From rock bottom to seeing life story on stage in Liverpool theatre musical

Michael Cullen went from sleeping rough in Liverpool to raising £1m by doing charity walks in all weathers in just his swimming trunks. His story is now being celebrated in a stage musical.

Just as Clark Kent turns into Superman when he changes into his famous red 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 doesn’t have Suerpman’s tights and cape – just a pair of walking boots and, if it’s cold, an Everton FC scarf and woolly hat.

He has criss-crossed the British Isles bare-chested for charity come rain, shine or snow. His most extreme challenge was walking 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.”

In photos, Speedo Mick often pulls a tough-guy bodybuilder pose for the cameras. But that bravado is part of the character.

Sitting in a rehearsal room where actors are preparing for a musical that will tell his story, Cullen, 60, is fully clothed, softly spoken and sensitive.

He first pulled on the Speedos to swim the English Channel in 2014, despite never having had a formal swimming lesson until he booked the support 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 something that they never had, and that was a determination…” He trails off. “I’m just getting a bit emotional… a determination and a will to complete something of that magnitude.”

That determination comes from “the same place that my negativity comes from”, Cullen believes.

He suffered “a lot of turmoil” during his childhood in Liverpool, using and abusing drink and drugs from his teens, and becoming homeless.

“I just got lost in it all, to be honest,” he says. “It was a sad life. It was terrible and it was torturous, and I was doing it to myself. But I just couldn’t stop.”

He finally got clean in 2001, and resolved to turn the negativity in his life into something positive.

“It used to hold me down for a long, long time, but now it propels me forward. That’s my engine. I suffered for a very long time, and now I just don’t want to do that any more.”

After defying expectations and a shoulder injury to swim across the Channel, Cullen “wanted the world to know that this had happened”.

So he ordered a pair of blue trunks with the name of his beloved football team on the back, and “went to all the matches after that with ‘Everton’ emblazoned on my bum”.

“The fans were so generous,” he says. “I could have got ripped to shreds at any point. But they were all applauding and passing money, and putting it in my bucket, and putting it in my knickers. There were not very many other places that you could put it!”

His scantily clad presence started raising smiles and funds at away matches, too.

“I had a front row seat as far as seeing all the generosity, all the kindness, and all the love that people could give,” Cullen says.

“There’s a lot of negativity going on in the world, and I was just seeing all this positivity. It was making a massive difference to me, as well as everyone 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 was some really negative stuff as well,” he adds.

“I got spat at, pushed to the floor, had a pint thrown over me, got thrown out of a few pubs after trying to go in to get a bit of food.

“Which was funny because I hadn’t had a drink for 16 years and I was still getting thrown out of pubs.”

Speedo Mick’s 2023 walk took the amount raised for charities supporting mental health, disadvantaged young people and homelessness past £1m.

But that was his final major outing. “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 despite their similar taste in underwear, Speedo Mick is not Superman.

The gruelling challenges took their toll, having “a massive detrimental effect on my mental health and my personal relationships”, Cullen admits.

Every mission has been followed by “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 back now, I wasn’t managing myself. It feels like I paid a massive price by doing all that stuff. It was too much for me. It was all too much.”

The 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 “total hero” who “took on lots of big life-affirming tasks and completed them and raised lots and lots of money”, says Boff Whalley, formerly of rock group Chumbawamba, who has written the music.

“But the real story is why he wanted to do that, and at what cost was 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 show’s writer John Fay agrees. “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 the most important part about him is that he’s extremely human. He’s got his own fragility. He’s like everyone else in the world.”

Liverpool actor Paul Duckworth is playing the title role, and says Speedo Mick is “a local legend”.

“We all have our complexities and our vulnerabilities. He’s a very thoughtful, very sensitive guy.”

As well as attempting to capture Cullen’s character, Duckworth must pull off the Speedo Mick look.

“There’s only a few moments [in the show] when he gets to throw on a T-shirt, because most of his achievements were all done in his Speedos,” the actor says with a hint of trepidation. “There’s nowhere to hide.

“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 show is the story of an eccentric, big-hearted but fallible character, although Cullen had reservations about putting it on stage.

“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 show will start conversations about addiction, mental health, overcoming challenges, and recovery.

“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 story because you never know what’s going to happen. I’ve got a play about my life on at the Royal Court theatre, and that’s a win right there. It’s amazing.”

Speedo Mick The Musical is at the Royal Court in Liverpool from 3 June to 5 July.