Henry Cole Biography
Henry Cole is a motorcycle enthusiast and restorer of vintage machinery as well as TV presenter. In 2013 he set a world land speed record for a pre-1955 750cc motorcycle, riding a Brough Superior on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
He began his career as a news cameraman for the BBC and started focusing on making rocumentaries for heavy rock bands(a concert film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concertgoer). He now owns HCA Entertainment, a production company where he has produced and directed many series for broadcasters. He has directed over 70 TV commercials for brands like Flora, Mastercard, Top Up TV, Dixons, TFL, Amstrad among others.
He is also a TV presenter of several shows including; World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides (Travel Channel Worldwide), The Motorbike Show (ITV4 and Discovery Networks), Shed and Buried (ITV and Travel Channel Worldwide), The Motorbike Show Special: Steve McQueen’s Motorcycles, Find It, Fix It, Flog It (Channel 4) and more recently Find It, Fix It, Drive It (More4).
As a motorcycle enthusiast, he also manufactures motorcycle through his company Gladstone Motorcycles; a motorcycle company manufacturing ‘British custom motorcycles for discerning hooligans.’
Henry Cole Age – How Old is Henry Cole
Henry is 58 years old, he was born on February 16, 1965 in Norfolk, United Kingdom.
Henry Cole Education
He was educated at Eton College.
Henry Cole Family
Henry was born into a fairly privileged, upper middle-class family. His father was a former Army major who left the army in 1964 to become an MP but failed dismally because his radical political views didn’t go down well with his local Conservative association. His mother was a housewife. His maternal great-great-great-great-uncle was William Ewart Gladstone, the Victorian prime minister.
“I was born into a fairly privileged, upper middle-class family and grew up in a remote 14-bedroom Victorian rectory in Norfolk. The only thing my father, an eccentric former Army major, knew how to do was kill someone; all my mother knew was how to be his unpaid servant. She spoke like a divinely stoic Fifties BBC radio announcer.”
Henry Cole Wife
Henry is married to his wife Janie Cole, despite her husband being a public figure and being in the media Janie keeps a low profile. The couple have two sons together Charlie and Tom. The family resides in the Cotswolds.
Henry Cole Motorcycle
Henry is a motorbike enthusiast. He is the founder and CEO of Gladstone Motorcycles, a British motorcycle brand. (The company is named after his great uncle Dick ‘Redbeard’ Gladstone, a true British eccentric who instigated Henry’s passion for classic British motorcycles at the tender age of eight).
As a biker he set a world land speed record for a pre-1955 750cc motorcycle, riding a Brough Superior on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2013.
He has traveled the world and ridden hundreds of unique bikes, and his aim is to share his enthusiasm for riding in general, wiping away any cultural clichés about motorcyclists.
“I wanted to tell as many people as possible that motorcycling is NOT a subculture, that people who ride aren’t going to come round your house and burn it down, that we’re actually pretty decent guys and girls… hopefully, like me.”
Henry Cole Motorcycle Show
Henry is the presenter of World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides (Travel Channel Worldwide), The Motorbike Show (ITV4 and Discovery Networks), Shed and Buried (ITV and Travel Channel Worldwide) and The Motorbike Show Special: Steve McQueen’s Motorcycles.
Henry Cole The Motorbike Show
Henry is the presenter of The Motorbike Show on ITV 4. Each episode features a restoration project, starting with a bike in need of some TLC, which gets transformed, with a little help from Sam Lovegrove and Allen Millyard.
The show’s description from his website reads; “Presenter Henry Cole shares his passion for motorised two-wheelers with an infectious enthusiasm. Each series features a restoration project, starting with a bike in need of some TLC, which will be transformed, with a little help from Henry’s mechanically-minded pals Sam Lovegrove and Allen Millyard. Viewers also get an insight into the many amazing specialists who take on the chrome-plating, sandblasting and spray painting.
For the adventurous, Henry rides out on some of his favourite roads, both in the UK and further afield, taking the opportunity to test different bits of machinery in different environments whilst imploring the viewer to get off their sofa and explore the great outdoors at the weekend.
