Writing in The Guardian, Bruce Dessau observed of Hughes's early years: [He] used to talk about how sounding like a Cockney in an Irish school was not easy.

Making schoolfriends laugh was a classic defence mechanism and he even set up comedy gigs at his school.

In 1990, aged 24, he became the youngest winner of the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award for his show A One-Night Stand with Sean Hughes.

Hughes returned to stand-up, touring the UK and Australia in 2007 with his show The Right Side of Wrong.

[13] From 1996 to 2002, he was a team captain on the BBC2 comedy quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, alongside Phill Jupitus and Mark Lamarr.

[17] In ITV's series The Last Detective, featuring "Dangerous" Davies, Hughes played his friend, the perpetually unemployed and well-read "Mod Lewis" (he spends all his time at the library to save on heating).

[18] He played Eileen Grimshaw's love interest Pat in the British soap Coronation Street.

[20] He played Sergeant Lake in the ITV Agatha Christie's Marple production of They Do It with Mirrors, which was broadcast on 1 January 2010.

[21] Hughes played Brendan in the film version of Tony Hawks' book Round Ireland with a Fridge (2010).

[26] Hughes took over the role of stationmaster Mr Perks in the musical The Railway Children at King's Cross Theatre in March 2015.

[32][33] A funeral service was held at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery on 23 October 2017, where, after the mourning party heard eulogies to his memory, extracts of some of Hughes' poetry were recited, and recorded music from the Smiths and Lily Allen was played, his body was cremated.