The year was 2014. The Hairy Bikers were talking about life and death. And friendship, of course. They were giving their first interview after Si King — the younger of the famous culinary duo — had nearly died following a brain aneurysm.
One of the first calls Si’s then wife had made when he collapsed was to Dave Myers, his TV partner and best mate.
Dave had rushed to his side — and stayed there. ‘Dave’s was the first hand I held after my wife’s when I came round from the op,’ Si told me. ‘I think I held your hand before the op too,’ nodded Dave.
Both of them were close to tears.
Yet even during that interview — so poignant to listen to now — it wasn’t long before they were larking around and ribbing each other about the implausibility of two big hairy northern blokes holding hands.
Si King, left, announced the news of Dave Myers death from cancer aged 66. ‘I am not sure I can put into words how I feel at the moment,’ he said.
‘Actually, there was a lot of hand-holding going on at one point,’ said Dave, reaching for Si, in exaggerated fashion.
‘Gerroff!’ Si laughed.
How touching it is that the roles were reversed this week when Dave died at home aged 66 at the end of a two-year fight with cancer. His trusty sidekick Si was, of course, by his side, as he had been throughout.
It was 57-year-old Si who announced the devastating news to fans.
‘I am not sure I can put into words how I feel at the moment,’ he said. ‘My best friend is on a journey that for now, I can’t follow. I will miss him every day and the bond and friendship we shared over a half a lifetime.’
What a journey it had been, though. The Hairy Bikers rode into our lives — and onto our TV screens — in 2004 and we didn’t quite know what had hit us. What we did know, though, was that they came as a pair.
TV partnerships are easily faked (just ask Eamonn Holmes and one-time TV wife Anthea Turner, who loathed each other) but it was clear from the off that these two were the real deal.
They’d been mates for 20 years before they became one of our most successful TV duos, fronting countless shows and selling 30 cookery books.
The blurb for one sums up their no-nonsense appeal: ‘Life is complicated enough, so why not let the Hairy Bikers make it just that bit easier?’
And they did. They gave us not just tips for heart-warming stews and puddings, but served up a glorious — and rare — example of what male friendship can look like.
Dave announced in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He always kept the details of what type it was private, not wanting to invite speculation as to how long he had to live
Interviewing them — and, yes, they were always together, apart from a stint in 2013 when Dave did Strictly with professional dance partner Karen Hauer — was a sheer joy because they were straightforward ordinary blokes (although, interestingly, not at all ‘blokey’) who couldn’t quite believe that they were being paid to hang out together, travel the globe and have a laugh.
They had met in 1995, while working on a film set. Si was a director at the time, Dave, who had a masters degree in art, was working as a make-up artist.
They immediately hit it off, chatting mostly about food and motorbikes (Dave once revealed that Si sold him ‘the worst motorbike you have ever seen’), making one of those connections that change lives. Neither came from showbiz backgrounds. Dave — he of the more twirly moustache — was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1957.
His mother Margaret had been told she couldn’t have children, and she and Dave’s father Jim — 42 and 55 years old respectively — were ‘surprised and delighted’ when their only child was born.
Dave developed a passion for cookery through necessity, having been put in charge of feeding the family after his mother, a ‘fabulous cook’, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Dave was just eight years old.
After his mother’s condition worsened, he found himself in the role of carer with almost no help from the authorities, recalling to The Mail On Sunday in 2009: ‘I couldn’t go to bed until Mum went to bed.
‘Dad would take Mum’s legs and I’d take her arms and we’d carry her up the stairs each night.’
It was around this time that Dave developed alopecia, which doctors ascribed to shock at his mother falling sick.
The boy who would later become famed for being half of a hirsute double act was largely bald until his early 40s, when he had an operation to remove a cyst from his brain. His hair grew back, minus the follicles he had lost to male pattern baldness.
When Dave was 17, his father, once the foreman of a paper mill but now in his early 70s, suffered a debilating stroke. By his early 20s, both Dave’s parents had passed away.
Dave met his wife Liliana Orzac on a work trip to Romania with Si in 2005. She was the manager of a hotel and showed the pair to their rooms
By then, he was studying fine art at Goldsmiths’ College in London, later going on to a decades-long career as a successful make-up artist at the BBC, specialising in prosthetics — once reportedly painting the white stripe across Adam Ant’s face and preparing Helen Mirren, no less, for the cameras.
It was while both were working on the same production that Dave met Si King. From the off, the pair got on famously. But there was further tragedy in 1998 when Dave lost his fiancee to cancer.
