0:00:02 > 0:00:06In my line of work, I'm lucky enough to meet really interesting people
0:00:06 > 0:00:08'and in this series, I'm going to share with you
0:00:08 > 0:00:12'some of the most moving stories I've ever heard.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14'You may laugh, you may cry,'
0:00:14 > 0:00:15but one thing's for sure -
0:00:15 > 0:00:20you'll definitely be touched by what they have to say. I know I was.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24She was my ma, my dad, my protector.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29Hugo Duncan is the Marmite of radio. You either love him or loathe him.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30It's your Uncle Coo!
0:00:30 > 0:00:35But behind the smile, his life has had as many twists and turns
0:00:35 > 0:00:38as the road to Strabane he travels every day.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41I was a real bastard, by name and by nature, at this stage.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45He was popularly known, to be fair, as Drunken Duncan, like,
0:00:45 > 0:00:46there was no question about that.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48He wasn't at home.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51- Because he was out on the road? - Aye, or he was in the pub.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52One thing's for sure -
0:00:52 > 0:00:56there's much more to the wee man from Strabane than meets the eye.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59"I just want to ask you a question," I said. "I just want to know,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02"are you my father or not?" He just looked up and never spoke to me,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04he never said nothing to me, at all.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44# The day that the rain came down... #
0:01:44 > 0:01:47It's the wettest day of a very wet summer
0:01:47 > 0:01:50and Sod's Law - we've turned up to film.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But rain hasn't dampened Hugo's spirit.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55He's a natural performer.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00# Well, I'm praying for sun in old Fermanagh... #
0:02:00 > 0:02:02'The skies opened up about 12:30
0:02:02 > 0:02:04'and we were stuck here in the middle of it.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06'We didn't know if we'd be able to go on with it or not'
0:02:06 > 0:02:09and when we started, there would have been about...
0:02:09 > 0:02:10I'd say a dozen people there.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Hello, and welcome to the glorious, sunny Belcoo!
0:02:14 > 0:02:17CHEERING
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Here we go!
0:02:21 > 0:02:25# Sha-la-la la-la-la-la-la... #
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Do you know, Hugo, I promise you, I'm not going to bullshit you.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31I'm not going to compliment you, just for the sake of it.
0:02:31 > 0:02:32I wouldn't want it.
0:02:32 > 0:02:37There is no other broadcaster in BBC Northern Ireland
0:02:37 > 0:02:41that would have pulled that crowd, in that rain. It was bucketing down
0:02:41 > 0:02:44- and they came out for you.- I get very embarrassed when you say that.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47If you see, my face is blazing. I'm very, very lucky.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49'Me going out there, it's not like work, at all.'
0:02:49 > 0:02:54# Well, I just dropped in last week from down in Nashville... #
0:02:54 > 0:02:56'I remember going up, Christmas, about 12 months ago
0:02:56 > 0:02:58'and the snow was piled up each side of the motorway
0:02:58 > 0:03:00and there was hard ice and all that,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05and I looked into the mirror of the car myself, and I says,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09- I know you can't say this, but I says,- "BLEEP- me, I love this."
0:03:09 > 0:03:13# Open up your heart and let my love in... #
0:03:13 > 0:03:19He's a natural performer, happy to do a turn, at the drop of a hat.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24'If I see a stage anywhere, I just want to get on it. It's like a drug.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27'This is where I feel comfortable. This is me being me.'
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Go for it, go for it! Yo!
0:03:30 > 0:03:32'I can't do nothing else.'
0:03:32 > 0:03:35I don't want to do anything else. Do you know something?
0:03:35 > 0:03:36I've never been on holidays.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39- I never, because...- Ach, Hugo, you've never been on holiday?
0:03:39 > 0:03:42I went to Nashville to record TV, I went to Nashville to record...
0:03:42 > 0:03:44- But part work.- No.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Full stop. No.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48No lies, thanks.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53# Now yesterday's gone Sweet Jesus... #
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Well, during this journey I'm on with you,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I want to try to get behind that smile.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02The reason I work is because I'm frightened to leave a gap,
0:04:02 > 0:04:03because when I leave a gap,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05I get a wee bit lonely.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08I get a wee bit bored, I get a wee bit down,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and I fill my life with work. Is that what's happening to you?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Stephen, we could be twins, only I'm a bit older.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16- Is it what's happening?- Same thing.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19And every time you're away, you're worrying.
0:04:19 > 0:04:20It's not healthy, though, is it?
