You know what cycling’s long-running, divisive helmet debate desperately needs? An intervention from the real-life Alan Partridge, of course.
So, it was refreshing (I’m sure that’s the word…) to find broadcast supremo Richard Madeley weighing in on all things helmets as part of his agony aunt-style relationship advice column (yes, really) in the famously cycling-love Telegraph.
Especially when you consider his previous, impeccably balanced forays into cycling debates (think insurance and bike number plates, and you get the drift).
> Cycling UK spokesman invites Richard Madeley on bike ride after being subjected to Partridgesque meltdown on live TV
Anyway, the Good Morning Britain presenter’s helmet intervention came after he was sent a letter by an elderly Londoner (and not, I’m sure, a member of the Telegraph’s news team), enquiring about what to do with her pesky husband who keeps riding the city’s hire bikes… without a helmet.
“You have occasionally advised relatives of older people who insist on driving despite declining faculties,” G from SW15 (so not that G) wrote to Mr Madeley.
“My concern with my husband is that he has become a devotee of the rentable bicycles that litter the streets of our capital.”
(‘Litter’ – are we one hundred per cent sure this isn’t a Telegraph plant? Anyway…)
She continued: “I ought to welcome the thought of him taking exercise, but he enjoys free bus travel thanks to his 60+ Oyster card, and having seen him on two wheels in the past I am very worried about him being in danger. He declines to wear a helmet.
“Obviously he is not endangering others in the way a motorist might be, but I’m fond of the old stick and I would like him to pack it in – or at least wear some sort of headgear. But he is stubborn, and tends to think he is immortal. How should I approach this?”
> Why is Dan Walker’s claim that a bike helmet saved his life so controversial?
So, how did Madeley – who’s boasted in the past about riding his bike “every three days” – respond to poor G’s conundrum? By advising that, despite the safety benefits of helmets, it’s her husband’s prerogative to wear whatever he likes when cycling, and by pointing out that the greatest threat to his safety on our roads stems from distracted and careless drivers?
Not exactly…
“It sounds like your old man goes his own way, so I don’t think there is much point in trying to get him off his bike and onto the bus, Oyster card or no Oyster card,” Richard replied.
But I DO think you should lay down the law over the need to wear a helmet. It is just stupid not to. If he comes off his bike for any reason – pothole, jaywalker, careless driver – and bangs his head, unprotected, he could be killed. Or suffer irreversible brain damage.
“Or at the very least spend a few uncomfortable days in hospital with a fractured skull. He is NOT immortal and he DOES NOT have an invisible force-field protecting his napper.”
Great use of all caps there Richard.
> Dutch government and neurologists call on cyclists to wear helmets – but cyclists’ union says “too much emphasis” on helmets discourages cycling and “has an air of victim blaming”
“I don’t know what domestic sanctions you have at your disposal, G, but threaten to invoke all of them if he doesn’t start wearing a cycling helmet from this moment on. He is being an idiot,” Madeley concluded.
Which is interesting, especially when we factor in this photo of the broadcaster preparing to ride his bike back in 2023… with a helmet nowhere to be seen:
Hmmm… Who knows, maybe Richard is actually immortal? How he’s still on TV is another matter entirely, however.
Of course, as I noted above, this isn’t the first time Richard has shared his thoughts on the cycling culture wars.
In 2017, he sparred with Cycling UK spokesperson Duncan Dollimore on Good Morning Britain in a segment about proposals for a ‘dangerous cycling’ law, resisting Dollimore’s attempts to highlight the broader lack of accountability on the roads, instead whittering on about why cyclists aren’t insured.
And in June 2023, he ‘chaired’ a GMB debate on bike registration plates with Timmy Mallett and Fair Fuel UK founder Howard Cox, allowing Cox to run wild with some classic anti-cycling bingo tropes (35mph e-bike riders, red lights, pavements, road tax, the lot), while constantly interrupting poor Timmy.
Later that year, Madeley also admitted in an Express column that he almost killed a cyclist by driving into them from behind… before rolling down his window to call them a “f***ing idiot” for not having lights on their bike.
Anyway, I wonder what Judy thinks about helmets?