Review: Ned Boulting's Marginal Mystery Tour - 1923 And All That

Review: Ned Boulting's Marginal Mystery Tour - 1923 And All That

Published: October 25, 2024 at 9:20 am

Words: John Whitney

Forget the grizzled domestiques who clock up a century of race days each season, or the Triple Crown-winning Tadej Pogacar – is there a harder working man in professional cycling than Ned Boulting? Does the bloke ever stop? The Cycling Plus columnist (one of his smaller gigs) would be forgiven for taking the winter off for a bit of recharging like much of the pro cycling circus, what with his numerous race commentary commitments, book deadlines and podcast records during the season (not to mention the work in his other life, on the pro darts tour). Alas, no. In five off-seasons since 2016 – and for the second year running – Ned has packaged up his season’s experiences into a one-man theatre show and taken it on the road around the UK. This is his fourth grand tour of the year, as he points out at the start of his latest show – only, at 22 dates, his has one more stage to negotiate.

As we did with last year’s show, Cycling Plus caught him at our local theatre, the Redgrave, on the Bristol leg. In 2023, he was in the final throes of the tour by the time he got on stage in Bristol. Tonight, this is only night three. You’d forgive him for being a little rusty – and there are occasions when he gets his stories out of synch – but largely he nails it. Tonight, he’s bringing his most recent book, 1923, to life. It's a story he's been immersed in for four years.

The book, about a reel of historic film of an unknown bike race that came into his possession in 2020 and his search to find every drop of meaning from it, was a big hit when it came out last summer. Naturally for such a workaholic, it was researched and written at a time when he had too much time on his hands. Not only was it the first winter (and second lockdown) of the Covid pandemic but he was recovering from a badly broken arm sustained in a bike crash while covering the delayed 2020 Tour de France (a crash amusingly reconstructed in a video by colleague Pete Kennaugh in tonight’s intro). From this two-and-a-half-minute snippet of film, Ned set out to uncover its secrets, not only discovering that this was the 1923 Tour de France but uncovering the identities and back stories of some of the long-forgotten riders from a century ago. This detective story, that started at home and eventually took him to Belgium and northern France, arrives back at the start with a stage recreation of his office.

Fans of the book will find the stage show at least its equal, with Boulting leavening some of the book's heavier subjects from this traumatic time of history with humourous tangents. It's accessible to viewers who haven't read the book, however - especially pro cycling fans. Weaving the broad strokes story of the book with modern references to today’s peloton and funny video interludes lampooning the adverts for animal rescue, stair lifts and funerals that are the stock-in-trade of ITV’s Tour de France coverage, the show makes for a brisk two hours. On paper a one-man stage show about professional cycling is a tough sell but year after year Ned’s proven himself as perhaps the only man in the business who could pull it off, combining performing chops, story-telling, whimsy and earnest passion for the sport into a persuasive package. As he says in the closing audience Q&A section, as far as professional cycling is concerned, it was love at first sight from the moment his employer ITV sent him to report on the 2003 Tour de France, armed with a threadbare knowledge of the sport. “I think it’s pretty self-evident,” he says of that affection, on stage, 21 years later, dressed in period attire, performing his latest material to a rapt audience of hundreds.

Ned Boulting’s Marginal Mystery Tour: 1923 And All That continues until 20 November. Dates and tickets are available here.

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