0:04:20 > 0:04:23But you worry, you go away, and I'm being honest with you,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26you go away at times and, you know,
0:04:26 > 0:04:28you say, God, maybe they might think,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30"Sure, we've done without him for a fortnight,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33"we'll do without him for the rest of the schedule, you know?"
0:04:33 > 0:04:35You've nobody to dance with?
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Not a big wonder!
0:04:41 > 0:04:43# Do you remember... #
0:04:45 > 0:04:4962 years ago, Hugh Anthony Duncan was born
0:04:49 > 0:04:52at the head of the town in Strabane.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55He's never lived anywhere else, nor does he ever plan to.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58This is his home.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01But it wasn't the best of starts for baby Hugo.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04His mother, wee Susie, wasn't married,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and in the Catholic community in the 1950s,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10that was altogether quite shocking.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12I remember one day standing down, there used to be an old cafe
0:05:12 > 0:05:15in the Main Street in Strabane, called the Windmill Cafe.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16And this woman walked round,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19and I was about seven or eight years of age, a wee thing
0:05:19 > 0:05:23standing with my ma, and this woman says, "You know, he's well like..."
0:05:23 > 0:05:25She says, "You can say, cos he knows about it, anyway,"
0:05:25 > 0:05:27- Because my ma told me, from the word go.- Did she?
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Oh, aye, my ma never held back to me.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32- My ma told me from when I was... - How did she explain to you?
0:05:32 > 0:05:34She didn't explain the nitty-gritty part of it,
0:05:34 > 0:05:36but she explained that I had no daddy.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47But he did have a daddy, one who lived just down the road.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50I've asked Hugo to take me to his father's house.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54On down there, to your left, again.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01It's just over there now, to your...
0:06:01 > 0:06:05to your side there, Stephen, the gable house,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- and...- Will we get out?
0:06:07 > 0:06:09No.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11It's got no fond memories for me.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15'Hugo grew up just a few miles from here.'
0:06:15 > 0:06:21One night, in the early '80s, he decided it was time to meet his dad.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I'd never met the man that they called father, and...
0:06:27 > 0:06:28I suppose I wanted to meet him,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32just for the sake of clarifying
0:06:32 > 0:06:35the fact that if he was my father, if he wasn't,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39so I wanted to ask him that, that's all I wanted to ask him, and...
0:06:39 > 0:06:41I went over and knocked the door myself, and his wife came out,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45God bless her, and I got to know her afterwards,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and she says "He's not in," and I said, "Excuse me, can I go in?"
0:06:48 > 0:06:51And I went on in, and he was sitting, and...
0:06:51 > 0:06:53So here were you in your early twenties,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56walking in to speak to your dad, for the first time.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Yeah. And I asked...
0:07:02 > 0:07:05I asked, "Could I... I just want to ask you a question.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07"I just want to know, are you my father or are you not?"
0:07:07 > 0:07:12His wife said, "He's not your father." She said a few things.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14The next thing was...
0:07:14 > 0:07:16He just looked up and he never spoke to me,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19he never said nothing to me at all, and just nodded his head, like that.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Hugo never spoke again to his father
0:07:29 > 0:07:31and his father went to his grave
0:07:31 > 0:07:34never, ever having said a word to his son.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49On the surface, post-war Strabane didn't have a lot going for it.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52# Oh, my papa... #
0:07:54 > 0:07:57High unemployment meant that money was in short supply,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00and with no father to provide,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03it can't have been easy for Susie and young Hugo.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07# To me, he was so good... #
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Well, now, I'm told that through these doors is your old classroom.
0:08:12 > 0:08:13Come on.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18Do you want to sit in the seat and see if you still fit?
0:08:18 > 0:08:21If it goes down, sure, we'll charge it to you!
0:08:21 > 0:08:24- Look at that.- Look at that, boy.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27As a wee child, you would have been sitting down here.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29I would've said, if you and I had sat together,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32- we'd have been two bad wee articles! - And I hear you would have done...
0:08:32 > 0:08:34CONVERSATION FADES OUT
0:08:37 > 0:08:40- Now, what's this? - What year did I come here?
0:08:40 > 0:08:43I don't know, you tell me. There's '56.
0:08:43 > 0:08:44It must be around that, 56.
0:08:44 > 0:08:45STEPHEN LAUGHS
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Where am I? Look, look at the very top there. Read it out.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52"First of the seventh, 1957."
0:08:52 > 0:08:54"Duncan, Hugh Anthony."
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Do you know what I've noticed in that book?
