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Culture reporter
PA MediaMichael Cullen went from drowsing tough in Liverpool to elevating £1m by means of doing charity walks in all weathers in simply his swimming trunks. His tale is now being celebrated in a level musical.
Just as Clark Kent becomes Superman when he alters into his well-known purple underpants, Michael Cullen transforms into Speedo Mick when he pulls on his tight blue trunks.
“I got a little inkling of what Superman feels like when he puts his knickers on,” Cullen laughs.
“I do feel different when I’m in my Speedos. Something happens. There’s a change. I get a little bit more fearless.”
Speedo Mick does not have Suerpman’s tights and cape – only a pair of strolling boots and, if it is chilly, an Everton FC shawl and woolly hat.
He has criss-crossed the British Isles bare-chested for charity come rain, shine or snow. His maximum excessive problem used to be strolling between, and up, the tallest mountains in England, Scotland in Wales in mid-winter.
“Minus 18 at the top of Ben Nevis. I walked to the top of it and survived it. I never got hypothermia,” he marvels.
“So something happens when I put my Speedos on. I get a completely different frame of mind. I’m just so determined to get through the day without putting my clothes on.”
Getty ImagesIn pictures, Speedo Mick ceaselessly pulls a tough-guy bodybuilder pose for the cameras. But that bravado is a part of the nature.
Sitting in a practice session room the place actors are getting ready for a musical that may inform his tale, Cullen, 60, is absolutely clothed, softly spoken and delicate.
He first pulled at the Speedos to swim the English Channel in 2014, in spite of by no means having had a proper swimming lesson till he booked the make stronger boat.
“It was miraculous that I got across because I was training with men who were born in a pair of Speedos,” he jokes. “They were faster swimmers than me, better swimmers than me, their technique was much better than mine.
“But I had one thing that they by no means had, and that used to be a resolution…” He trails off. “I’m simply getting slightly emotional… a resolution and a will to finish one thing of that magnitude.”
Story Picture Agency/ShutterstockThat determination comes from “the similar position that my negativity comes from”, Cullen believes.
He suffered “numerous turmoil” during his childhood in Liverpool, using and abusing drink and drugs from his teens, and becoming homeless.
“I simply were given misplaced in all of it, to be truthful,” he says. “It used to be a tragic lifestyles. It used to be horrible and it used to be torturous, and I used to be doing it to myself. But I simply could not prevent.”
He finally got clean in 2001, and resolved to turn the negativity in his life into something positive.
“It used to carry me down for a protracted, very long time, however now it propels me ahead. That’s my engine. I suffered for a long time, and now I simply do not wish to do this any longer.”
After defying expectations and a shoulder injury to swim across the Channel, Cullen “sought after the sector to grasp that this had took place”.
So he ordered a pair of blue trunks with the name of his beloved football team on the back, and “went to all of the fits after that with ‘Everton’ emblazoned on my bum”.
Getty Images“The lovers have been so beneficiant,” he says. “I may have were given ripped to shreds at any level. But they have been all applauding and passing cash, and placing it in my bucket, and placing it in my knickers. There weren’t very many different puts that it’s worthwhile to put it!”
His scantily clad presence started raising smiles and funds at away matches, too.
“I had a entrance row seat so far as seeing all of the generosity, all of the kindness, and all of the love that folks may just give,” Cullen says.
“There’s numerous negativity occurring on the earth, and I used to be simply seeing all this positivity. It used to be making an enormous distinction to me, in addition to everybody else.”
Seeking new challenges, more money and bigger reactions, Cullen embarked on a series of increasingly ambitious charity walks – to Everton matches in Wembley and Lyon, then 1,000 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End.
In 2021, he traipsed for five months and 2,000 miles between London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin and Belfast; before climbing Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike.
Onlookers didn’t always welcome the sight of a middle-aged man in skimpy swimming trunks, however.
“There used to be some in reality detrimental stuff as neatly,” he provides.
“I were given spat at, driven to the ground, had a pint thrown over me, were given thrown out of a couple of pubs after seeking to pass in to get slightly of meals.
“Which was funny because I hadn’t had a drink for 16 years and I was still getting thrown out of pubs.”
Highs and lows
Speedo Mick’s 2023 stroll took the quantity raised for charities supporting psychological well being, deprived younger other folks and homelessness previous £1m.
But that used to be his ultimate main day out. “I knew I only had a certain timeframe for me to carry on doing it in my Speedos. You can’t be doing it when you’re 80.”
And in spite of their equivalent style in lingerie, Speedo Mick isn’t Superman.
The gruelling demanding situations took their toll, having “a massive detrimental effect on my mental health and my personal relationships”, Cullen admits.
Every project has been adopted by means of “a big comedown”, he says. “After the last one, I hit the ground at 1,000mph and I ended up in a clinic because I had a big breakdown.
“Looking again now, I wasn’t managing myself. It looks like I paid an enormous value by means of doing all that stuff. It used to be an excessive amount of for me. It used to be all an excessive amount of.”
Clara Mbirimi/Liverpool’s Royal CourtThe stage show, which opens at Liverpool’s Royal Court theatre on Tuesday, has given Cullen a new focus.
On the surface, it is about a “overall hero” who “took on a variety of massive life-affirming duties and finished them and raised loads and a variety of cash”, says Boff Whalley, formerly of rock group Chumbawamba, who has written the music.
“But the actual tale is why he sought after to try this, and at what price used to be he doing that.
“It’s saying, ‘He’s like you, he’s got problems and he’s struggled with addictions and mental health problems, and this was his way of finding a way through those’.”
The display’s author John Fay concurs. “He’s a very inspirational and charismatic man. He can walk into a room and just make people smile. And the stamina of the guy, and the things that he’s achieved, can seem superhuman.
“But crucial phase about him is that he is extraordinarily human. He’s were given his personal fragility. He’s like everybody else on the earth.”
Liverpool actor Paul Duckworth is playing the title role, and says Speedo Mick is “an area legend”.
“We all have our complexities and our vulnerabilities. He’s an overly considerate, very delicate man.”
‘Nowhere to cover’
As well as attempting to capture Cullen’s character, Duckworth must pull off the Speedo Mick look.
“There’s just a few moments [in the show] when he will get to throw on a T-shirt, as a result of maximum of his achievements have been all accomplished in his Speedos,” the actor says with a hint of trepidation. “There’s nowhere to cover.
“It was quite a shock when I put them on the other day. Michael was the only person who saw me in them. In Mick’s words, ‘You’ve got to own the knickers. You’ve got to own the Speedos, mate.’ I’m trying to get that mentality.”
The display is the tale of an eccentric, big-hearted however fallible persona, even supposing Cullen had reservations about placing it on level.
“I was a little bit anxious over the fact that I’m making myself vulnerable again, because I’m telling everybody about my personal life,” he says. “They’re going to see a completely different side here.”
However, he hopes the display will get started conversations about dependancy, psychological well being, overcoming demanding situations, and restoration.
“But the biggest message I hope people take out of it is that it’s OK to be you, all of you, whatever’s gone on in your life – it’s OK to be you, and to take hope.
“Take hope from this tale since you by no means know what will occur. I’ve were given a play about my lifestyles on on the Royal Court theatre, and that is the reason a win proper there. It’s superb.”
Speedo Mick The Musical is on the Royal Court in Liverpool from 3 June to 5 July.
