“It’s a glorious celebration of life and Christmas” – Dave and Si on what to expect from The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas

Published: 12:01 am, 18 December 2023

(Image: BBC/South Shore Productions/Neil Ferry)

The Hairy Bikers are back on the road as they set their sights on dishing up an extra special festive banquet – as a thank you to those who’ve cared for Dave after his cancer diagnosis.

From Brummie bacon cakes and pancit noodles to roast beef with bone marrow and horseradish sauce complete with naan bread Yorkshire puddings, plus a fig and walnut tart, this one-off programme promises a fabulous three-course feast with a twist.

Dave announced that he’d been diagnosed with cancer in May 2022 which then left him facing an uncertain future. But now, reunited with his best mate Si, the boys are making up for lost time and have hit the road searching for wonderful seasonal ingredients to create the ultimate Christmas feast.

(Image: BBC/South Shore Productions)

Along the way they meet award-winning local producers and discover how tradition and the modern world are influencing one another in unique and exciting ways.

From the doctors and nurses who helped with his treatment, to the food producers who made him fall back in love with food, and family and friends who’ve supported him through his darkest days, the preparation for this year’s Christmas will tell the story of an incredibly emotional year for Dave and Si.

The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas has been produced for BBC Two and BBC iPlayer by South Shore. It was commissioned by Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Factual Entertainment and Events.

The Executive Producers are Andrew Mackenzie-Betty and Melanie Leach. The Series Producer and Director is Francois Galdofini and the Commissioning Executive for the BBC is Jasmyn McGuile.

NS

Interview with Dave Myers L-R: Si King, Dave Myers (Image: BBC/South Shore Productions)

We’ve loved your previous Christmas specials, what can we expect this time?

It’s a very different programme, it’s very personal, it’s very close to our hearts. It’s a very brave programme. I’ve been ill for the last 18 months and our work-life has been a mishmash and when it was muted we slowly got back to work and then we did a Christmas special. We wanted it to be different and there’s one thing about food and sharing it with people you love and care about, and it’s so much more vital to do that. This time we shared that food with people I owe my life too. There’s the nurses, the consultants, the physiotherapists who taught me to walk again. There was a guy who sold me a motorbike and got me back onto bikes, because I had to learn to ride again. It really is a joyous occasion. It’s a glorious celebration of life and Christmas. It’s a beautiful programme that we are both very proud of. It’s a Christmas I never thought I’d be here to enjoy and thanks to these people I am which I’m heartily grateful for. It’s not closure as I’m still having treatment but it’s a bloody good milestone.

If you could only pick one special Christmas food or drink item to have, what would it be and why?

In the last Christmas special we did where we had the families around the table for dinner, we ‘invented’ the frangipane mince pies. They’re epic, it’s only half the pastry so it’s slightly lighter but you’ve got mincemeat and then frangipane on the top with almonds. That’s become a staple. It’s something new that’s become part of our Christmas tradition and it’s really worth giving it a go. My family are Romanian so it’s not in their usual tradition but we’ve all got this taste for Harvest Bristol Cream Sherry, Madeira and a drop of Port. Those hearty, fig tasting Christmas drinks.

If we were popping round to your house for Christmas, what festive fare would you rustle up for us?

We do two Christmases in our house, my wife is Romanian and the family are used to a Romanian Christmas which happens on Christmas Eve so she cooks a buffet and you’ll find sarmale which is like a stuffed cabbage roll, schnitzels, a salata de boeuf which is a Russian salad, and polenta done with cheese and sausages. Then Christmas Day I just do turkey with all the trimmings. One thing I introduced my family too was Christmas crackers which is new to them. Boxing Day is a mishmash of both cultures and a free-for-all.

What ingredients – can be food or otherwise –make Christmas magical for you?

Family is the main ingredient and getting together during the festive season – and a good bottle of Cognac.

What are your earliest Christmas foodie memories?

It’s my dad every Christmas Eve making a turkey giblet soup. He would start the giblets off and cook that with some split peas. I didn’t like the gristle bits but I can smell it now. They used to give me the turkey heart as a treat which came out of the soup like a piece of rubber. I would quite happily munch away on that, I wouldn’t now. Then there was the traditional Christmas turkey with chestnut stuffing, it happened just once a year and it was special.

What are your favourite Christmas traditions?

We used to do it a lot more in Barrow-in-Furness but it was going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Midnight mass was always glorious, with everyone singing away to carols. That was something no matter how reticent everyone was my wife was quite insistent that we get ourselves out on Christmas Eve and indeed she would hold the presents hostage until we came back.

What would be the perfect present you would choose for Si?

A Newcastle United season ticket with access to the Platinum Box, that would be true love. Or a Newcastle United shirt and a bottle of cognac.

Do you ever sing Christmas carols/songs while preparing festive fayre, if so what’s the best one to inspire good Christmas cooking?

Rod Stewart’s Christmas Hits and a bit of Michael Bublé, they both fit the occasion. On Christmas Eve it will be obscure Romanian Christmas carols.

How important has it been to be back together for this Christmas special, and how great has it been to get back on the bikes together?

