Rough Diamond

E

Eceni

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Ah....

was that the last ep of Rough Diamond, or are there more coming up?

E (who was hooked, in spite of the crazy horsemanship)
 
Sorry, definately not hooked.......story had no credibility & the characters were not well conceived or established. They had a chance to make a really good programme & they came up way short. Poorly written, continuity appaling, & whoever did the writing did no research about the subject whatsoever.
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I did laugh at Yolanda "drawing blood" this week. Infact, I laughed at alot of the obvious faux pas.

Still enjoyed it though, to some degree and it's great that a story revolving around horses has been made. Couldn't been made more realistic but it was a good start.
 
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I watched the first one and haven't watched anymore
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You sound like my mum she refused to watch anymore!

I watched them all apart from no.5!
 
I watched if only to 'spot the gaffs'. I agree why on earth did they not employ someone with expertise - they hired a racing yard for goodness sake - Im sure any of the lads would have been delighted to help!
 
Was reported in the Racing Post that they havent decided whether to film a second series or not yet.
I like it, all the 'continuation' and 'storyline' niggles are just why horsey people are viewed as stuck up. Its good fun on a Sunday evening, and the characters are very true to type.
 
I thought it was a very bad portrayal of the racing industry and many of the horses didnt even look like TB's. I watched the first one but not the others, I thought it was boring and not at all like the real world.
 
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I thought it was a very bad portrayal of the racing industry and many of the horses didnt even look like TB's. I watched the first one but not the others, I thought it was boring and not at all like the real world.

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so if you only watched the first one, how can you deam the whole series as boring???

just curious!!
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QR I watched most of this, but wish I hadn't bothered tbh. I agree that being picky about the technical stuff is not productive, but adding that to a weak script, storylines that would be too simple for kids' tv and some not very good acting, and I found the whole thing just corny.

It's such a shame, as there is so much drama in racing, there is some lovely scenery in Ireland - so much more could have been made of this if only it wasn't being made for the Sunday-night slot, which these days seems limited to cosy stuff that won't offend anyone.
 
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and the characters are very true to type.

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there was something else that i picked up on, nothing to do with 'horsemanship'.. in the last one, the owner wanted to pull the horse out of the race, as he thought it wasn't ready, but the trainer wanted to run it.. now i could be wrong here.. but i always thought it was the owners who were pushing for their horses to run, and the trainers holding them back till they were ready to run..
 
I was hooked too! Surely there must be more - what about the way Yolanda was looking at Aidan when he was hugging whatever-her-name-was. . . . .????? And her husband kind of offering the son a job . . . and is the daughter going to carry on being a jockey . . . I want to know . . . !!
 
I have actually enjoyed it. It's basically easy watching for a Sunday night and as far as I am concerned it is a horsey programme which is better than none at all. I am sure we can all be critical but at the end of the day I think just enjoy it for what it is, and if you don't enjoy it watch something else.
 

I've enjoyed it - although laughed very heartily at the fact I noticed the gelding was in fact a mare - that is worrying! lol!
I've definitely read that it was the last in the series and with an ending like that surely there has to be another series!
So much of the stuff on TV now is doom and gloom (or repeated for the 10th time) I think it's good to have a bit of light hearted fun on.
J
 
There is no guarantee of a second series. Anyone remember Trainer? that series ( survived 2 only) ended with an open ending at the end of the second series. Many questions remained unanswered and it was very frustrating as I thought it was a good series but it got slated by the critics.
Rough Diamond promised to deliver more than it actually did in my opinion.
It was def sunday night viewing and a bit like Heartbeat land set in the Irish racing community to be honest.
I would have liked to have seen more behind the scenes training etc.
I cannot believe a horse like Rough Diamond could have finished so close in a valuable race on its debut with minimal training unless of course the colt had been to a pre training yard before they had acquired it.
Maybe it was because I was involved in racing ( and still am to be honest, although not actively reporting at the moment) and I expected too much.
Perhaps I expected too much horse racing, too many training sessions, too many scenes involving jockeys riding out and fasting and sweating to do the weights. Let's no forget this is flat racing and forgive me if I am wrong but none of the main protagonists ( that were riders) looked skinny to me.
Having said that though it was enjoyable to a point and it was the genre I liked too, sport and horse racing. There was nothing else on tv at that time that I would have rather watched but if there had been some decent jump racing or other racing programmes I would have found interesting on I would have happily switched over.
My own gut feeling though is that judged by the reviews afterwards and the reports on a drop in viewing figures ( not helped by the rescheduling) that a second series will not be filmed.
Shame though in a way as I would have liked to have had questions answered and also it would have been nice to have seen if the series could improve.
Cazx
 
That was definitely the last of Rough Diamond - I also saw the Racing Post piece about the next series being uncertain but I can tell you from the horses mouth that it is no more. It is down to sunday night viewing figures and competition with Heartbeat and Top Gear.
I know people that were involved in the making of the series and despite their best efforts to recitfy as much as possible from the horsemanship side of things the story line and production generally got their own way hence the noisy horses and other general faux pas.
There was a review in the Irish Field the week before it was aired over here and the journalist noted that there were things that were going to appear bizzare to horsey people in as much as he expected doctors and nurses crige at Casualty and other hospital dramas, archaeologists at Time Team and any specialists when their own field is shown on TV.
My OH worked in the racing industry for many years and after watching the first episode was falling around laughing - we continued to watch the entire series (to see if we could spot people we knew in the background) and he decided by the second episode that it was 'grand, if you watched is as a family soap / drama'
TURBOBERT that was not a racing yard they were in it was a private yard called Dollanstown Stud in Kildare that produces eventers and dressage horses.
 
Pity - I rather thought they might axe it, though why they ever thought it would do better in that slot is beyond me...

and production always gets their way over verisimilitude - I was involvedin a veterinary drama in the 90s and it was the same then - it's written by non-experts to be viewed by non-experts and it's not any more accurate than a police procedural. I still thought that if you listened to the script and ignored the over-saturated lighting and the slightly bizarre acting, it was fun, harmless and rather sweet.

I'll go back to listening to Radio 4 and wait for Spooks to come back...

E
 
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