The Hairy Bikers have come in out of the cold. KATHERINE MACALISTER finds out more.

Simon King, aka Hairy Biker, is the one without the glasses who bounced on to our screens in a cloud of exhaust smoke and a biker jacket to entrance us with an ad hoc, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style cookery show.

“Hungry? We’ll just pull up here, gut that strange looking mammal and slow roast it in the pit we’ve dug by the side of the motorway.” Catch my drift? And we lapped it up.

So popular were the male version of the Two Fat Ladies, that endless TV shows ensued from all around the world.

But forget the snakes and wild beasts, Mums Know Best, their current programme, required gallons more gumption and had them venturing into the terrifying world of home baking at venues like Abingdon’s WI.

Brave men then. But after endless years of having a TV crew following them about, the Hairy Bikers decided to hang up their pinnies and venture into new territory – the stage.

Which is why you’ll find Simon and fellow dude Dave Myers at the New Theatre tonight cooking something up while regaling their audience with anecdotes, jokes, banter and general bonhomie.

And yet, while tickets have sold out elsewhere around the country, Oxford is proving harder to entice.

“We’ve got to push those Oxford tickets,” Simon agrees, “because they seem a bit unsure about it and don’t know what to expect. Just tell them they’ll have a good evening and the show is very entertaining. We’ve already had to extend the tour by two months because people couldn’t get hold of tickets,” he tells me. “So Oxford is a mystery.”

So what’s the score – different food every night?

“We cook the same thing every night actually but in essence the show has two elements; it’s about food but it’s also a proper big night out, so we get a member of the audience up on stage to help taste everything. But it’s also anecdotal from birth to bikers and lots of secrets along the way,” he adds.

And once they’ve packed up the scenery, these two will be back on the road, which must mean time at home is limited?

“Very,” Simon admits, “but we come from stable and strong families with a good ethos and they know that this is what dad does for a living so are very patient.”

You might have noticed that nothing fazes Simon, which must be handy on location in India or Turkey.

But mention the suggestion that the TV format is somehow staged and Simon becomes less jovial.

“I remember an article once that said we were put together by a savvy TV producer and probably had a RADA background. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s us because that’s what people know, that’s who we are and that’s what works, on stage as well.

“It’s not rehearsed because we have been mates for many years now. So hells teeth no, I’m shocked anyone would think the banter is planned.”

And when you consider the Hairy Bikers didn’t start out to be the stars, it all makes sense. “No, it didn’t start off as cookery programme,” Simon agrees. “The food was the currency to start with because it’s such a great reflector of a country’s character and the personality of a region, culturally and anthropologically, and there is always a story to tell.

“So when we started out we just wanted to investigate that and have an adventure, and then a publisher offered us a book so we said ‘yeah alright then’ and the rest followed,” he says before adding: “I’m there because I want to be there. And it’s lovely man.”

* The Hairy Bikers are at Oxford’s New Theatre tonight. Call the box office on 0844 8471585.