It’s just wrong t
Along with others on social media, Kevan Christie laughed at Bradley Wiggins, but has now realised the error of his ways
Poor old Sir Bradley “We are the Mods” Wiggins. The chronic asthma sufferer and champion of the Paul Weller haircut ( which Paul Weller himself can’t carry off ) has had a kicking this week over his cultural choices in a magazine interview.
It turns out you can take a cyclist to water but you can’t make it drink when it comes to all things arts and theatre dahlings. Wiggo’s bicycle chain came hurtling off in a classic Q& A- style interview, like they used to have in the football magazine Shoot where direct questions were asked with no preamble. Footballers would answer “Steak, Lager and Diana Ross” before young fans headed to the record shop to buy her self- titled 1976 classic album in the soul- disco genre section.
In the interview, Bradders, Wiggo, Sir Bradley? – gave a straight “no” when asked his “favourite play/ playwright” while “My favourite author or book” was met with a frosty “I’m not really a reader. I haven’t got the attention span. Skip the books.” Fair play – reading while cycling seems tricky. He went on to say he only
watches First Dates on telly before appearing to hanker for the days when Chas & Dave had their own TV Christmas special. This was met with a flurry of Twitter comments, the best being “I can see why he won Sports Personality of the Year”.
Now, I’m no fan of Wiggins and find there’s a strong whiff of the weirdo in the elite cycling game but I’m moved to defend him here. The Q& A was likely arranged to promote his current “An Evening With…” speaking tour.
But the whole fiasco raises the question who decides what culture is anyway? So what if Wiggins’ favourite film is Platoon, starring 1,000- yard stare merchant Charlie Sheen in his breakthrough movie before the pornstars and coke took hold.
He talks honestly about Only Fools and Horses being his all- time favourite TV series because it’s a “romanticised vision of where I’m from – of a time and a community that doesn’t really exist any more”. This is both touching and sad – like a lot of the Q& A which has been taken out of context. These are the words