According to listeners, the most popular bits of the Bike Show are the so-called ‘rolling interviews’, which are basically a bike ride combined with a live interview. Over the years, Bike Show presenter Jack Thurston has developed the unique blend of skills necessary to ride a bike, handle a microphone, not get lost, run over or fall into canal, all the while conducting an interview with his guest of the day. Here is the complete list (in chronological order) with links to the ‘listen again’ audio archive:
Dunwich Dynamo 2006. London Fields to Dunwich, overnight. Broadcast on 13 December 2004. LISTEN
Mark Ellen, music journalist, broadcaster and editor of The Word magazine. Chiswick to the Angel, Islington, through the Royal Parks. Broadcast on 27 December 2004. LISTEN
Nicky Hamlyn, writer and film-maker. A Christmas day ride over the South Downs. Broadcast on 3 January 2005. LISTEN
Jeremy Deller, artist and folklorist. A roll around the Islington/Hackney borderlands. Broadcast on 24 January 2005. LISTEN
Rose Ades, the Mayor of London’s chief adviser on cycling at Transport for London. A commute route from Bermondsey to Victoria. Broadcast on 31 January 2005. LISTEN
Rosie Walford, psychologist and founder of The Big Stretch. Upper Street to St Paul’s Cathedral. Broadcast on 4 April 2005. LISTEN
Buffalo Bill, chair of the London Bicycle Messengers Association. A ‘blue plaque tour’ of messengers’ London. Broadcast on 16 and 23 May 2005. LISTEN (part two) LISTEN (part two).
Alix Stredwick of Sustrans. Clerkenwell Road to Wapping. Broadcast on 15 August 2005. LISTEN
Daniel Start, wilderness guru. A trip in the Kent countryside. Broadcast on 22 August 2005. LISTEN
Brendt Barbur, founding director of the Bicycle Film Festival. The Tour of Britain comes to London. Broadcast on 25 October 2005. LISTEN
New York: Manhattan. Broadcast on 10 April 2006. LISTEN
New York: Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Broadcast on 17 April 2006. LISTEN
Ruth Holmes, cycling officer of the Royal Parks. A ride around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Broadcast on 12 June 2006. LISTEN
Julia Lohmann, designer and artist. From the West End to Tooting via Fulham. Broadcast on 3 July 2006. LISTEN
Edinburgh. Overnight sleeper and a tour around the Scottish capital. Broadcast on 6 November 2006. LISTEN
Brussels. Testing out the Velo-cite cycle hire scheme in the Belgian capital. Broadcast on 4 December 2006. LISTEN
Patrick Field, London cycle guru. A doorstep adventure from West Hackney to Wapping taking in the Woolwich Ferry. Broadcast on 18 December 2006 and 8 January 2007. LISTEN (part one) LISTEN (part two)
Graeme Fife, writer and broadcaster. A short spin around the north Kent hills. Broadcast on 28 May 2007. LISTEN
Simon Jackson, roller race champion. Around Richmond Park in the rain. Broadcast on 10 December 2007. LISTEN
Andy Allan, cartographer and computer programmer. Waterloo to South Bermondsey. Broadcast on 4 February 2008. LISTEN
For the technologically-minded out there (and there have been several requests for this information), Jack conducts rolling interviews using an ElectroVoice RE50 reporter’s microphone and an Edirol R-09 solid state recorder. The ElectroVoice has amazing wind resistance and is very ruggedly built, so can be dropped without much risk of damage. The Edirol is light and convenient - even though the preamp is not spectacular and it lacks XLR inputs.
