The Hairy Bikers are coming

A new BBC television series hits our screens next week featuring mouth-watering
recipes from around the world, stunning locations and a pair of refreshingly
unpretentious motorcycle-riding presenters known as the 'Hairy Bikers'.

Long time friends Simon King and Dave Myers aren't the most obvious choice for
television chefs. However the pair of northern bikers - who class themselves as
"foodies" not cooks - are set to capture the imagination of food lovers
everywhere with The Hairy Bikers Cookbook, which starts next Tuesday (January
17) on BBC2 at 8.30pm.

The pair met 17 years ago in the last place you'd expect to find two bikers
with a passion for decent food - on the set of a Catherine Cookson television
drama. Dave is a former furnace man from Barrow-in-Furness who worked as a
make-up artist specialising in prosthetics. Simon is originally from Newcastle
upon Tyne and worked as a First Assistant Director and locations manager for
many TV series and films, including the Harry Potter movies.

Riding motorcycles to far-flung places; an obsession with adventure and food;
and their laugh-out loud capacity for fun is the beguiling recipe that has
persuaded television bosses to turn their adventures into a prime time TV
series.

Calling themselves the 'Hairy Bikers', Dave and Simon journey to fascinating
locations, meet the indigenous population and learn to cook the regional
delicacies (or otherwise) that are inextricably linked to the cultures and
lifestyles they discover and often embrace.

Naturally, the opportunity to combine their two major passions - bikes and food
- was hard to resist, as Dave explains: "We were mates and loved getting on our
bikes and journeying to discover great food and the stories behind it, but work
kept getting in the way. We thought it would be a great life if we could just
ride bikes, cook food and get paid to talk about it. And now here we are - it's
a dream come true."

Building on the success of a critically acclaimed BBC 2 pilot transmission
several months ago, the documentary-style 'road-trips' combine travel and
cooking - adventures of the road and palate - with Dave and Simon as rough and
ready guides. The first two episodes find them in Namibia where they cook
crocodile satay, ostrich eggs and crayfish, as well as covering more than 1,000
kilometres of spectacular off-road terrain on BMW R1200 GS machines.

In the first series Dave and Simon also visit the Isle of Man, Ireland and
Transylvania. The second series - due out later in the year - sees them riding
through Turkey, Vietnam and Mexico.

A book containing all the recipes cooked by the Hairy Bikers will be published
by Penguin in mid-April, and a DVD of both series is also planned for release
later in the year.

For comprehensive information on the forthcoming series, please visit the
www.hairybikers.com website.

Ends

For further BMW press information please contact one of the following:

Andy Dukes / Lauren Haslehurst 08000 131 282
Tony Jakeman 01344 480 185