How heartbreak lead to Billy Ward working with legends like Charley Bownman and Ewan McGregor

With nearly two decades in the industry, the former tech speaker and educator has always loved motorbikes and travelling, but it wasn’t until his life changed that his career did too.

“I married a really beautiful divorce lawyer, stunning. I mean she was stunning, and she was earning proper good money and I thought – I’ve made it, I’ve literally made it here,” Ward recalled while featuring on Full Chat.

“I’ve married this beautiful woman, so attractive, intelligent, articulate, loaded and with a great career. So how do you think that happened to end for me?”

Feeling down on his luck, he decided that he needed a pick-me-up, and for Billy, that meant taking his motorbike to North Africa.

“I got the bike and I rode from Whitley Bay to Cape Town. I did that to sort of escape everything. I was already a rider, but I’d never done adventure biking,” he revealed.

“It just gives you that time to think and not be distracted by other things.”

Billy would also get through his divorce by watching the motorbike docuseries, Long Way Round, which starred Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor.

“I was so traumatised in my divorce, each day, I’d only watch a little bit of it, I’d watch like thirty minutes of Long Way Round,” Ward told the podcast.

“I didn’t want it to end.”

Billy would then go on to become a huge fan of the show.

“I remember saying to my mates, you know what, I’ve been watching this Charley Boorman, Ewan McGregor thing, I reckon I could be Ewan McGregor's mate because I like the way they crack on and I reckon I crack on a bit like that.”

After seeing an advert in MCN, Billy headed to see Charley Boorman at Squires, a Biker Bar in North Yorkshire, along with hundreds of other fans.

“Charlie is in there and, I don’t know if you know, but Charley is a bit like Tom Cruz, he wears those special wedges,” he joked.

“If you’re listening Charley, you’re just not that tall really.”

He noticed that the crowd could barely see or hear Charley, plus Boorman’s show was lacking production value.

“The audience started giving him a bit of abuse. (They) were saying ‘we can’t hear you’, because they couldn’t.”

Thinking quickly, Billy found a table for Charley to sit on, plus a microphone for him to use.

“At the end of the gig, he got a big round of applause, everyone loved it.“

Ward would approach Boorman after the show and in his typically honest manner, told the presenter how much he loved the show but thought it could be better.

“He literally gave me a mouthful,” Ward laughed.

“He said, what are you? Some sort of like theatre producer?”

Thinking on his feet again, Billy twisted the truth and said yes.

“I’m a theatre producer, and I think I could make your show into a proper theatre show, we could take it around the country.”

This is exactly what Billy and Boorman did, with Ward being able to meet Ewan Mcgregor and the rest of the Long Way Round team.

Their show would sell out, with 37 nights across the UK, and resulted in a years-long professional partnership.

Reflecting on career since then, he said; “How did you, Billy, some old bloke with white hair, Scouse-Irish fella, how did you ever get into this game?”

“It was because of Long Way Round and my divorce, they came together at the same time, that trauma triggered all them actions, a bit ballsy with the ‘yes I’m a theatre producer’ malarky, and became friends with Charley.”

“We’ve worked together really ever since.”