TV cook Simon “Si” King has said that he felt “a sense of guilt” returning to television for his solo show following the death of his Hairy Bikers co-star David “Dave” Myers.
Myers, who rose to fame alongside King on the BBC cooking and motorcycling show, died aged 66 in 2024 after being diagnosed with cancer.
King said it was an “odd experience” returning to television without his lifelong friend and co-star to shoot his first solo show, Channel 4’s Top of the Stops.
Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, the presenter said: “The first year, I didn’t want to do anything at all, I just didn’t have it in me and then when I was shooting the show, I felt a sense of guilt that I was doing something that when he wasn’t there,
“It was a very odd experience, because I was having to remember and deliver pieces to camera that I’d go ‘ah you can do this’.
“What was wonderful was that I had my lovely, lovely, gorgeous, talented crew, and the creative shorthand just came back like that.
“It was wonderful, it was just odd that he wasn’t there.”
King went on to discuss Myer’s decision to “fight” following his diagnosis and about focusing on “keeping those motorcycle wheels turning.”
The success of the Hairy Bikers and the demand that came with it, including being contracted to work for 200 days a year, came with its downsides, King added, including putting distance between his family and friends, adding that it contributed to his split with his ex-wife Jane.
He said: “It just changes you.
“I’d seen so much I didn’t know what to say anymore.
“I didn’t know what to say to anybody.
“Because I’m not there, I don’t know the day-to-day of everybody’s lives, and what the crack is.
“What then happens is that you become, as a person, very inconsistent emotionally because you don’t know where to put it.
“And that’s very difficult for Jane particularly, the mother of my children, and it’s the most destructive thing because nobody ever knows where they are, and there’s no sense of deep security there, which was the antithesis of what I wanted.
“I don’t mind admitting that I completely lost myself. But that was a very private thing for me and my family and my friends.
“And it wasn’t horrible. It was just well, he’s away from home and living in this mad world.”
The TV cooking duo published a number of cookbooks and presented shows including The Hairy Bikers Ride Again, The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour Of Britain, The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best, The Hairy Bikers’ Cook Off and Hairy Bikers’ Best Of British.
The full interview can be heard on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds from Sunday March 29 at 10am.
