Question of Taste: Will Hanafin, radio presenter and producer 

Will Hanafin is about to begin a new series of his show,Sure 'Twas Better, on RTÉ Radio 1. Here he includes  John Prine, Gay Byrne and meeting Paul Newman among his highlights

A pre-Covid picture of Will Hanafin with his Sure Twas Better panel of Pauline McLynn, Jules Coll, and Emer McLysaght.

Will Hanafin is from the Upper Strand in Youghal Co Cork, and he currently works as a radio producer on Drivetime on RTÉ Radio 1. 

His archive series 'Sure 'Twas Better' is set for a new three part run beginning this Thursday (Aug 27), where the panel of Pauline McLynn, Emer McLysaght and Jules Coll cast a humorous ear over old RTÉ reports. “It's Goggleboxish with archives!”, he says.

Best recent book you've read and what you liked about it:  

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite... it was just refreshing! A darkly satirical novel set in Nigeria about Korede and her younger sister Ayoola who has an unfortunate habit of killing her boyfriends.

Best recent film:

A toss-up between Faces Places, the 2017 documentary about Agnes Varda and her young friend JR as they traverse France creating portraits of ordinary people; and I loved Knives Out for its daring reinvention of the Agatha Christie murder mystery genre.

Best recent show/gig you’ve seen (perhaps in pre-covid times):

Privileged to have seen John Prine and Sturgill Simpson in Vicar Street in pre-Covid times.

Best piece of music you’ve been listening to lately (new or old):

I loved A Hero’s Death by Fontaines DC and in the same genre of new Irish folk was The D they put between the R&L from A Lazarus Soul.

And I really love the poetic life lessons from English artist Ghostpoet — his new album is I Grow Tired but Dare Not Fall Asleep. 

I also listen a lot to the grime lord Stormzy.

First ever TV show or art that really moved you:

Watching The World At War as a very young child on RTÉ in the 1970s — the incredible Thames TV documentary series narrated by Laurence Olivier. 

This wasn’t very age appropriate but I still remember a WW2 clip about a deserted village with bodies of German soldiers strewn around — and it really gave me an aversion to war from a young age.

The best gig or show you've ever seen (if you had to pick one!):

Probably the Jack White gig I went to with my wife Mary in Kilmainham a few years back — his Lazaretto album.

Tell us about your TV viewing:

Eclectic! I loved What We Do In The Shadows, about vampires in suburban New York, created by Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords.

Radio listening and/or podcasts:

A lot of radio because of the day job, and a lot of podcasts as well. I loved Death in Ice Valley, about a discovery of a body in Norway in the 1970s, Slow Burn about Clinton’s scandals, and the Guardian’s Football Weekly.

Who are your favourite three broadcasters of all time, living or dead?

David Attenborough, Gay Byrne, Joan Rivers.

Your best/most famous celebrity encounter:

Meeting Paul Newman as a researcher for a Late Late Show interview years ago was brilliant. He refused to take his sunglasses off for ages during the interview which was stressful!

You can portal back to any cultural event or music era – where, when, and why?

I’d have to go back to that bloody Nirvana 1991 gig in Sir Henry's, so I could finally say I was there!

You are king of Irish media for a day – what's your first decree?

An EU-wide tax on social media giants who’ve got away with all the gain and none of the pain of creating content for years!