On a later work trip to Romania with Si in 2005, Dave met his wife Liliana Orzac. She was the manager of a hotel and showed Dave and Si to their rooms. ‘I thought: “Cor, she’s gorgeous”,’ Dave once said. ‘Si thought she was scary.’
Si got over this, soon agreeing that Liliana was the best thing that had happened to Dave. He was best man at their wedding in 2011.
Into Dave’s life came Liliana’s children, too. He once said it was a major regret that he had never had kids, but he rejoiced in his stepchildren Iza and Sergiu.
As Si pointed out in his announcement of Dave’s death yesterday, his pal loved them ‘like his own’.
Because their friendship pre-dated their showbiz success, there was never a defining line between their professional and private lives.
Friendships between men can often seem superficial, based around shared hobbies, but this one had emotional depth. Dave was there for Si when he split from his wife Jane — the mother of his three sons — in 2016. Ditto when his engagement to food stylist Michele Cranston was called off in 2021.
The Hairy Bikers did seem to do everything together, even famously losing almost 7st together when Dave was told by a doctor that he was at risk of diabetes.
In typical pragmatic fashion, they cut out the beer and reduced the fat in their puddings — bringing their fans along for that ride too.
Overnight they became poster boys for middle-aged men taking control of their waistlines.
Oh they’d wryly point out that they weren’t exactly Joe Wicks (‘nor would I want to be,’ Si once told me), but their influence was arguably greater because they reached the sort of target audience who would never willingly go to see a doctor or knock up a kale smoothie.
What made this particular partnership stand out, however, was the authenticity that radiated from it. You could never have scripted that.
During our 2014 interview there was a moment when Si was getting all technical about the operation to save his life, which involved the passing of tiny metal coils into his network of blood vessels.
Entry was made through the groin, not the head. ‘There was a lot of fiddling around down there, near my hairy Mary,’ said Si, in very Si fashion. ‘It wasn’t hairy when they’d finished with you,’ whooped Dave. ‘Oh aye,’ says Si. ‘They shaved me downstairs! When I looked I nearly fell off the bed.’
Si’s illness tested their friendship for sure and perhaps took it to another level. They told me then that during Si’s recovery, Dave had assumed the role of chief cheerleader and personal food shopper.
When Si was well enough to eat — and turn his nose up at hospital food — it was Dave who trooped off to Marks & Spencer for supplies. Their first trip out of the hospital was to a farm shop. ‘We sat in the car afterwards, with our pork pies on the dashboard,’ Si said. ‘It was heaven.’
For a while, their ‘brand’ was in jeopardy. Si’s recovery was protracted and Dave had to step up, alone. ‘Dave took up the reins,’ Si explained. ‘He did meetings without me and that was hard. You feel like you are letting a mate down.’ Dave wouldn’t have this. ‘That’s why it’s great being a double act,’ he said. ‘When one is down, the other takes over. We’ve always been like that. If one of us is having a crap day, the other one has to step up.’
So it came to pass years later too, in the most difficult chapter of this astonishing friendship. Dave announced in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
He always kept the details of what type it was private, not wanting to invite speculation as to how long he had to live, but the hellish journey since has been quite public. ‘There are times when you curl up and cry,’ he said.
He lost his hair again — and his famous moustache — following chemo. ‘It really is radical,’ he said. ‘It’s not a gradual sort of moulting. Your hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, beard. Everything just goes.’
Si admitted that seeing his friend without his hair gave him a particular jolt. It was when things ‘got real’. Yet, these two kept riding on, together.
In an interview in 2022, Dave said Si had been ‘indispensable’, driving him to and from the hospital and furiously making meals to fill the freezer.
Together they filmed one final series, The Hairy Bikers Go West, currently on BBC2 with the next episode due to air on Tuesday.
It was ‘special’ to film, Si admitted. ‘We are very privileged to do what we do and I think this one was particularly special in general because of Dave’s health and his sheer and utter determination and love for what he does,’ he said.
‘Especially to continue to do it while he was having treatment took remarkable courage and energy — and adds to why Dave and I will not forget it.’
Over Christmas, Dave left fans sobbing in a TV special as he asked a crowd of guests: ‘Shall we do this again next year? I hope so!’
Sadly, it was not to be and the ride had to end.
Yesterday, Si’s parting words to his best friend said it all.
‘I wish you God’s speed, brother; you are and will remain a beacon on this world. See you on the other side. Love ya.’