McCoy film gets BBC airing on Sunday night

Television viewers will get to appreciate Sir Anthony McCoy in the most forensic manner yet on Sunday evening when 'Being AP', the acclaimed film charting his final year in the saddle, is shown on BBC2 at 10pm.

The warts and all film, which across its 95 minutes is engrossing, inspiring, shocking and amusing, received critical acclaim when presented in cinemas but will now be seen by its biggest audience.

"What I'm happiest about is a film about racing is going to be shown on terrestrial television," said McCoy of the BBC Films documentary, produced by Moneyglass Films.

"My hope is people who haven't had much interest in racing will watch it and be interested enough to maybe get into the sport. I did the film for that reason, but also because I wanted my son Archie to have something to look back on.

"My daughter Eve can remember me as a jockey. Archie has no recollection of it at all. I heard the daughter of Rodney Farrant telling Archie her dad had been a jockey. Archie said his dad had been a jockey as well but he wasn't very good, fell off a lot and kept getting injured."

McCoy added: "I think I come across okay in the film. You see good days and bad days. What a lot of people might not know is when I agreed to let them through the door, only myself and JP McManus knew I was going to be retiring. My wife and family didn't know."

Those responsible for Being AP are hoping for a big TV audience, but the subject of the film, who has seen it twice previously, might not be one of the viewers.

"I'm not so sure if I'll be watching myself," said McCoy. "I might start thinking of losing a bit of weight and making a comeback. For that reason it's probably for the best I don't watch it."