Actor and motorcycle fan Charlie Boorman recently gave an interview to the Telegraph in which he discussed his love of motorbikes and the challenges of being a jobbing actor.

Among his most successful ventures were the book and TV series related to his Long Way Round motorcycle expedition, which he undertook with his friend and fellow actor Ewan McGregor. He describes being “very lucky” as regards the Sky One series, in which he and McGregor travel from London to New York by motorcycle – the long way round. He discusses how unexpected the success for the series was.

Acting has long been a passion for him, a career that was helped along by his film director father, John Boorman. But finding work has not always been easy, and any money he made usually went on motorcycles.

His worst financial decisions relate to car purchases. He once bought a Peugeot 205 GTI and after a number of years discovered he would lose £10,000 by selling it.

The motorbike fanatic also spoke about his charity work with Unicef, and about his love of dyslexia charity Dyslexia Action – since it is a condition he himself has suffered with.

Boorman’s love of the motorcycle, rather than his acting career, appears to have given him the most success over the years. The Long Way Round has led to numerous TV appearances, and most recently the ‘South African Adventures’ series on Channel 5 – which does not involve motorcycles.

Hopefully Boorman will make a motorbike related TV series again soon, although his usually-exotic riding locations may preclude him from our highly competitive motorbike breakdown cover.