braintree in Essex. Members of the public will be able be part of the audience at these shows.

 

The hotline number for ticket info is 020 7610 5572 and the email is horsestickets@endemoluk.com.

 

Sport Relief presents... Only Fools on Horses is produced by Initial (part of Endemol UK).

 

 

The six female celebrity show jumpers taking part are:

 

Sara Cox (31)

 

Sara presents BBC Radio 1's afternoon show (1.00-4.00pm) on Saturdays and Sundays. She was born in Bolton and grew up on a dairy farm and used to dream of the horse she could buy if she had all the money in the world.

 

Sally Gunnell (39)

 

Essex-born Olympic gold medallist Sally hasn't ridden for four years. Before that she spent two years riding, hacking and having a few lessons. Sally feels confident walking, trotting and cantering on a horse. Sally has previously owned what she describes as "a retired old nag in the field!"

 

Jenni Falconer (30)

 

Jenni presents Entertainment Today on GMTV. Born in Glasgow she now lives in south-west London. Jenni learnt to ride as a child but after taking a fall, gave it up for a number of years.

 

Jenni got back on a horse whilst filming for BBC Scotland show The Big Country, but again, took a tumble and broke her thumb and wrist. She has ridden little ever since.

 

Suzi Perry (36)

 

Suzi is currently presenting Moto GP for the BBC and The Gadget Show for Channel 5. Suzi, who lives in west London, has been on a horse a couple of times and feels comfortable walking and trotting. She has never had any lessons.

 

Anna Ryder-Richardson (42)

 

Interior designer Anna is best known for presenting the hit BBC shows Changing Rooms and House Invaders. She lives in Glasgow and learnt to ride when she was 7-8 years old.

 

By the age of 13, she had her own pony but she never show-jumped with it because it was very badly behaved! At the age of 16, Anna sold her pony and has only ridden on hacks a couple of times a year ever since. Anna is confident walking, trotting and cantering.

 

Ruby Wax (53)

 

American comedienne and presenter Ruby is best known for her chat show Ruby, The Full Wax and Ruby Wax Meets...

 

Ruby is married to television producer and director Ed Bye and lives with him and her two daughters and son in London.

 

The male celebrity show jumpers include:

 

Matt Baker (28)

 

Matt became the 28th Blue Peter presenter in 1999 and is a bit of a dare-devil. Not only was he British sports acrobatics champion but he's still a current hang-gliding world record holder.

 

His horse experience with Blue Peter includes racing at Newmarket, rodeo in Wyoming and cross-country jumping and swimming the Queen's horses on their annual summer camp.

 

Matt feels confident that he can walk, trot, canter and gallop on a horse and has tried jumping once. Matt grew up on the family farm in Durham.

 

 

Award-winning comedian and actor Felix was born on the Caribbean Island of St Kitts and moved to the UK when he was seven.

 

Felix gave up a promising law career to become a comedian and loves in north London. Felix had only been on a horse once before beginning training for the show.

 

Diarmuid Gavin (42)

 

Irish television garden designer and presenter Diarmuid is most famous for presenting a number of BBC gardening programmes, the best known being Gardener's World.

 

Diarmuid, who was born in London but grew up in Dublin, feels confident that he can trot but says he only goes horse riding about every 10 years! That said the last time he was on a horse was but about 15 years ago.

 

Matt Littler (24)

 

Actor Matt plays Max Cunningham in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Matt was recently nominated for Best Actor category at The Soap Awards 2006.

 

Born in Bury, Matt has been riding since he was a child. He has had no professional tuition but was taught by a friend who owned a horse close to his home.

 

Paul Nicholas (60)

 

Actor and theatre producer Paul is perhaps most fondly remembered for his role as Vince in the BBC comedy Just Good Friends. Paul began his showbiz career in musicals and has his own production company that next year will take the musical Grease to Broadway.

 

North Londoner Paul has had very little involvement with horses in the past and says he used to be able to trot but hasn't ridden for many years.

 

The trainers are:

 

 

Tim has represented Great Britain on 34 occasions on Nations Cup Teams, and was also on the World Equestrian Games Team in 2002. Tim is ranked eighth on the British Show Jumping Association list, 1 May 200530 April 2006.

 

When Tim is not competing, the majority of his time is taken up with private tuition and demonstrations and he runs his own yard in Northamptonshire.

 

 

As a rider, Fred's 2006 season has begun positively and he and his eight year old Baretto are one of show jumping's most promising pairs.

 

The Swede has his own centre of excellence which has developed a strong reputation for the quality of its training of both horses and riders alike. Fred also studies sports psychology in relation to coaching methods.

 

 

Mia is both a top-quality rider and trainer. She continues to compete at national and international level and successfully produces top quality show jumping horses for the national circuit.

 

 

Mary-Anne has been training and teaching for over 25 years and now concentrates on teaching at show jumping and eventing clinics across the country at various Eventing Centres and Agricultural Colleges.

 

 

Jenny has her own riding school, Brampton Stables, which she has been running and teaching at for the past 23 years. Jenny specialises in dressage and trains riders in balance and position. She is still a dressage rider and trainer. She is BHSI accredited, which is one of the highest accreditations a trainer can achieve.