3. After his father died, food became how they coped

When Si was eight, his father died. He picks The Chieftains track Boil the Breakfast Early as his second disc, which was played at his dad’s wake, to remind him of his parents.

Si King in the Desert Island Discs studio.

We shot this pilot on Roa Island in Barrow-in-Furness where Dave lived at the time. It took us about three years to get it off the ground.

Si on the difficulties of getting the Hairy Bikers commissioned

Afterwards, food became a way of coping. “We grieved at the stovetop,” he says. It was how his mum showed care. The two of them became, in his words, “a really tight team”.

But that care came with side effects. “At eight I was eight stone… at 10 I was 10 stone.” His mum sent him to Weight Watchers, where he was the only child, and though he loved the environment it didn’t have the desired effect: “It was brilliant because you’d have the weigh-in and they’d go, ‘Hey, our Simon, you’ve lost two pounds. Well done son. Give our Si a clap.’” All the “ grannies and middle-aged women”, would clap. “Then as I left they’d go, ‘well done son, here’s a Mars bar.’”

4. His love of motorbikes started perhaps a bit too young

Si’s aunt and uncle lived near a crossroads that became notorious for motorcycle crashes. Crashes were frequent enough that bandages were prepared in advance. “My aunt Hilda would say, ‘those sheets are worn out, get the scissors, and then just cut them into bandages.’”

His uncle George had a pit in his garage where he would repair the broken bikes, and Si started to spend time in the pit fiddling with them. From there, King started tinkering, then at the age of nine he started riding too. “My first [time] riding a motorcycle was actually a scooter with bits missing off it. I remember riding it down the back lane and thinking, ‘I love this’. Then I promptly fell off. My uncle George came and picked it back up again because it was way too heavy for me, and he says, ‘go on, go give it another go.’”

5. His early biking days should not be copied

Soon Si was riding through the estate, picking his mum up with shopping balanced on a barely functioning motorbike. “No tax, no MOT, no insurance,” he remembers. There was also a local policeman, known as Ginger Eric, who tried to catch them. It became a running game, spotting him, veering off, escaping across fields. He never did catch them.

6. Byker Grove was his way into television

After taking a chance on a BBC job advert, King found himself working on the pilot of the legendary teen drama series Byker Grove. “I started out as a runner,” he says. As part of the job, he’d drive around a young Ant and Dec, long before they became household names. From there, the work grew into location managing on long shoots, including the first two Harry Potter films. While working on a Catherine Cookson drama, he met a similarly bearded, bike-loving make-up artist called Dave Myers and a lifelong friendship began.

7. The Hairy Bikers began almost by accident

Between TV shoots for the various programmes that Si and Dave were working on, they would take themselves on biking trips to Scotland, riding around and eating good food. That sparked an idea for a TV show. Si wrote down a rough concept and sent it over. Dave showed it around and came back with cautious encouragement: “Nobody thinks it’s rubbish,” Si remembers Dave saying. They developed it slowly. “We shot this pilot on Roa Island in Barrow-in-Furness where Dave lived at the time. It took us about three years to get it off the ground.” Eventually a BBC commissioner greenlit the series. “We got the call saying, ‘lads you’ve been commissioned’ and we’re off.”