0:08:56 > 0:08:59If you look at the pupils who are registered beside you,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02it's their father's name, father's name
0:09:02 > 0:09:04and beside you, "Susan."
0:09:04 > 0:09:05That's right.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10You're going to get me going again.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11That's the way it was.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15She was my ma, my da,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17my protector.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20When you see your mum's name there,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22what's in your head?
0:09:24 > 0:09:26It's... It's very emotional.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Very, very emotional,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31and there's so many thoughts going through my mind
0:09:31 > 0:09:34and, you know, this is reality
0:09:34 > 0:09:36and this brings it back.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41That woman was, she was rearing me on maybe £3 or £4 a week.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44She went out and she did home help.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47She went out and cleaned two or three houses a week,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50to get money for me, to go out and to keep me,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52and if I wanted anything, I got it.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59It shouldn't have been so, given there was no father figure
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and very little money in the house,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05but Hugo's early life sounds idyllic.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09He and wee Susie were inseparable and totally devoted to each other.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14So many great feelings when I walk in here, just look around me.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16It takes me away back.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26I won medals here, for singing,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and I won medals for Irish dancing.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36'I know you wouldn't think to look at my figure nowadays,
0:10:36 > 0:10:38'but I could dance.'
0:10:40 > 0:10:42My whole life was here.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47It was like an egg, a small egg, and everything was inside that wee shell.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50The shell just was here,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53head of the town, the school,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55the chapel, here.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59This was the best times.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05My mother used to make the tea downstairs
0:11:05 > 0:11:09and she worked with two sisters, called Katie and May Slavin,
0:11:09 > 0:11:10and they use to make the tea.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14There was a wee stage up there, and I sang on the stage.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I performed Buttons in the pantomime on the stage,
0:11:17 > 0:11:18I sung at every guest tea.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22It wasn't more of a guest at a guest tea, it was more of a torture.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24I had to get singing all the time
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and my ma was pushing me up and pushing me up to sing and...
0:11:29 > 0:11:31This is... This is me.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38'It's just full of memories.'
0:11:38 > 0:11:41You'd love to be able to turn the clock back
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and meet all the lovely people you met when you were younger
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and you hadn't a problem in the world.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Hugo was growing up at a time when the showband craze was at its peak.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03One of the biggest bands in the country, the Clipper Carlton,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05was from his hometown.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08He left school with no qualifications
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and found himself working in the local factory
0:12:11 > 0:12:13but his dream was to make it as a singer.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17- # Is there water in the well? - Is there water in the well?- #
0:12:17 > 0:12:19I went to all these talent competitions
0:12:19 > 0:12:23and I never won a talent competition. I was always "also ran." "Also ran."
0:12:25 > 0:12:26Not one for giving up,
0:12:26 > 0:12:31Hugo was soon singing part-time with a local band, The Melody Aces.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35He couldn't pack in the factory job just yet, though,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37because he had fallen in love.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Hugo and Joan got married in 1970,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45two weeks after his 20th birthday.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47It was a month that would change his life.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53This is where the wee woman is, then. Brought me into the world.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58'I was 20 on the 26th of March.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03'The following Thursday, the 2nd of April, I was married.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07'And the following Thursday fortnight, the 16th of April,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10'I was holding the candle in my mammy's hand
0:13:10 > 0:13:13'and praying in her ear. She was dying. All inside a month.'
0:13:16 > 0:13:18So, that's what life's about.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27- But she got to see you getting married.- She did.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30And it's funny, I danced with her that day. This is the God's truth.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32I took her out for a dance that day
0:13:32 > 0:13:36and the minute I put my arms around her, I started to cry
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and I cried, and I cried
0:13:39 > 0:13:41- and I cried.- Why?
0:13:42 > 0:13:47I'm one of these people, I get these, I get these premonitions,
0:13:47 > 0:13:48and I cried.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52And I went on my honeymoon on the Thursday
0:13:52 > 0:13:56and I came back on the Sunday, I couldn't stay away.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Just didn't want to stay away. Three days' honeymoon.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01- Didn't want to stay away from your own mum?- Couldn't stay away.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03I just felt there was something wrong.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05That week, she was very ill,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07and I came home that night.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Mass at eight, Thursday morning.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12And I was going to my bed.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17But we had the old roller blinds on the front of the wee house
0:14:17 > 0:14:20and the blind was down for about...
0:14:20 > 0:14:22maybe five or ten minutes.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25And the next thing, the blind just...
0:14:25 > 0:14:27rolled up,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30and I looked at Joan, and I says, "My ma."