The importance of this Christmas special has been huge for me. I really wanted to, as did Si, show our gratitude. We’ve opened ourselves up enough without oversharing too much. The programme is really honest and from the heart. The whole thing worked from start to finish. It’s been amazing getting back on the bikes together, we set off down the road and Si was leading so I didn’t have to think about where I was going. That feeling of again doing what we’ve done for 30 years was magical. Si’s got shoulders like a bison and following that silhouette into the landscape was joyous. It was like getting my wings back.

How has the support of friends like Si and family helped you after your cancer diagnosis and how does that support continue to help you while you’re still going through treatment?

Knowing Si has been there is fantastic. A lot of the credit has to also go to my wife, she’s been there through it all with me from the start. It’s absolutely vital and I feel really sad for those people who have to go through it on their own.

How has food played a role in helping you during your treatment journey?

Food is vital when you’re recovering from cancer, one is appetite and one is getting the calories in. Sometimes I have to give myself a good talking to because if you’re feeling rough, you don’t feel like eating but you have to do it. There are moments when you get back into food that you look forward to it again. It’s important to find things that you like as well during that journey. It’s the stuff of life. It doesn’t matter if you’re a prince or pauper, everyone has something that they like to eat. Pancit noodles now have legendary status for me.

Why was it so important for you both to throw a Christmas banquet for those who have helped you over the last 18 months?

I believe if you’re doing a food programme at Christmas, you have to feed people, and really the answer of who to invite and cook for was staring us in the face. It was the people who have been vital to both our lives for the past 18 months, it was a no-brainer.

Interview with Si King L-R: Si King, Dave Myers (Image: BBC/South Shore Productions)

We’ve loved your previous Christmas specials, what can we expect this time?

The spirit of Christmas is exactly what was around that table. Love, care, empathy, understanding and joy. It’s a joyous Christmas special with the essence of Christmas and what it’s all about for friends and family. It’s about joy, love and care, that’s what you can expect.

If you could only pick one special Christmas food or drink item to have, what would it be and why?

I’ve got my sister staying with me so a large bottle of cognac. It was an old tradition of my father’s, he’d always get a really nice bottle of cognac and then pay it off for the rest of the year. My dad loved that, he would have his café crèmes and a bottle of cognac. It’s always about remembering those traditions.

If we were popping round to your house for Christmas, what festive fare would you rustle up for us?

It’s a different one this year, we’re all going out on Christmas Eve, the whole family. There is 14 of us, we’re all going out to a restaurant in Newcastle for Christmas lunch so that’s a massive break in tradition. On Christmas Day you can expect the hams, cut and come again cakes, there’s never a shortage of food and it’s always eclectic and international. We’ll be barbecuing inevitably, there will be whole fish, seafood, Those are the things we enjoy as a family together. All my sons are great cooks and two of them are chefs so we all chip in. We might go down to Cantina in Newcastle which is my son James’ restaurant in Newcastle, he does vegan tacos.

What ingredients – can be food or otherwise – make Christmas magical for you?

Reminiscing, family and seeing people you haven’t seen in ages. It’s time, that’s the special thing and you want to spend it with people we love. Time, love, family, and a little bit of nostalgia, those are the ingredients for me.

What are your earliest Christmas foodie memories?

The turkey dip and stotties, we still do it if we’re all together. My mam Stella, who died a few years ago now, she used to have this amazing way of cooking the turkey overnight. It was so beautiful because it was slow cooked. She would always make stotties but they used to be slightly more chewy with big holes in them and all the cooking juice from the turkey, mam would sperate the turkey fat off and keep the juices. She would put the fat in the frying pan and add a ladle full of the cooking juices. You would all stand in a queue in your pyjamas on Christmas morning before you’ve opened your presents dipping your stottie cake in turkey juices, the best thing in the world.

What are your favourite Christmas traditions?

All piling in the car, going for a pint, and then a walk on Boxing Day. The Christmas Eve supper is always good when everyone comes back and sometimes I’ll go to Midnight Mass. Putting the presents out for the kids, I hate wrapping them, but I love putting them out.

What would be the perfect present you would choose for Dave?

He’s so hard to buy for. He loves truffles so truffles, a bottle of new oil and a great malt whiskey. Then another season ticket for Newcastle United because he’s really getting into watching them at the minute. I’d like him to go, if I could, on the transatlantic Royal Yacht Britannia him and Lil, just have it to themselves.

Do you ever sing Christmas carols/songs while preparing festive fayre, if so what’s the best one to inspire good Christmas cooking?

It depends on the mood, normally there’s some soul and Stevie Wonder pops up every now and then. We all have a laugh with Gloria. While shepherds wash their socks at night but we’ve got rude lyrics, that always goes down a treat. We love those classic, Victorian Christmas carols.

How important has it been to be back together for this Christmas special, and how great has it been to get back on the bikes together?

I genuinely don’t have any words, it was incredibly emotional because it’s what we do. It was the return for Dave and for me to normal a little bit and that was very precious when things haven’t been for Dave particularly so by default haven’t been for me either. It was lush to see Dave in my rear-view mirror riding saying ‘are you sure we’re not turning left here’.

Why was it so important for you both to throw a Christmas banquet for those who have helped you over the last 18 months?

To say thank you, we tend in the modern world not to say thank you because for some mad reason we all seem too busy to do so and a simple thank you and a celebration of those people is what we should do, so we did. It was a programme that took a lot of courage, particularly for Dave, and he’s a very courageous man and I’m very privileged to have him as my friend.