Coming up this week, we’ll ride the lights with some incredible machines in Blackpool, we’ll talk to a man who has tried over 50,000 beers, and we’ll get fit with an extraordinary runner, and hand cyclist.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00In the bustling tapestry of Britain, where centuries-old traditions blend seamlessly with modern life,
00:07there exists individuals who march to the beat of their own drum.
00:11Unconventional Brits is a captivating film series that dives into the lives of these extraordinary local characters
00:19who defy the norm with their unusual hobbies, quirky lifestyles and fascinating pastimes.
00:26Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics whose daily lives are anything but conventional.
00:33Whether you're inspired, amused or simply amazed, this is a programme that reminds us all of the beauty in being different.
00:43Coming up this week, we'll ride the lights with some incredible machines in Blackpool,
00:46we'll talk to a man who has tried over 50,000 beers and we'll get fit with an extraordinary runner and a hand cyclist.
00:56This year, we do a costume every year, something that we can all do, but this year we needed something quick,
01:02so we thought everybody can be aliens and then we have a couple of men in black as well, so, chasing us.
01:12This year, we'll ride the lights with some incredible machines in Blackpool,
01:16we'll talk to a man who has tried over 50,000 beers and a hand cyclist
01:22It's an illness, it takes all your life if you're not careful.
01:25You start with one, then you make two, and then you make two more in the last 12 months,
01:30and then I've got a yard full of them to make. I've got another five I think.
01:34How long have you been doing this?
01:36About three years.
01:37Three years?
01:38Yeah, since Covid.
01:40This is a coin-operated rider outside an arcade.
01:43I've cut it up, then I make a mobility scooter to fit it.
01:47We're from the new Esplanade Hotel, on the front, next to the Pleasure Beach,
01:51and we've got a lovely guest called Mark Harper, and he brings his dodgem with us,
01:55and he brings his postman pat-a-van, and we have a goldmine, Paul brings a goldmine,
02:00and they're all amazing guys, and they hook us all up with this amazing dodgem.
02:03It brings different ones every year.
02:05Yeah, it brings different ones every year.
02:07It brings different ones every year.
02:09It brings different ones every year.
02:11It brings different ones every year.
02:13It brings different ones every year.
02:15It brings different ones every year.
02:17We've had a log flume, what else have we had?
02:19A swan, a blackpill tower, every year it tries to bring something different.
02:28We've added to it, we didn't have lights last year, we had the butterfly cape,
02:34but now we've added the lights.
02:36We represent the Clear Migos, we're a bike club from Cleethorpes,
02:50so we're just over the road in Hull.
02:53We've come first time to ride the lights, we were invited by another group who came last year,
02:59and he just said there's too many normal bikes, vanilla bikes,
03:03so there's about 20 of us come on cruises this year.
03:06You're mixing it up a bit.
03:07Yeah, I like entertaining, I like seeing people smile,
03:11what better way to do it than come to Blackpool with thousands of other cyclists.
03:15And what's with the amazing get-up?
03:17The get-up is because I'm a bit of a showman, I like to entertain, I like to see smiles on faces,
03:23so this is a unicorn bike, to ride the unicorn bike you've got to be a unicorn.
03:34Paul Smith has raised more than £2 million for charity over the last five decades,
03:40and is currently on his last challenge of hand-cycling from Mount Snowdon to Portsmouth.
03:46In 1991 I had a road traffic accident, someone was overtaking on a blind bend at night,
03:54hit me head on, and I had a broken leg.
04:00And I have a brain injury.
04:04I've been fundraising for 48 years now,
04:08and I always believe that there are people in the world that are worse off than myself,
04:17and I feel that we should be helping them and helping brain tumour research in particular.
04:27I am taking on the challenge in memory of my grandmother, a good friend of mine Jenny Weller,
04:35and another friend of mine Theresa.
04:39I'm out 100 miles a day most days, in all weathers, rain, we've had the heat,
04:4729 degrees, set off at 5 in the morning, not got back home until about 4 in the afternoon.
04:57And it's just keep pushing myself, knowing that the hills that we are going to face at the end of the month
05:07are going to be a challenge on their own.
05:17So Paul, how was the journey?
05:26Tough, basically, yeah.
05:29Some real big mountains to climb, and hot temperatures.
05:35Yesterday, 32 degrees, the brake cable snapped as well,
05:40and that happened earlier as well, on Tuesday.
05:45So twice the brake cable snapped, it pushed me to my limits, I know that.
05:50I'm proud of the guys and that, because you can set these challenges,
05:55but you can't always achieve them alone.
05:59Because there's people in this world that are worse off than me,
06:04and I believe if you can help somebody, do it.
06:11All that exercise has made me a bit thirsty, who's for a quick beer?
06:16Probably when I was at university in the late 70s,
06:19the beer in the students bar was not that sparkling, to be honest.
06:23So a few of us went and ventured out to find a little pub, and in Cardiff it was Brains.
06:28So that's where I got a taste for real ale, so I've been having Brains in Cardiff.
