My guest today is the writer, director and TV producer, Bill Hughes. Since 1985, he has made more than a thousand hours of music, arts, entertainment, performance, and documentary programming for R T E , I T V, B B C, P B S, C B C, and ABC in Australia. Many of his films have focused on social exclusion and sexuality, and he has been a leading advocate in the LGBTQ+ community.
Bill kindly invited me over to his beautiful apartment beside the Phoenix Park in Dublin for my very first location podcast, and it made for a very relaxed environment and luckily not too much background noise apart from the occasional siren and somebody cutting their grass. As you'll hear, Bill is a natural storyteller and is a voice you could listen to all day long.
We spoke about his parents and growing up with his 13 brothers and sisters above his mother's drapery shop in Athy. A surprise ending to his psychiatrist visit to cure him of being gay, Louis Walsh, pulling the poor mouth and making Boyzone's first five music videos for no money. Praying for a miracle with Martin Sheen, How he met his husband, Gary, and their intimate wedding day. The fun times he had with his late sister Eithne, his friendship and weekly phone calls with Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Upstaging the competition at the Provincetown Carnival and so much more. I usually have quite a bit of work to do, editing each podcast afterwards, but with Bill, everything just flowed and there was nothing to edit at all.
So please sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy the wonderful Bill Hughes.
Bill Hughes
Bill Hughes