0:14:32 > 0:14:34And she died that day, at half 12.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38I went down, she died. I was just two weeks married,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40and I used to be lying up in bed, then after we buried her,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43me lying up in the morning and me shouting, "Ma!"
0:14:43 > 0:14:44Just a normal thing to do, "Ma,"
0:14:44 > 0:14:48because Ma, if I wanted anything, Ma got it. Ma, Ma, Ma.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51And I didn't realise for long enough that she was gone.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57I've got a place booked beside her.
0:15:01 > 0:15:08# I go to church on a Sunday
0:15:08 > 0:15:15# The vows that I make, I break them on a Monday... #
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Within weeks of Susie's death,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21the newlywed Hugo had joined The Tallmen.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Finally, a full-time job with a showband.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26His career took off.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I recorded a wee song called Dear God,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32and I sung it in this wee voice, wee virgin voice.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36# Dear God... #
0:15:36 > 0:15:38And I sung away like a good 'un,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41and it worked and, for the first four or five years,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45We had about ten songs in the top ten in Ireland.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47So you were tasting success.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I was tasting success, and I was tasting a lot more than success!
0:15:53 > 0:15:55My God, was I what!
0:15:55 > 0:15:58# And I'm off to Lisdoonvarna... #
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Singing for The Tallmen was living the dream for Hugo,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04but he was constantly on the road -
0:16:04 > 0:16:07yes, working hard, but playing hard, too.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11By now, he was drinking day and night.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Hugo quite simply was out of control.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20He was, kind of, a half an problem since we met him, wasn't he, John?
0:16:20 > 0:16:23His managers still remember how bad things were.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25He was popularly known, to be fair, as Drunken Duncan,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28like, you know, there was no question about that, you accepted.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31- Drunken Duncan?- Yeah.- That's right. - It's not a great image.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34No, it was a problem the fella had, like, you know.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39Brandy, when he was flush, and when things were running short,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41he'd be down on the wine, like, you know.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46I used to drink poteen, and she had you to some tune, boy,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and she would send you off, but I enjoyed it, you know?
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Lots of people, Hugo, who I've been talking to,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54have told me you were a happy drunk.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56I was.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00You enjoyed the drink, and people around you enjoyed you drunk?
0:17:00 > 0:17:02I enjoyed the buzz of people. I used to go into a bar in Strabane
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and the bars used to be packed then,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06because I used to say, "Give the bar a drink."
0:17:06 > 0:17:09John Wayne was the worst thing I ever seen, because John Wayne said,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12"Give the bar a drink", so I thought I was John Wayne most of the time.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17But while Hugo was living it up on the road,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21his daughter Suzanne, born in 1971,
0:17:21 > 0:17:22was in Strabane
0:17:22 > 0:17:26and, just like Hugo, she was growing up without her daddy.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34He wasn't at home. That was the main thing, he wasn't at home.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37- Because he was out on the road? - Aye, or he was in the pub.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39And I spent whole days in the pub, you know,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42when I was off, I would have went to the pub
0:17:42 > 0:17:45at maybe ten or 11 in the morning,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48came home at five or six in the afternoon,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51and away down again that night.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54At what point, Suzanne, did you realise your dad had a problem?
0:17:56 > 0:17:57I think I always did.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01- I always did, to be honest with you.- Why?
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Because of him always lying on the sofa, being drunk
0:18:06 > 0:18:08and being in the pub all the time,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11but he was very sociable, you know.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13I would say, sometimes he could have been in the pub,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16I'm not saying he wasn't drinking, but it just had to be a place to be,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19all the friends, everybody was there that he knew.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21They might have been dropping in and out
0:18:21 > 0:18:24where he was there the whole day, you know? But...
0:18:24 > 0:18:28But at one time, the time I was in hospital, I remember it.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30I got my appendix out and I came home,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32and we went to the pub on my way home from the hospital.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35- What?- Aye. That was that.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39- I had to celebrate her coming out of hospital.- Me, with my stitches in.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Can you tell your dad what it means,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45what effect, what impact it has on a child
0:18:45 > 0:18:51having someone coming home drunk constantly, or in the pub, drunk?
0:18:51 > 0:18:54You just don't feel like...
0:18:54 > 0:18:56You feel like you're on your own.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00You really don't know what it's like till you live with it yourself.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04As a young man, with all of that attention, success,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06did he lose the run of himself?
