The actor Marcus Gilbert, who has died of throat cancer aged 67, attained sex-symbol status in two television adaptations of Barbara Cartland novels, and then the raunchy drama Riders, based on Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series of books.
As the bed-hopping Rupert Campbell-Black in Riders (1993), and featuring in around 20 candid sex scenes in the mini-series, Gilbert was portraying a cad very different from the dashing heroes of Cartland’s hearts-and-flowers stories. The character was a ruthless rival in both the equestrian and romantic stakes to Jake Lovell (played by Michael Praed), Rupert’s fellow showjumper and the boarding school contemporary he bullied.
