How's the form‪?‬ Age NI

Billy Murray is a four-time world kickboxing champion.  As founder of the tin hut Prokick gym in the back streets of East Belfast, Billy has trained and mentored 18 world champions. Billy first turned to martial arts when he was beaten up as a schoolboy.  After reading a book about Kung Fu, his focus soon turned from retaliation to discipline and respect. He is a master of Karate, Kung-Fu, Ju-jitsu, kick boxing and Thai boxing. Billy Murray is also an inspirational community leader and young people’s mentor. Behind the fighter is a man who thrives on helping others, promoting peace and respect.  He dedicates himself to helping young kids to have a chance to fulfil their dreams, through a good clean no-nonsense healthy lifestyle. Here, he talks of his pride at opening a new state of the art gym attracting users of all ages, the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai to live a long and healthy life, and how he’s sometimes mistaken for Hollywood legend, Gary Oldman.

Glenn Patterson is an award-winning novelist, film-maker and screen-writer and a leading figure in Northern Ireland arts. He is Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast.

Glenn is the author of 10 fiction books, and as a screen-writer he was BAFTA-nominated for the screenplay of Good Vibrations, the biopic of Terri Hooley (a previous guest on this podcast). In 2023 Glenn was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His writing is informed by politics and social observation and his work has a recurring theme around reassessment of the past.  

He once won a Best Dressed Man in Northern Ireland award and, deeply inspired by music, he reveals how he once serenaded a dog in a supermarket carpark.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir is a newspaper publisher of titles including the Andersonstown News and the Irish Echo in New York. He’s had a political career, first as a Belfast City Councillor, then serving as Lord Mayor of Belfast. He used the opportunity to cross boundaries and build on his passion for community and love for his home city.  

He became one of Northern Ireland’s most prolific users of Twitter as he documented his year in office as @newbelfast. As an MLA, he served as Minister of Finance in the NI Executive. He’s the founder of numerous Irish-American projects, and when he’s not working, he has an impressive commitment to running. 

In his interview Máirtín reveals zen-inspired attitudes to life, community and grabbing opportunities with both hands.

Terri Hooley, is best known as “the godfather of punk” in Northern Ireland. In 1970s troubles-ridden Belfast, he established the Good Vibrations record shop and label. He was responsible for bands including The Undertones, Rudi and The Outcast. 

After playing “Teenage Kicks” on BBC Radio One, DJ John Peel famously played the track twice and became a big supporter of Hooley’s record label.  A biopic of Hooley’s life, Good Vibrations, came out in 2013 and a musical of the same name has gained huge critical acclaim here and in the US. 

Hooley openly admits that his passion for music was not matched by his abilities as a businessman, when the label went bankrupt in 1982. Friends rallied to help Terri to open a new record store which went on to thrive until closing in 2015. Terri Hooley’s legacy in the music scene, as an activist and anarchist have given him folklore-like status, with the stories to match.

Jeremy McWilliams is a motorcycle road racer who, having taken multiple podium places around the world in Superbikes and MotoGP, was told he was no longer eligible for mainstream racing beyond the age of 50. Ten years later, he’s still riding motorbikes at jaw-dropping speeds of 200 miles an hour and is a familiar face at the North West 200. Surprisingly, Jeremy used his skills to bag a movie role alongside Hollywood A-Lister Scarlett Johansson.

Now hitting 60, he’s had more broken bones than he can count and continues to get back on the bike – often the very next day.  He’s fast, fit and fearless. They say you can’t keep a good thing down – with Jeremy, they’ll have to catch him first!

This week’s How’s the Form podcast guest is chef, restaurateur and business leader, Michael Deane. He’s one of the godfathers who transformed the Northern Ireland restaurant scene. He chats to host Joe Lindsay about being a business owner through some of Belfast’s most difficult days, and the pressures of chasing, keeping and eventually giving up the globally-coveted Michelin star.

Michael talks openly about losing his hearing and shares a very personal story about his father getting a lucky break to record a song in Nashville, which (spoiler alert) sadly ended in disaster. An audience with The Don, The Deane. Enjoy.