0:19:06 > 0:19:08It was a person who, at that time,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10might have had his priorities slightly wrong.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Spit it out, what do you mean?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15I mean, by that time, he had the emphasis
0:19:15 > 0:19:20on the social side of things rather than the business side of things.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Hugo would have been more interested than the pub he was singing in
0:19:23 > 0:19:26before he went to the dancing, the crowd that was at the dance,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29even though he was getting no money for singing a few songs in the pub,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32but it was more important that the people there enjoyed them,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34than the people who paid in to enjoy him, like, you know?
0:19:34 > 0:19:38And as Hugo toured the length and breadth of the country,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42he was leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44So when you were drinking, you were driving?
0:19:44 > 0:19:48At times. There's no point lying about the thing. I was, aye.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55- I would have went through about 17 cars.- No?- Aye.
0:19:55 > 0:19:5917 cars, what? Sorry, 17 cars what - written off?
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Not written off, but hit and damaged,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05- you know, not written off, but... - 17 car crashes, Hugo?- Yeah.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Well, maybe just over hedges or something like that, on my own,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13- with nobody else involved. - Talk me through some of the 17.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Ach, well, I had a new Triumph Dolomite
0:20:15 > 0:20:17and the first payment wasn't paid on her.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20I was driving this way,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23so the car hit the kerb at this side,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26which knocked me across to the kerb at the far side.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29The kerb at the far side was about ten inches or a foot high,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32so I went up on the kerb, over the kerb, over a wall,
0:20:32 > 0:20:37turned over a few times, and landed on the four wheels in the forecourt.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41And the car was up the middle like a banjo, a bridge in a banjo.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45- So you wrecked the car.- A write-off. - And you hadn't, not one payment?- No.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50I was wearing a, sort of, a greenish three-piece suit
0:20:50 > 0:20:54and the suit was completely dark from here down,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and the waistcoat was all blood, blood the whole way down,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59and I ended up in hospital.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06I got caught drunken driving on the 13th of September.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09I stopped drinking on the 28th of December
0:21:09 > 0:21:10and I sobered up the 29th.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12- Forever?- I haven't drunk since.
0:21:12 > 0:21:151983, I haven't drunk since.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22With Hugo off the drink, family life was beginning to become more normal,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25but one small incident in the mid-80s
0:21:25 > 0:21:29showed him just how much pain his drinking was causing.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32I pondered for a long while about shaving off my beard
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- cos I'd the beard on for a lifetime. - So you'd always had a beard?- Aye.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38- All the days you were drunk, you'd had a beard.- Yeah.- Exactly.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Never without a beard during the time Suzanne would have seen me drinking.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45I shaved the beard off and Suzanne came in from school.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47- Do you remember this? - Oh, I remember it well, aye.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50And Suzanne came in from school
0:21:50 > 0:21:52and walked up to the top of the stairs
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and she just stood and said nothing
0:21:55 > 0:21:58and she walked around into her room again
0:21:58 > 0:22:01and she came back out, and started crying.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03- I remembered I asked you... - What was wrong?
0:22:03 > 0:22:07Her mother cried, she was crying first, I started crying,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10- her mother was crying. - You saw the pain in her eyes.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12- I didn't realise.- Talk me through,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16as you walked up the stairs that day, little girl from school.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20I just came in, a normal day, and he just looked different.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23It was scary. It wasn't nice, it was scary.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Just, like, if something hit you,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29deja vu, you were going back to the way it was before.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31- You were so scared you couldn't speak.- No, I couldn't.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36- She just cried.- I didn't want to know the answer, didn't want to ask, "Is he? Are you?"
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I didn't want to ask, I just went into the room.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41And I says, "What's wrong with you?"
0:22:41 > 0:22:45And she said, because I'd shaved off the beard,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47she thought I was back drinking again
0:22:47 > 0:22:49and I tell you, that was some stabiliser.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Why?
0:22:51 > 0:22:53Well, she's my world! She's my life!
0:22:53 > 0:22:55And I was...
0:22:56 > 0:22:58I don't know what I was doing.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02- It hurt.- But why, at that moment, Hugo, did it hurt you so much? Why?
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Because I never realised, I never thought,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08I was too busy in myself, I was too wrapped up in Hugo.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12I didn't realise about Suzanne. I didn't realise about her mother.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14And what suddenly hit you?
0:23:14 > 0:23:17That I was a real bastard. Because that was it.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22By name and by nature at that stage.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24It made me realise where I was going.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29And of course, we all know where he ended up.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31We have to do a running order.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33- Do you feel like doing the running order now?- Are you ready?