06:33And then after that I came home, started going around Sheffield,
06:37real ale, Ward Stores and Tetley's were basically the beers you could get.
06:42But then we discovered Pubs Like Me, which is just open,
06:46and were somewhat different beers I'd never heard of before.
06:50One of which I had on the first day, which is Tooth & Fever's Landlord,
06:53it's still on, they still have it on.
06:55But then we started looking a bit further afield,
06:57and we saw a beer festival in Chesterfield.
07:00So we went to that, and that was it then.
07:03Basically a variety of choice compared to what you normally get in a pub.
07:06So well, at least in the early days, that's how it all started, really.
07:10And you sort of then start to meet other people who were doing a similar thing.
07:15Because I always think in them days there was no internet, no social media, no nothing.
07:20So you turned up at a pub, you had no idea what they were on,
07:23there were no websites and films.
07:25So you just took a pop look and went to a festival, didn't know what you were going to get.
07:28And that was part of the fun.
07:30And it sort of took off a while.
07:32At that time there were a few people you kept seeing all around the circuit.
07:36Not the same people, not from Chesterfield, but all across the country.
07:38And you were usual to meet up at a festival.
07:41And then you go to Tokyo.
07:42Well I've tried, have you tried this?
07:44No, no.
07:45No, maybe I've had some before.
07:46And then a couple of people started keeping numbers, totals of people.
07:49A lot of beers people have had.
07:52And after that, there was somebody who set up a list of the first 10,000 beers.
07:59And I think it was probably somebody called McNateek.
08:01Because a lot of people have got nicknames.
08:04So it was called McNateek from West Midlands.
08:07He's sadly no longer with us.
08:11But I think I crept in about number 11 or 12 in the list of 10,000.
08:17So that's how it sort of became.
08:19Not everybody knew, because there's no rules for drinking.
08:22You can drink a half, a third, a pint.
08:25You can take it away in a bottle if you want.
08:27As long as you have it, it's all right.
08:29I just tend to drink in situ and have a half.
08:32Sometimes a pint being 99% is hard.
08:36And then you just keep a record of how many you've had.
08:40Some people call it camp breweries.
08:42They've got new breweries now.
08:44I don't particularly do that.
08:45I just count beers.
08:46But there's no rules to it.
08:49So it's what everybody wants to do and enjoys doing.
08:53And yet your 55th birthday was in Sheffield.
08:55It was. It was a 2 and 6 micro pub.
08:59It was on Steak Hill in Sheffield.
09:02It was ambideal beer.
09:04But that was purely by chance really.
09:06You don't necessarily know how many you've been having a day
09:09when you set out.
09:12Hello, my name's Joe Larkin.
09:14I ran from South Shields to Paris to raise money
09:16for mental health charities, Samaritans and Space North East.
09:20It took a forging 85 mile over 13 days
09:24to reach the middle of Paris.
09:26I like helping and inspiring people, especially young lads,
09:31because being in difficult situations
09:34and facing a lot of mental adversity in my past,
09:38I know what it feels like to be feeling worthless and not strong.
09:43And this is why I do challenges like this,
09:45to show people that what happens when you don't give up
09:48is an achievement on the other side of fear.
09:50Two years ago I lost my grandad and we grew this bond together
09:54that we were best friends.
09:56I got to say goodbye to him before he passed away
09:59and the last thing I did say was,
10:01I'm going to make you proud and I'm going to take you on a journey.
10:04And this is what I do all these hard things for.
10:07Do my marathons, do all these hard challenges
10:10where I do struggle and I do go into a dark place during,
10:13but I know at the end when I achieve the goal,
10:16I know he's watching and there was a lot of signs on that challenge
10:19where I knew he was there helping me, so that's what I do it for.
10:22So I started running in 2020, just before Covid started.
10:27Just started off small, one mile, two mile, three mile,
10:31and I ended up just running my first marathon around the streets.
10:34I can remember I finished work, I used to work for the NHS.
10:37I just finished work and I thought, I want to push myself a little bit more
10:41and I ended up just running the marathon
10:42and that's when I started to realise,
10:44other people realised I was getting really good at running.
10:47That's when I started really finding out who I am as an individual
10:51and realised actually I was quite really unhappy at that time.
10:54I kind of just started working and putting them both together
10:57and realising how good running is for your mental health
11:00and that's when my business came along, Believe to Run,
11:03because I wanted to help people get better at running and get stronger in life.
11:07To be honest, after the first day,
11:10it was probably the first time I ever thought,
11:13wow, can I actually do this?
11:15Because I've never really run that much consecutively every day
11:19and I remember my first day running 38 miles,
11:22I woke up the next day and I couldn't even walk
11:24and I thought, wow.
11:26But I just kept going every day and it was hard, I was getting injuries
11:31but I just knew my purpose was, I was going to do this for my granddad
11:35and do this for people struggling and that I would never ever give up.
11:40It was just over like a flash but then the past couple of weeks
11:45I've just took in a lot of gratitude of, I can't believe I've just ran to Paris.