"Quick, come and watch this," yelled he who must have charge of the TV remote control'.

Leaving the spaghetti to drain I dashed into the lounge.

The TV guide had given a tantalising build-up "BBC2 introduces a highly unusual documentary presented by two warm, funny, life-long foodies. Dave Myers and Simon King are big, bearded bikers who met on the set of a Catherine Cookson drama. Born and bred in Barrow, Dave works as a make-up artist specialising in prosthetics; his numerous credits include The Life and Loves of a She Devil and the current BBC1 hit Spooks. Si, who hails from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is a first assistant director and locations manager for film and television whose credits include the Harry Potter movies.

It turned out to be riveting stuff thanks to Dave and Si's unbridled enthusiasm for their journey of culinary discovery and the hilariously infectious way in which they presented it.

Having forsaken the Highlands of Scotland a couple of years ago in order to return to his Furness roots, I was able to catch up with Dave at his Roa Island home.

And yes, for those of you lucky enough to have seen the programme, they really did spit-roast a suckling pig over the inspection pit in Dave's garage the pig was sourced through Booths in Ulverston.

"They didn't know it was for the programme," said 47-year-old Dave. They do now!

A former Barrow Grammar School boy, Dave's late father used to work at the paper mill on Salthouse Road so Myers junior spent all his spare time drawing on the scraps dad brought home.

Art school in Lancaster followed BGS, next came a fine art degree, and a masters in art history completed the formal training.

When he then set out in search of a career, two options caught his eye trainee picture restorer at the National Gallery, and trainee make-up artist at the BBC.

No guesses as to which won!

Dave has since worked on Dr Who and did Helen Mirren and the autopsy' in Prime Suspect. And, having become a specialist in prosthetics, he was responsible for ageing Damian Lewis in the recent re-make of The Forsyte Saga.

Spooks is his latest project the gruesome sutures on the stomach of the suicide bomber who had the explosives sewn inside her were Dave's handiwork.

In 1991, while working on the Catherine Cookson Drama The Gambling Man starring Robson Green, Dave met Simon King.

"It was like finding a soulmate," recalled Dave, who was living in Scotland at the time. Si and his family he has three children would often head north of the border for a weekend of fun and laughter and, because they both loved food and cooking, they would invariably end up sharing kitchen duties. It was during the many resulting dinner parties that the seeds of doing a programme were sewn.

"The only business we both know is TV and film. And we have our friendship. Food is the currency which drives us and we thought why not use food as the currency for travel."

In other words, food opens doors including those of producers John Stroud (BBC1's My Hero) and Vikram Jayanti (When We Were Kings).

Because they wanted to do the travel aspect of the programme properly, "it was always going to be something with motorbikes," explained Dave. It was Vik who came up with the idea of calling it The Two Hairy Bikers' Cookbook.

The BBC gave the project the go-ahead in July last year. Triumph agreed to provide the transport ("we didn't want to clock up 3,000 miles on our own bikes"), and the nine-strong film crew set off for Portugal last October an obvious culinary destination because of its contribution to the world of food.

"Well, that and the fact that they have a Museum of Lobotomy," quipped Dave, no stranger to a bit of brain surgery himself. In the programme Dave explained in detail his own brain shunt operation some years ago.

Two Hairy Bikers was definitely not for the squeamish. I went off my spaghetti, for example, when it showed someone gutting live eels.

As for the suckling pigs being stuffed, skewered, smothered in olive oil and spit-roasted "The BBC got seven complaints about the pigs (mostly from vegetarians) but, as Si pointed out in the programme, if you are going to eat meat you have to make this connection with where your food comes from."

And the two-and-a-half million people (minus seven) who watched this programme obviously did.

Two Hairy Bikers concluded with Dave and Si cooking a meal for members of Roa Island boat club which is why Dave ended up at Ulverston Booths in search of suckling pig.

"I love their Holker salt marsh lamb too," said Dave who, having lived away for many years, has returned to what he describes as a "great food culture" here in Cumbria.

"Booths sells such a lot of local stuff. And you get the feeling that the people buying really care about the food."

A fan of Rick Stein and Delia Smith ("you never get a duff Delia dish"), Dave says that he and Si want to present food to people in a way that isn't patronising.

"So many food programmes are elitist, Nigella and the like. We want to cook real food for real people."

If the BBC commissions a new series, then prepare yourself for travels to Mexico, Costa Rica, from Cape Town across the Kalahari even the Andes.

And yes, there will be a book. Watch this space!