In the deeply personal documentary, Vincent Hanley: Sex, Lies and Videotapes, producer, broadcaster and gay activist, Bill Hughes, tells the story of his friendship with radio and TV star Vincent Hanley.
Bill reveals the story of Vincent's life and ultimately his tragic death from AIDS in 1987, set against a backdrop of an Ireland in the throes of a devastating AIDS crisis. Below, he introduces Sex, Lies and Videotapes - watch it here, via RTÉ Player.
I feel very strongly that it is time to tell Vincent Hanley's story and his impact on my life. The Channel 4 drama series It’s A Sin, set during the AIDS pandemic in the 1980’s, has opened the door to this frightening time in our lives and we owe it to ourselves to remember those we lost.
Not only was I one of Vincent’s closest friends, but also his producer on the groundbreaking RTÉ music series MT-USA. I was only one year younger than Vincent, and I often wonder, what he would have made of the Ireland that we have today, post decriminalisation, with marriage equality as everyone’s right and where the HIV positive drag queen Panti Bliss has become a global human rights ambassador as the self-styled Queen of Ireland. These days thanks to advances in medical science, HIV is treatable and can in most cases, with the correct medication, become undetectable and untransmissible.
On the surface it feels like a much better place, but you don’t have to dig very deep to find rampant homophobia, transphobia, HIV stigma and racism all thriving, both online and in certain sections of the media.
MT-USA, the first music video show in Europe, was first broadcast on February 10th 1984 on RTE2 and became an instant hit with Irish audiences. It propelled Vincent Hanley into the glare of an Irish media, that was conservative, reactionary and predominantly Catholic.
He became the target of cheap insults by the music press who referred to him as Ireland’s answer to Larry Grayson and John Inman.
Vincent laughed it off but it stung him. He felt they were allowing their prejudice against his overt sexuality, get in the way of them appreciating the contribution he was making to the popular culture landscape.
In New York, he took a lease on a 3rd floor corner apartment in the Woodward Building at 55th Street and Broadway, with an unobstructed view up to Columbus Circle. This would serve the dual purpose of being his home, as well as being his office, while also giving him the perfect camera position to cover amongst other things, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
As MT-USA was initially only commissioned for a 13-week run from February 1984, Vincent was ecstatic that it's success with the critics and in the ratings meant an immediate re-commission for the following autumn and winter seasons. This meant he could plan his future.
Vincent knew that I was growing frustrated with my role as a production assistant in RTÉ. He suggested I leave the safety of my staff job in the national broadcaster and join him and Conor McAnally in Green Apple. So I did just that.
You don't have to dig very deep to find rampant homophobia, transphobia, HIV stigma and racism all thriving, both online and in certain sections of the media.
At this stage he would spend most of the Summers in Dublin when MT USA was off the air and would earn thousands by appearing as a guest DJ in dancehalls all over the country two and three nights a week. I would join him for these long drives, it was an order not a request, stocked up on Lucozade and Cadbury’s Wholenut, as we could easily cover up to 500 miles on a round trip. He would stick on his latest compilation of disco classics and insist that we sing along and perform all the hand choreography as we barrelled down the country roads of Ireland. We laughed so hard it’s a miracle we didn’t crash.
To help maintain his image, and as a reaction to all of the questions regarding his health that started to arise as his dramatic weight loss was picked up by the camera, he started to wear flamboyant thick woolen scarfs, many of them from my mother’s shop, in an effort to bulk himself up for his pieces to camera.
In autumn 1985, I became his producer on MT-USA and I would commute to New York every second week. Flying out on Sunday, recce locations on Monday, shoot on Tuesday and return to Dublin overnight on Wednesday to edit the show together in Windmill Lane on Thursday. It was hectic and it was crazy but it was so exciting to be part of such a huge hit programme.
I often wonder, what he would have made of the Ireland that we have today
When I first started going to New York for long weekends with Vincent from 1981 to 85, the highlight was always Saturday night at The Saint – the biggest gay dance club in the world. And every week a major star would make an appearance on a flying grid above the crowd to perform their latest hit. We saw Grace Jones bump and grind to Pull Up To The Bumper, Laura Brannigan belt out Gloria, Diana Ross dazzle with Chain Reaction and Betty Buckley captivate with Memory from Cats. The crowd would go wild and Vincent would scream like a teenage fan and beg for more. But they only ever performed one song before they disappeared into the ceiling which then transformed into a planetarium and the disco beat kicked in. "Look," he would shout, "The stars are coming out to play".
In February 1987, Terry O'Sullivan collected Vincent from Dublin Airport.
Vincent could no longer pretend that all was well so Terry had him admitted to the Top Floor of Hospital One in St James where he was immediately given a private room with a quarantine sign on the door.
A few show business friends came to visit, which exhausted him, so he requested that only a handful of people be allowed into the room.
Terry set up a visiting schedule for the gang of seven, to ensure that Vincent wasn't left alone.
He was coherent and defiant, and continued to insist that he would be better in no time.
His mum Joan and dad Mick came up from Clonmel with his brother Fergus and did all they could to reason with him about the seriousness of his condition.
But for the next six weeks he fought a superhuman battle to prove the doctors and the prognosis wrong.
On April 18th he lost that battle.
Watch Vincent Hanley: Sex, Lies and Videotapes now via RTÉ Player.