0:23:33 > 0:23:37It was the late '80s. The showband era was at an end
0:23:37 > 0:23:40and when Hugo was invited to present on BBC radio,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46That's my wee box, ready now to go up the stairs.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51He's part of the furniture now, but when he first arrived,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53some eyebrows were raised.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57I remember one man saying... I said, "I'm here for six months anyway,"
0:23:57 > 0:23:58and one man said to me, he says,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02"Well, that will be true enough, because you wouldn't suit in here."
0:24:02 > 0:24:04- Someone in the BBC said that? - Yes, yes.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07And there was that slobbery there.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11The next thing was, the press says the BBC were dumbing down
0:24:11 > 0:24:13and the dumbing down meant,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I went in there, Stephen, I had no education, I couldn't read.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18- You couldn't read the words? - I could not.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21What did that do to your self-confidence,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24in broadcasting, when you can't read, in the BBC of all places?
0:24:24 > 0:24:26I tell you, it was a shock for them!
0:24:29 > 0:24:31But having to learn to read
0:24:31 > 0:24:34wasn't the biggest challenge he faced at the BBC.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36It was years before he joined the organisation,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and it was during the time he was still drinking,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43but Hugo did record an album of rebel songs.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45When Ian Paisley Jr complained,
0:24:45 > 0:24:47Hugo was convinced he would be sacked.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Why did you sing them, Hugo?
0:24:50 > 0:24:53This was recorded in...
0:24:55 > 0:24:58..the late '70s, 20 years previous,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02when these things were, sort of, common practice, you know,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04people sung Irish ballads, all different ones.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Your stomach must have been churning, though?
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Stephen, I was sick. I never thought about it at that time.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13I didn't think about it. I just wanted to get in and record.
0:25:13 > 0:25:14So everything you'd built up,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17you'd beaten the drink, you had your dream job in the BBC.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19- And now...- It was on a knife edge.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Honest to God, I never slept.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26I had cramps in my stomach for weeks, and I didn't even know what to do.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30If there ever had been a reason to hit the drink, it was a good one.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Hello, good afternoon, you're very welcome to the programme.
0:25:35 > 0:25:36It's your Uncle Coo!
0:25:38 > 0:25:40I've learnt a lot about Hugo while making this film.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Skiddley-dee, and that's me!
0:25:42 > 0:25:47Make no mistake, he connects with an audience like no other,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49a true gem in the BBC.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52All the very best you, and here's a kiss from your Uncle Coo.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54How are you doing, boy?
0:25:54 > 0:25:57Yet, despite the success, I sense he's still haunted
0:25:57 > 0:26:01by what he's put his family through all those years he was drinking.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05All that angst he's been bottling up for decades.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Now it's time to bring it out in the open.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12He feels like he constantly has to make up for it all the time.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14What do you mean?
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It just feels, everything he does
0:26:16 > 0:26:19is trying to make up for all the years with the drinking.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22He doesn't have to. I mean, he's made it up many a time
0:26:22 > 0:26:26but everything still goes back to the drink.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28"I still have to make it up to you."
0:26:29 > 0:26:33There's nothing to make up any more. It was made up long ago.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37- So you've forgiven him? - Oh, long ago. Long ago.
0:26:37 > 0:26:38SHE SNIFFS
0:26:39 > 0:26:41Long ago.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44He's the best dad I could have asked for.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47- The only one you're going to get! - With or without the drink.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50I wouldn't change my life
0:26:50 > 0:26:52and that's it, wouldn't change it.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55It's not that I want to apologise to her.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59I just want her to be my daughter, and I want to be her father.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02That's it, and we have to be there for each other.
0:27:03 > 0:27:04We're doing good.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06- We're doing good!- We're doing good.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10And what about this man who is so, so popular now on the radio
0:27:10 > 0:27:13and with everything he's achieved, are you proud of him?
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Oh, very much so. He's a big softy.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18- Are you?- Oh, very much so.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Of course I am. I always was.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24When I was growing up, he never left the house without giving me a kiss
0:27:24 > 0:27:28and lots of love. We wouldn't have had much else, but lots of love.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30- Good one!- That's it.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32With drink or without drink, there was lots of love.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35So.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39- Thank you. - Thank you, Stephen.- Thank you.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53What is life about to you?
0:27:53 > 0:27:56What do you want Hugo Duncan to stand for?
0:27:56 > 0:27:59My biggest wish would be
0:27:59 > 0:28:04to leave an impression on my family's mind today
0:28:04 > 0:28:08that I didn't leave 20, 30 years ago.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12I want them to remember me as who I am now.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd