I was in two Nighthawks episodes, a year apart, 1990 and 1991, as one of the 'customers' in the imaginary pub, a set constructed at the RTE studios (although the beer was real). Sadly not this episode. As a Smiths fan I would have been starstruck, also unaware as we all were that Johnny would be dead within a year. Shay handled him well here, as would be expected of a guy who is steeped in music history, a folk musician in the 70s, a songwriter who won the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest and a very skilled, canny interviewer. Even now he doesn't let Parkinson's Disease beat him and was only recently (Feburary 2020) excellent on RTE's Late Late Show talking about his Eurovision win.
