Champions: Full Gallop leaves you craving more. Racing isn’t a sport of make believe but it is a place to see fantasy… its ‘Drive To Survive’ moment exposes that perfect blend

Television – and the way we view it – has changed because there is little appeal to enter the land of make believe anymore. We want reality; we want to be taken to the areas we would never see and discover things that will satisfy our increasingly inquisitive minds.

It’s why sporting documentaries have always been a source of fascination. Go back to 1993 when the late Graham Taylor sanctioned the production of a programme to show what life was genuinely like as England manager – The Impossible Job still remains so watchable because it was painfully real.

The same has been true for modern hits such as The Last Dance, Drive To Survive, the catalyst for bringing in a new audience to Formula One, and Tour De France: Unchained, which has opened up cycling’s greatest race to people who would never have even looked at a bike.

There is an obsession with that latter series, thanks in no small part to basically feeling like you are in the saddle when British flyer Tom Piddock descends a mountain at speeds that make you feel nauseous or when a sprint finish goes wrong and some of the peloton end up strewn across Tarmac.

When you get taken so close to the action, you crave to see more. It is why Champions: Full Gallop is brimming with the potential to leave armchair viewers gasping at racing’s omnipresent danger or bonding with the infectious characters – human and equine – who make the sport what it is.

Racing aficionados may be sceptical about watching the six-part series – the first episode of which airs on ITV 1 at 9pm on Friday – because if you are fully immersed in the patter of National Hunt, you will know the outcome of big races at big festivals and which trainers and jockeys won which prizes.

But there is more to this, much more. Champions: Full Gallop takes you into the weighing room, it rides you down to the starting line and leaves you throwing your hands across your head to protect yourself in sympathy when you see a jockey flung to the floor in between thundering hooves.

Yes, racing prides itself on ‘the brotherhood’ that exists between jockeys but in episode one, you will see a quite remarkable piece of television before the tapes go up in the 2023 King George VI Chase, the midwinter championship for horses packed with stamina.

What we are privy to is the ruthlessness, the gamesmanship and the fact that everyone is in it for themselves. They are poker players and hyenas all at once, trying to make life intolerable for a beautiful chaser called Shishkin, who had talent but temperament.

This is not far removed from hearing a group of footballers coming together and trying to hatch a lot to get a rival sent off and Nico De Boinville, Shishkin’s rider, can hear it all. Only those who have ridden in a race would understand the level of gamesmanship.

‘We never get to see that,’ said Vernon Kay, the clearly fascinated Radio Two presenter, during Tuesday’s lavish premiere at BAFTA – and he’s right. ‘That little bit of chitter-chatter was really insightful. There should be a helmet-cam live every week!’

It’s a nice thought but, for now, we have six weeks to immerse ourselves in it. Whether you love racing or you are simply curious, it’s a chance to get to know characters such as Sean Bowen and Harry Cobden, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson, so much better.

Cobden is a magnificent jockey but he’s got the potential to be something of pin-up boy through this series. He’s got a wicked, dry sense of humour – a sense of timing that a stand-up comic would kill for – and the day-to-day way he runs his life will leave you fascinated.

‘I’m a farmer who rides horses,’ the 24-year-old once told Mail Sport – and he’s not embellishing.

Racing has entered a period where there is much hand-wringing and complaining internally but one thing that nobody should lose sight about is its ability to provide drama, thrilling spectacles and show the thoroughbred in a perfect light.

For a show to be successful, it must educate and entertain and leave you wanting more. This observer covered every beat of the last National Hunt campaign but having seen episode one, episodes two, three, four, five and six can’t come quick enough.

This isn’t a sport of make believe – but it is, absolutely, a place to see fantasy. It’s the perfect blend.

Champions: Full Gallop airs on ITV1 at 9pm on Friday. Episodes two and three will be available to livestream on ITVX immediately afterwards.