What I learnt about simply how shut the Hairy Bikers actually have been…

The yr was 2014. The Hairy Bikers have been speaking about life and demise. And friendship, after all. They have been giving their first interview after Si King — the youthful of the well-known culinary duo — had almost died following a mind aneurysm.

One of the primary calls Si’s then spouse had made when he collapsed was to Dave Myers, his TV associate and greatest mate.

Dave had rushed to his aspect — and stayed there. ‘Dave’s was the primary hand I held after my spouse’s once I got here spherical from the op,’ Si informed me. ‘I think I held your hand before the op too,’ nodded Dave.

Both of them have been near tears.

Yet even throughout that interview — so poignant to hearken to now — it wasn’t lengthy earlier than they have been larking round and ribbing one another in regards to the implausibility of two large bushy northern blokes holding fingers.

‘Actually, there was a lot of hand-holding going on at one point,’ mentioned Dave, reaching for Si, in exaggerated vogue.

‘Gerroff!’ Si laughed.

How touching it’s that the roles have been reversed this week when Dave died at house aged 66 on the finish of a two-year battle with most cancers. His trusty sidekick Si was, after all, by his aspect, as he had been all through.

It was 57-year-old Si who introduced the devastating information to followers.

‘I am not sure I can put into words how I feel at the moment,’ he mentioned. ‘My best friend is on a journey that for now, I can’t comply with. I’ll miss him day by day and the bond and friendship we shared over a half a lifetime.’

What a journey it had been, although. The Hairy Bikers rode into our lives — and onto our TV screens — in 2004 and we didn’t fairly know what had hit us. What we did know, although, was that they got here as a pair.

TV partnerships are simply faked (simply ask Eamonn Holmes and one-time TV spouse Anthea Turner, who loathed one another) but it surely was clear from the off that these two have been the actual deal.

They’d been mates for 20 years earlier than they turned certainly one of our most profitable TV duos, fronting numerous reveals and promoting 30 cookery books.

The blurb for one sums up their no-nonsense attraction: ‘Life is complicated enough, so why not let the Hairy Bikers make it just that bit easier?’

And they did. They gave us not simply ideas for heart-warming stews and puddings, however served up a wonderful — and uncommon — instance of what male friendship can appear like.

Interviewing them — and, sure, they have been all the time collectively, aside from a stint in 2013 when Dave did Strictly with skilled dance associate Karen Hauer — was a sheer pleasure as a result of they have been easy extraordinary blokes (though, apparently, under no circumstances ‘blokey’) who couldn’t fairly imagine that they have been being paid to hang around collectively, journey the globe and have fun.

They had met in 1995, whereas engaged on a movie set. Si was a director on the time, Dave, who had a masters diploma in artwork, was working as a make-up artist.

They instantly hit it off, chatting largely about meals and motorbikes (Dave as soon as revealed that Si offered him ‘the worst motorbike you have ever seen’), making a type of connections that change lives. Neither got here from showbiz backgrounds. Dave — he of the extra twirly moustache — was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1957.

His mom Margaret had been informed she couldn’t have kids, and he or she and Dave’s father Jim — 42 and 55 years outdated respectively — have been ‘surprised and delighted’ when their solely little one was born.

Dave developed a ardour for cookery by necessity, having been put in command of feeding the household after his mom, a ‘fabulous cook’, was identified with a number of sclerosis. Dave was simply eight years outdated.

After his mom’s situation worsened, he discovered himself within the position of carer with virtually no assist from the authorities, recalling to The Mail On Sunday in 2009: ‘I couldn’t go to mattress till Mum went to mattress.

‘Dad would take Mum’s legs and I’d take her arms and we’d carry her up the steps every evening.’

It was round this time that Dave developed alopecia, which medical doctors ascribed to shock at his mom falling sick.

The boy who would later change into famed for being half of a hirsute double act was largely bald till his early 40s, when he had an operation to take away a cyst from his mind. His hair grew again, minus the follicles he had misplaced to male sample baldness.

When Dave was 17, his father, as soon as the foreman of a paper mill however now in his early 70s, suffered a debilating stroke. By his early 20s, each Dave’s mother and father had handed away.

By then, he was learning fantastic artwork at Goldsmiths’ College in London, later occurring to a decades-long profession as a profitable make-up artist on the BBC, specialising in prosthetics — as soon as reportedly portray the white stripe throughout Adam Ant’s face and getting ready Helen Mirren, no much less, for the cameras.

It was whereas each have been engaged on the identical manufacturing that Dave met Si King. From the off, the pair acquired on famously. But there was additional tragedy in 1998 when Dave misplaced his fiancee to most cancers.

