It’s fair to say that Seamus O’Hannigan, a TV presenter who has just been given his own political talk show, is a bit of dick. Yes, he’s nicely perky at the autocue: a good couple of notches away from The Day Today. But the ego is… tumescent. Approach him while holding a mobile phone in your hand and, no matter who you are, he’ll assume you want a selfie. His idea of charm – so important for one’s profile – is to shout “Hey, you!” at every colleague he passes, as if he made love to them only the night before. Also, to be heard to denounce the patriarchy whenever he’s in the presence of a woman. But it’s his sheer idiocy that’s more often on display. When his boss tells him the new show will be broadcast not from London but from somewhere beginning with an “I”, his best guess is Islington, where he just happens to have a big, stuccoed house.
In fact, the place is Ireland: Northern Ireland, about which he knows nothing (in spite of his name – long story – he’s deeply English). And yes, within minutes of landing in Belfast, he really is using his fingers to put “the Troubles” in inverted commas. Not that The Lovers, the new comedy-drama in which he appears, is interested in politics. For its writer, the Northern Irish-born playwright David Ireland, Belfast is merely a backdrop for what may be the most preposterous meet-cute ever dreamed up.
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