Ian Dury’s son has admitted he lost his driving licence after he was filmed using his phone while driving by Jeremy Vine – who has called the situation ‘unfortunate’ and expressed his ‘love’ for his father’s music.
Musician Baxter Dury, 53, said he was caught red-handed by Vine as he was driving back to his west London home from producer Paul Epworth’s studio where the pair were working on his new album Allbarone.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Roundtable host Huw Stephens, Baxter said: ‘Do you know what? This is a tragic story, but I drove there for the first half (of making the record) and then lost my license.’
The son of the late 70s punk-rock icon added: ‘I got caught in a traffic jam, and Jeremy Vine took a film of me looking at Instagram, which he deserves to, I’m not arguing about (it). Shouldn’t probably say that publicly, he’s probably in the other room, isn’t he?’
BBC Radio 2 presenter Vine is a keen cyclist who has been described as ‘willing to die in defence of the Highway Code’ for filming dodgy drivers with his helmet camera on his daily commutes through London’s congested roads and reporting them to the police.
Responding to Baxter’s comments, Vine, 59, today told MailOnline: ‘This is very unfortunate. I would like Baxter to know that I love his dad’s music.
‘I’m afraid mobile phone use in cars in London, particular the posher parts, is an absolute curse. So I am quite tunnel-visioned about it.
‘We have 1,700 road deaths a year. Sorry to be serious about it. Best wishes to Baxter.’
Musician Baxter Dury (pictured), 53, said he was caught red-handed by Vine as he was driving back to his west London home from producer Paul Epworth’s studio where the pair were working on his new album Allbarone
BBC Radio 2 presenter Vine (pictured) told MailOnline the situation is ‘unfortunate’ and expressed his ‘love’ for Baxter’s father’s music
Baxter is the son of 70s punk-rock icon Ian Dury whose hits include Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Until April, Vine spent years posting videos of drivers endangering themselves, others and cyclists online ‘to get all of us who drive to think about the dangers of trying to move around cities on a pushbike’.
However, he decided to stop uploading them due to the relentless abuse from critics who accused him of persecuting motorists and the theft of his £620 bicycle.
In his announcement on X, the TV personality wrote: ‘I’m stopping my cycling videos. The trolling just got too bad. They have had well over 100 million views but in the end the anger they generate has genuinely upset me.’
He said a ‘regular theme’ from haters was to see him ‘crushed by a truck’ and posted screenshots of nasty comments, including one which said: ‘Surely this “man” has to be England’s biggest a***hole. It mad be terrible but I hope he falls under the wheels of five cars that reverse and make sure the jobs done’.
The Channel 5 debate show host has even received death threats for his controversial activism with two currently being investigated by the police.
In 2017, a driver who honked her horn and shouted abuse at Vine was convicted of threatening behaviour and a driving offence. He caught the incident on his camera and uploaded it to Facebook where it was viewed over 15 million times.
‘I know I’ve sometimes got a little cross when a driver has, say, pulled out without looking, but I only ever uploaded the film to show the danger,’ he added in his X post.
Whilst he no longer posts his footage online, Vine, who ‘never made a penny’ from the videos, continues to film and report law-breaking drivers in an effort to improve safety on London’s dangerous roads.
Vine decided to stop uploading his videos due to the relentless abuse from critics who accused him of persecuting motorists and the theft of his £620 bicycle
Vine videos documenting some of his worst experiences on the road have been viewed by millions – such as this close-pass by a bus driver
He said will miss the ‘creative freedom’ that he had in making the videos – which became more elaborate in their edits as he got better at making them.
‘Some of the biggest videos were actually about the smallest incidents, like someone turning left in front of me,’ he said.
‘People are happy to discuss it and I actually think that we’d all be safer if we all understood each other.
‘People are going to drive 4x4s in Kensington and whatnot but they need to have a bit of care for me on a bicycle.
‘You might be in total control when you pass close by but the person on a bicycle doesn’t know that. I just hope I was part of a dialogue about it.’
Vine does believe the level of cycle awareness in the capital has actually improved in the years since people began shaming drivers online – likely because more and more people are taking to the roads on two wheels.
‘It’s a remarkable thing, and London has made astonishing progress. In the City of London there are more cyclists than drivers,’ he said.
A recent official Corporation study that found bikes make up 56 per cent of peak time traffic.
One in six of those bicycles are dockless hire bikes, such as those operated by Lime and Forest.
The upturn means the City smashed a 2017 target to boost cycling by 50 per cent by 2030. It has already increased by 70 per cent as of 2024.
Despite this, Vine does think that there will still be arrogant drivers who see the roads as theirs and theirs alone.
He joked: ‘The key thing to remember is that there is no amount of bad driving anywhere that can’t be blamed on a passing cyclist.’
