Mikey: I'm a national hero

Big Brother contestant Mikey Hughes tells Kelly Mullan that he’s unashamed about using his blindness to promote the interests of blind people in general – and his own career in particular

Defying bullies with his spikey wit and blunt manner, Mikey Hughes became the bookies’ favourite to win Big Brother 9. The eccentric producer with the RNIB’s Insight Radio is unfazed by missing out on the £100,000 prize by just two per cent of the final vote, and is revelling in the novelty of his fame.

“I’m a national hero!” he says.

“Fans want autographs and photos. Wee kids are just so chuffed; they can’t believe it’s me.

“I’m worshipped. Totally cult status. Even the producers were coming up to me. I’m absolutely worshipped by them.”

As a housemate, Mikey, from Kilwinning in Scotland, was determined not to “play the blind card”, insisting his appeal lay in his entertaining personality, but he is happy his TV presence has helped demystify blindness.

“Blind people say: ’I’m glad you went on Big Brother because it has shown that blind people are normal,’” he says, quickly adding: “Not that I’m normal!”

Open about his hankering for hosiery and interest in Nazi artefacts, Mikey says: “I don’t represent all blind people but I’m trying to show that a blind person can swear, isn’t cuddly and doesn’t think all social worker-types are wonderful.

“It was visionary thinking to let me go on and not some stereotypical blind person. Channel 4 say I’ve put blindness decades forward. For too long, disability has been segregated. I wanted to go on Big Brother because you can’t get a bigger mainstream programme. The impact will be felt for a long time, I think.”

From day one in the Big Brother house, Mikey’s white stick has been a lightning rod, drawing out attitudes to blindness. On entering the house, Mikey was the only contestant spared the “boos” of the mob, and later in the series his use of the word “noticed” spawned the headline: “Blind Man’s Bluff”.

Mikey says: “I wanted that debate. I can say, ‘I watched telly last night,’ or, ‘Look over there.’ You don’t alter your language. People ask me if I listened to the TV last night and that just patronises me more.

“Society doesn’t know how to react to blind people and it’s the same in the Big Brother house. Some people are instantly comfortable with me, some are apprehensive, some worry about me and some worry that if they’re seen with me it’ll look like they’re befriending a poor blind person to look good.

“It’s a difficult environment. People take advantage of your disability. People patronise you more. There’s an impact on tasks; others worried about, ‘How’s Michael going to cope?’ I coped fine. It’s the negative attitude you don’t cope with.

“Housemates like to create tension and play people off against each other. Somebody might ask me what I thought of a particular person, knowing that person was behind me.”

When it came to feeling at ease and being himself in the house, Mikey says he had the upper hand over his sighted housemates, making his diary room vents a highlight of the show.

“My radio background helped. I stayed detached. And everybody freaked out about the bloody cameras and was intimidated but I couldn’t see the blasted things. All I knew was it was a conversation with somebody. Honest to God – all the diary room people were fighting over who would interview me.”

Mikey was criticised for his hands-on approach to his female housemates.

“It was an issue in the house, me being more tactile. But if a girl presents herself and wants me to feel how short her skirt is, and her heels and tights, I will. I don’t do this in the outside world, walk about the street feeling skirt lengths.”

For someone so phlegmatic about his impairment, Mikey has revealed one surprising point of view: chatting to Darnell, he said he’d be reluctant to have children, fearing passing on his genetic condition.

He says: “It’s a difficult one. Disabled people should have the same chance as everybody else but I don’t know if I want kids anyway, and when you throw that into the equation, I’m just saying it makes you think twice. And anyway, it would be disheartening to try to find a partner who would
take that risk.”

In seeking to be catapulted into the public eye, like all housemates, Mikey is driven by a need for recognition, but says he has the talent and creativity to maintain this trajectory to star status.

He’s been told by fans that watching him eat a Scotch Bonnet chilli was “the funniest moment in British television history”.

He says, “I miss being on the telly and entertaining people. I was depressed because nobody knew I existed. I wasn’t given that chance because blind people don’t do TV. I’m showing that blind people can do TV and create the funniest moment in British TV history. But then I say, ‘That’s not blind people; that’s me.’ I don’t think many blind people could have pulled off what I did.”

He now plans to write his autobiography, get a radio play aired, have a go at filmmaking and launch himself onto the stand-up comedy circuit with “The Scotch Bonnet Tour”. Mikey has tried stand-up before and warns his material may cause offence.

He jokes: “Someone said blind people make the best lovers. When I’m too tired, I put cream on my girlfriend and let my guide dog lick it off.”

Then he adds: “I don’t even have a guide dog. I take it to that extra level to shock people. To show that blind people aren’t cute.”

Most Big Brother evictees enjoy a brief boom of celebrity before their inflated media currency goes bust, but Mikey is optimistic about sustaining his new-found fame.

”If I hadn’t lost my sight, I’d be a quality manager in a company with a big fancy car. That was the route that was mapped out for me. But now I’m in a good position to realise all my creative dreams.”

Finally managing to stave off hubris, he adds: “I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. It’ll all fizzle out soon.”