The Hairy Bikers: You'll Never Ride Alone is the best documentary you'll watch all year
Grab some tissues, it's an emotional ride.
Prepare to laugh, cry, wipe your tears and then keep on crying, as The Hairy Bikers: You'll Never Ride Alone will be the best thing you tune into this festive period, and that is no exaggeration.
Led by Si King, the documentary looks back on the life and career of the late Dave Myers and the beautiful friendship he formed with King after they met working behind the scenes on a TV show.
Told through new interviews and previously unseen and equally well-known Hairy Bikers footage, the documentary follows King on a charity motorcycle ride from London to Barrow-in-Furness, Myers's hometown, with weaved-in testimonials from King and Liliana Orzac, Myers's wife.
When the news broke that beloved member of The Hairy Bikers duo Dave Myers had died, hearts across the nation broke. That outpouring of grief and support for his family is something which is shown in the documentary as it chronicles Dave Day.
In this climate, when it seems that everyone is so against one another, the unity of the Hairy Bikers supporters is something to be adored.
Throughout Dave Day, fans are interviewed at each stop, with many reflecting on watching the Hairy Bikers on TV and following their recipes – and while they didn't know Myers personally, they always thought of him as a friend.
"It was important to celebrate the man and what he'd achieved," King told RadioTimes.com and other press. "It was also important to give our audience a goodbye as well.
"It was perfection. That brotherhood, that community [and] that opportunity for people to openly grieve the loss of a good, decent, straightforward man."
Very rarely are fans and audiences privy to such grief and emotion, but this doc offers a raw and honest look at what it's like to lose a friend or loved one, beyond the glitz and glamour that fame affords.
Grief isn't different simply because someone is famous, it's a natural experience that so many of us share, and You'll Never Ride Alone will hopefully open up hard conversations around the pain of losing a loved one and the healing process that continues, especially around the Christmas season.
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To say that something is the best all year is heady praise, but as someone who only ever occasionally watched Hairy Bikers episodes and wasn't too familiar with the duo, there was something so heartbreakingly beautiful about the one-off special, that its praise was so deserved.
It is embedded throughout the documentary just how loved Myers was, especially by best friend Si King.
"[Dave] was a joyous man," King continues. "He embraced and loved the life that he led and that was enormously important to him. That was the essence of my best mate."
As Si says in the documentary, while many are lucky to have a best friend as he did in Dave, very few have their best and fondest memories with one another captured for the nation to see.
Over the course of 20 years, King and Myers hosted over 30 Hairy Bikers series and specials, taking viewers on a culinary adventure all via their bikes, and it's a crying shame there will be no more.
If King were to continue on adventures of his own, he admits it would have to be different.
"That was Dave and I," he told RadioTimes.com and other press. "He's no longer with us, so it would have to be different, I would want it to be different."
"But what I'm really proud of is the legacy that it left."
Now, I don't want to reveal too much about what happens in the documentary to give audiences a chance to embrace it for themselves. But remember, grab some tissues - you'll need them!
The Hairy Bikers: You'll Never Ride Alone will air on Monday 23rd December at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Entertainment and Factual Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.