Si King has spoken movingly about returning to television after the death of his best friend and Hairy Bikers co-star, Dave Myers — revealing he struggled with guilt while making his first solo series.
Dave died in 2024 at the age of 66 following a cancer diagnosis. Together, he and Si became one of Britain’s best-loved TV duos thanks to their BBC cooking and motorcycling shows.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs with Lauren Laverne, Si opened up about how hard it was to step back in front of the cameras for Channel 4’s Top of the Stops without Dave by his side.
He 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.”
Describing the experience of filming alone, he continued: “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’.”
Despite the emotional challenge, Si praised the support around him. “What was wonderful was that I had my lovely, lovely, gorgeous, talented crew, and the creative shorthand just came back like that,” he said. “It was wonderful, it was just odd that he wasn’t there.”
During the interview, Si also reflected on Dave’s determination after his diagnosis, explaining that his friend had chosen to “fight” and focus on “keeping those motorcycle wheels turning”.
The 58-year-old also spoke candidly about the pressures that came with the Hairy Bikers’ success. At one stage, he was contracted to work 200 days a year — something he said created distance between him and his loved ones, and contributed to the breakdown of his marriage to his wife, Jane.
“It just changes you,” King said. “I’d seen so much I didn’t know what to say any more. 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 full interview is available on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.