Best mates for 30 years, TV stars for 20, Si King and David Myers have become one of Britain’s favourite double acts. As Myers copes with cancer, their closeness has never meant more
The Hairy Bikers are having a tough time. David Myers has no hair and Si King has no bike. It sounds like an existential crisis. King’s problem is easily fixed because he is “in between motorcycles” and can’t wait to get his leg over the saddle again. But Myers is 14 sessions into a course of chemotherapy, with six to go, and his year “hasn’t been normal” to say the least. He prefers not to specify the type of cancer “because everybody then goes Googling, everybody becomes an amateur doctor … And I don’t want to be judged – yet,” he adds. “A huge inconvenience,” he says ceremoniously, “is the best way to describe it.”
Some festivals cancelled their bookings, not wanting just one hairy biker. Others invited King to gig solo while Myers stayed home, testing recipes from their new book, Brilliant Bakes, and “eating like it’s been going out of fashion, to get the calories in me”. Under this sort of duress, some double acts might question themselves: who they are, how they work, whether they will work again. But King and Myers know that what makes them who they are isn’t really hair or bikes – it’s each other.