Iconic motorbikes regularly feature too, from the humble utilitarian Honda Cub to the mighty 1000cc Laverda Jota, the fastest road bike of its era. Plus visits to shows and events, chats with racers and personalities from the world of motorcycling and more besides.”
Henry Cole Junk & Disorderly
Henry and Sam Lovegrove appear on ITV 4’S Junk & Disorderly where they visit the biggest classic motorcycle auction and autojumble in the UK. They buy and sell other people’s automotive junks and classic collectibles. Once they buy they try to add value to their purchases with a little bit of restoration before they sell it for a profit.
Henry Cole World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides
Cole is the presenter of the World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides. The show airs on Discovery + channel. In the show, Cole sets off a journey to find the greatest places on earth to ride a motorcycle. His adventures have led him across some of the globe’s most breathtaking terrains and into some of the most compelling cultures.
“Follow Henry as he visits the barren landscapes of Australia, Historic Route 66 – The Mother Road, returns to The Balkans for the first time since going there as a war cameraman, criss crossed history rich Europe and even embarked on the ultimate challenge of setting an historic land-speed record on the world famous Bonneville salt flats.”
Henry Cole Find It, Fix It, Flog It
Henry presents Find It, Fix It, Flog It alongside Simon O’Brien. They travel across the UK to find unique items lost in people’s homes and fix them up for profit.
Henry Cole Find It Fix It Drive It
The show follows Henry and his friend Sam Lovegrove “as they set out on a mission to ride, drive and compete in some of the craziest vehicular challenges on their bucket lists. But first, they need to find and buy the perfect vehicle for the job in hand.
In each episode, Henry & Sam scour the nation’s sheds, barns and basements in their quest to uncover automotive oddities that can be pressed back into service. Then the pressure is on to get them restored in time for the main event; Sam needs to use all his mechanical ingenuity while Henry calls in favours from other expert engineers he’s met on his travels. The climax of each show is the first outing of the freshly fixed vehicle, testing the capabilities of both design and driver.”
Henry Cole TV Production
Henry runs a production company known as HCA Entertainment. The company has produced and Henry has directed countless factual series for broadcasters including ITV, Channel 4, Sky 1, Channel 5, UKTV, Travel Channel, Discovery Networks, NBC and BBC. These include Grimefighters, Kensington Wives, Men Brewing Badly, London’s Greatest Hits, Supersize Grime, The Skulls of Sanctuary, Frontline Stories, Discovering Gardens and The Real Filth Fighters!
He has also directed over 70 TV commercials for brands like Flora, Mastercard, Top Up TV, Dixons, TFL, Amstrad among others.
He has also produced and directed TV and Theatrical movies, including Mad Dogs and Englishmen (starring Elizabeth Hurley, C Thomas Howell and Joss Ackland), Dead Funny (starring Elizabeth Pena and Andrew McCarthy) and Princess in Love starring Christopher Villiers and Julia Cox.
Henry Cole Addiction
Henry was a heroin addict for five years (between ages 19 and 24) but has since been clean. He is involved in trying to help other addicts and share his experience in battling addiction.
During an interview with Telegraph UK he said his lowest point was “in the late Eighties I became a virtual recluse. I couldn’t even face going out to get drugs and had them delivered by dispatch riders at a cost of £7,000 a year. Weirdly, the only people I ever saw were Luke and Matt Goss from the pop band Bros, who lived in the flat upstairs.
I went into a serious mental decline and stopped paying the mortgage on the flat I shared with my then girlfriend, who left me. Not long after several failed suicide attempts, my belongings were repossessed.
The final nail in the coffin was when a tabloid newspaper ran a front-page story about me under the headline, “Heroin Henry, peddler of death, deals drugs in Bros house”. Thankfully, my parents stood by me. The other thing that helped me get clean was my burning ambition to get back into television.
Narcotics Anonymous is the most expensive club you can join. I spent half a million pounds getting in.”
Henry Cole Book
He wrote his memoir “A Biker’s Life: Misadventures on (and off) Two Wheels”. He said he “felt I had a story to tell of people who have lost their way in life and didn’t really know what they were rebelling against but demanded in some way, however small, to be an individual. Motorcycling is an intrinsic part of that ethos.”
Henry Cole Net worth
Cole has an estimated net worth of $2 million.