The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas sees bearded best mates Si King and Dave Myers back for a very moving Christmas special on BBC Two.
Just 18 months ago Dave was diagnosed with cancer and has since gone through almost 40 rounds of grueling chemotherapy, which initially left him unable to walk, let alone ride his beloved motorcycle. Now, although not out of the woods, he’s well enough to cook up a festive feast with best pal Si to thank all those who've helped him get back on his feet.
"We love a Christmas knees up but after my recent cancer diagnosis it's been hard to get in the Christmas spirit," admits Dave, 66. "My sense of taste and my appetite went, and I’d fall over quite a lot. It was debilitating. But after support from family, friends and hospital staff I’m feeling strong enough to get back on the road. It’s a Christmas I never thought I’d have, so I want it to be the best!"
So here’s everything you need to know about Si and Dave’s most personal journey yet in The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas…
The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas release date
The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas will be shown on Tuesday 19 December at 9pm on BBC2. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
What happens in The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas?
For the emotional Christmas special, the down-to-earth TV chefs visit food producers and restaurateurs for inspiration for a lavish Christmas banquet to say thank you to all the doctors, nurses, friends and family who’ve supported Dave during his cancer treatment. But, as well as all the foodie delights on offer, we also get to hear how Dave’s shocking diagnosis has affected him, as cameras go behind the scenes at the hospital in Birmingham where he continues treatment with his wife, Lil, by his side.
The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas recipes — what’s on the menu?
For The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas, Si and Dave are back in the kitchen making canapés of traditional Brummie bacon cakes with a Christmas twist, plus a starter of Filipino noodles inspired by one of Dave’s much-loved nurses.
There’s also dry aged roast beef with homemade horseradish sauce and naan Yorkshire puddings, as well as a seasonal stilton, pear and walnut tart for dessert, made with walnuts from a local Warwickshire farm.
"This feast is a celebration of life and Christmas and being together, and after the past 18 months it feels like a gift from heaven," says Dave. "I’m still having chemotherapy but this is a Christmas I’d never thought I’d have!"
INTERVIEW: Dave Myers on his festive hopes, traditions the 2023 Christmas special
We've loved your previous Christmas specials, what can we expect this time?
Dave says: 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?
Dave says: "In the last Christmas special we did and had the families around the table for dinner, we ‘invented’ the frangipane mince pies. It’s 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 so worth giving it a go. My family are Romanian so it’s not in their tradition but we’ve all got this taste for Harvest Bristol Cream Cherry, 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?
Dave says: "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?
Dave says: "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?
Dave says: "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?
Dave says: "It revolves around two or three days of cooking. 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?
Dave says: "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?
Dave reveals: "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?
Dave says: "This 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?
Dave says: "The support of friends and family has been everything because it can be quite lonely and you have some very dark moments. 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."
Is there a trailer for The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas?
Not yet, but we’ll update here as soon as one lands.
