Aidan Gillen: ‘How Gene Kerrigan and Paul Williams influenced the character of John Boy’

It took Aidan Gillen just one look at the script – and he was in, up to his neck

Aidan Gillen in 2010, with his best pudding-bowl haircut on, in 'Love/Hate'

Barry Egan

It doesn’t seem like 14 years ago that Ireland’s main water-cooler moments were provided by a group of ruthless Dublin drug dealers with a murderous twist and names like Nidge (played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and John Boy (Aidan Gillen).

A million people a week tuned into RTÉ to watch them in Love/Hate, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime.