The Riders

Ben Cocks
Ben is music composer for TV and film. He is also an international movie star, appearing in such films and TV shows as The Phantom of The Opera, Harry Potter, Eastenders, Hussle and Closer. Admittedly, you will need to be quick fingered with the pause button to be able to spot him. He has worked as a cycle courier for a while, so is an experienced cyclist. However, he had never seen a hill, let alone cycled up one, before this bike ride. He lives in London.

George Mahood
George is a photographer from Northampton. He cycles about 4 times a week....to the local shop which is less than 400 metres away. Before this bike ride, he had only ever cycled more than 20 miles in a day once. George met Ben when they worked together at Althorp House, in the summer of 1998.

The Film

We were followed along the way by a 2-person film crew (in a car), who are in the final stages of editing a documentary about our trip. In order to test the natural generosity of people, we kept the film crew as secret as possible, and we only told people about the documentary once they had offered to help us. We didn't intentionally use them to our advantage. In most instances, we would go into an establishment and Mark and Victoria would film from outside and record the conversation via our radio mics so that they did not influence the reaction.

The first edit of Days 1 & 2 are now available for you to watch below. Day 1 is shown in 2 parts.

Day 1 - Part 1

Day 1 - Part 2

The crew's journey was probably more difficult and tiring than ours, and we are both extremely grateful for all the hard work they both put in. The only things we had to worry about were getting from A to B, eating and sleeping. Mark and Victoria had all of this plus the logistics of making the documentary - setting up shots, charging batteries, logging tapes, getting consent forms etc. On most nights, they would end up sleeping in a tent and eating beans, when we would be in the posh hotel down the road eating steak pie and chips.

Mark Martin
Mark is the director, cameraman and editor of the documentary. He is a freelance cameraman and filmmaker. This is his first independent project. Mark sees in widescreen.