Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A British Broadcasting Corporation crew member lowers a boom microphone towards Si King and Dave Myers, better known in England as The Hairy Bikers television hosts, as a cameraman in the foreground works to find a good angle Wednesday at the Kix on 66 restaurant in Tucumcari. The Hairy Bikers have spent several weeks on Route 66 to produce a six-part series about the historic highway for BBC Two.
A crew from the British Broadcasting Corp. spent about 12 hours in Tucumcari last week filming at two Route 66 restaurants for a pair of longtime television hosts.
The crew spent the evening of May 28 eating at Cornerstone First Edition Pizza and Subs and Wednesday morning at Kix on 66 filming and eating breakfast. Both restaurants are owned by Todd Duplantis, who also is a Tucumcari city commissioner.
The crew's journey on Route 66 will become a six-part television series and the newest program for Si King and Dave Myers, better known as "The Hairy Bikers." The bearded Myers and King have hosted more than a dozen British food and travel programs in the last 15 years and have written 21 books, all as The Hairy Bikers. Their Route 66 series likely will air on BBC Two in September. The BBC announced the Route 66 series for The Hairy Bikers in February.
Duplantis said he was excited about the prospect of Tucumcari on a high-profile British television series.
"I can't wait for it to come out," he said. "Hopefully it puts Tucumcari on the map a little bit more."
King and Myers sat in a corner booth of Kix on 66 during a break in shooting, drinking coffee and waiting for their breakfast orders to arrive.
Myers said a program about Route 66 was something they'd been wanting to do for years.
"We're trying to get to the heart of Route 66 and away from the chains, away from the homogenization, and try to show the real America," Myers said.
"The other thing about Route 66 is it's a popular culture icon," King said. "The music, the literature that's around the Mother Road, and the social struggles as well ... the migration and immigration that's made the States what it is. It's all remarkable, and it's a great journey."
"It's the Dust Bowl, and meeting people and their descendants who were fated by that," Myers said.
"It's Woody Guthrie," King added.
When someone observed King and Myers often finish each other's sentences, they nodded.
"We've been with each other for 25 years," King said. "That's what we do."
They were asked about their impressions of Tucumcari.
"As a foreigner, it's what you expect from nostalgic America," Myers said.
"With Tucumcari, you can see what effect the (interstate) highways have done, that's for sure," King said. "It blows our minds that the (interstate) is sometimes just 100 meters away from amazing places and people with hopes, dreams and aspirations that has just bypassed it."
Duplantis said a BBC producer contacted him about two weeks ago, informing him of the duo's impending visit. The production crew the previous week had sent scouts along Route 66 to check locations, and they liked what they saw in Tucumcari with Cornerstone and Kix, he said.
Save for a brief break that allowed them to fly back to England for a few days, Myers and King said they've been on the road filming since just after Easter. They will wrap production by mid-June.