Over the last week or so, we have watched more than 2 million people become hypnotised by Hypno Hen!

BBC Radio Foyle have been at the forefront gathering all interested parties/offenders together. They started with an interview with Dave on Monday.

Interview with David Anderson

Dave described the experience of watching the twitter phenomenon unfold as humbling. Especially reading tweets from the likes of Lorraine Kelly (ITV) and James O’Brien (LBC Radio). He says he is very excited by the fact that there are new and old audiences rediscovering his Dad’s work:

A whole new community are listening. There are listeners from before who haven’t heard him (Gerry) in a few years. There are expats living outside the North who love to hear the humour again. And then the big thing for me is new listeners. People who were children or grandchildren. And remember growing up at the kitchen when they were small, listening to this funny fellow on the radio. And now they’re listening thinking ‘wow, that’s what it was about!’.

Dave Anderson on BBC Radio Foyle

Pat Fairon, Hypno Hen’s owner makes an appearance

Radio Foyle also tracked down Pat Fairon who is the man who owned the hypnotised hen and took part in the amazing, impromptu call. He was a regular contributor to Gerry’s show and a big fan:

“A friend of mine used to say: ‘If there was a spark Gerry would be fanning it until it turned into a fire,’” said Pat Fairon from County Armagh.

“Conversation takes off and turns into a carry on and everyone is involved and feeding into it and building the craic – essentially that was the secret, what made Gerry as good and as great as he was”

Pat Fairon on BBC Radio Foyle

Pat was also thrilled with the recent twitter response to Hypno Hen saying that it: “was one of the best bits of work I’ve ever done’”. He also assured everyone that then hen had not been harmed in any way!

Joel Simpson, Creator of ‘On The Air’

On Thursday it was the turn of Joel Simon from Flickerpix who actually made the ‘On The Air’ animation series. He spoke about the amount of work involved in listening to five years worth of Gerry’s radio shows to pick out the best conversations to translate into an animated form.

In 2007, he took part in a ‘behind the scenes’ documentary for the BBC showing how the series was made, which you can find here:

Sean Coyle, forever Gerry’s partner in crime

But we were bowled over by Radio Foyle’s interview with Sean Coyle. He explained that he got the story of how to hypnotise hens from the late Anita Robinson. He told Gerry the story on air. And Pat Fairon, who was listening to the show became fascinated by the story and decided to try to hypnotise his own hen. On the following morning, Sean got a phone call from Pat, demanding to speak with Gerry. And the rest we know is history!

Sean explained that Gerry and he had an unwritten rule that Gerry didn’t want to know who the caller was, or what the subject was. And that when the hen went berserk, they were looking at one another in total disbelief!

Sean goes on to say people ask him why does Gerry Anderson’s appeal still hold today?

It was because of this irreverence and uncertainty. This divilment, this twinkle in his eye. Let’s open the door and see what’s behind it.

Sean Coyle

We were very touched by Sean’s words that he still misses Gerry terribly and we shed a tear or two listening to him and hearing the emotion in his voice. But we couldn’t agree more with Sean that:

Wherever he is sitting with his feet up, he’s saying “Och they’re enjoying themselves!”

Sean Coyle

Listen to Sean’s interview on BBC Sounds via @FacebookWatch

Catch all the other interviews on Radio Foyle on BBC Sounds with a special roundup review from Richard O’Reilly.