On a later work journey to Romania with Si in 2005, Dave met his spouse Liliana Orzac. She was the supervisor of a resort and confirmed Dave and Si to their rooms. ‘I thought: “Cor, she’s attractive”,’ Dave as soon as mentioned. ‘Si thought she was scary.’

Si acquired over this, quickly agreeing that Liliana was one of the best factor that had occurred to Dave. He was greatest man at their marriage ceremony in 2011.

Into Dave’s life got here Liliana’s kids, too. He as soon as mentioned it was a significant remorse that he had by no means had youngsters, however he rejoiced in his stepchildren Iza and Sergiu.

As Si identified in his announcement of Dave’s demise yesterday, his pal liked them ‘like his own’.

Because their friendship pre-dated their showbiz success, there was by no means a defining line between their skilled and personal lives.

Friendships between males can typically appear superficial, based mostly round shared hobbies, however this one had emotional depth. Dave was there for Si when he break up from his spouse Jane — the mom of his three sons — in 2016. Ditto when his engagement to meals stylist Michele Cranston was known as off in 2021.

The Hairy Bikers did appear to do every part collectively, even famously dropping virtually 7st collectively when Dave was informed by a health care provider that he was prone to diabetes.

In typical pragmatic vogue, they minimize out the beer and lowered the fats of their puddings — bringing their followers alongside for that journey too.

Overnight they turned poster boys for middle-aged males taking management of their waistlines.

Oh they’d wryly level out that they weren’t precisely Joe Wicks (‘nor would I want to be,’ Si as soon as informed me), however their affect was arguably higher as a result of they reached the type of audience who would by no means willingly go to see a health care provider or knock up a kale smoothie.

What made this explicit partnership stand out, nonetheless, was the authenticity that radiated from it. You might by no means have scripted that.

During our 2014 interview there was a second when Si was getting all technical in regards to the operation to save lots of his life, which concerned the passing of tiny metallic coils into his community of blood vessels.

Entry was made by the groin, not the pinnacle. ‘There was a lot of fiddling around down there, near my hairy Mary,’ mentioned Si, in very Si vogue. ‘It wasn’t bushy once they’d completed with you,’ whooped Dave. ‘Oh aye,’ says Si. ‘They shaved me downstairs! When I looked I nearly fell off the bed.’

Si’s sickness examined their friendship for certain and maybe took it to a different degree. They informed me then that in Si’s restoration, Dave had assumed the position of chief cheerleader and private meals shopper.

When Si was effectively sufficient to eat — and switch his nostril up at hospital meals — it was Dave who trooped off to Marks & Spencer for provides. Their first journey out of the hospital was to a farm store. ‘We sat in the car afterwards, with our pork pies on the dashboard,’ Si mentioned. ‘It was heaven.’

For some time, their ‘brand’ was in jeopardy. Si’s restoration was protracted and Dave needed to step up, alone. ‘Dave took up the reins,’ Si defined. ‘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 nice being a double act,’ he mentioned. ‘When one is down, the other takes over. We’ve all the time been like that. If certainly one of us is having a crap day, the opposite one has to step up.’

So it got here to cross years later too, in probably the most troublesome chapter of this astonishing friendship. Dave introduced in 2022 that he had been identified with most cancers.

He all the time stored the small print of what sort it was personal, not wanting to ask hypothesis as to how lengthy he needed to reside, however the hellish journey since has been fairly public. ‘There are times when you curl up and cry,’ he mentioned.

He misplaced his hair once more — and his well-known moustache — following chemo. ‘It really is radical,’ he mentioned. ‘It’s not a gradual type of moulting. Your hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, beard. Everything simply goes.’

Si admitted that seeing his good friend with out his hair gave him a specific jolt. It was when issues ‘got real’. Yet, these two stored driving on, collectively.

In an interview in 2022, Dave mentioned Si had been ‘indispensable’, driving him to and from the hospital and furiously making meals to fill the freezer.

Together they filmed one last collection, The Hairy Bikers Go West, at present on BBC2 with the subsequent episode because of air on Tuesday.

It was ‘special’ to movie, 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 well being and his sheer and utter willpower and love for what he does,’ he mentioned.

‘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 followers sobbing in a TV particular as he requested a crowd of friends: ‘Shall we do this again next year? I hope so!’

Sadly, it was to not be and the journey needed to finish.

Yesterday, Si’s parting phrases to his greatest good friend mentioned all of it.

‘I wish you God’s pace, brother; you’re and can stay a beacon on this world. See you on the opposite aspect. Love ya.’