Coronation St actor tragically passes away at 51

Never Mind the Buzzcocks comedian Sean Hughes revealed how he 'didn't want to live forever' and pushed his body to 'extreme hedonistic limits' before his death from cirrhosis of the liver aged 51.

The Irish stand-up star, who was not married and did not have children, died today, a week after tweeting that he was 'in hospital'. 

Hughes was best known for his appearances on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, where he was a team captain between 1996 and 2002, and his own sitcom Sean's Show.

He was also the youngest ever winner of the Perrier award in 1990 for his show A One Night Stand With Sean Hughes, aged 24.  

Hughes was believed to have been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver - a condition caused by long-term liver damage - and was recently taken to north London's Whittington Hospital, where he died. 

Eight days ago, in a final social media post, he told his 50,000 Twitter followers he was 'in hospital'. Today, his friend and Australian comedian Adam Hills said Hughes intended to leave his house to charity when he died. 

Before his death, the comedian described how his life of 'extreme' hedonism had taken its toll on his body and how he would hate to grow too old.

In a 2014 interview with the Irish Times, he said: 'The dream is that, one day, people will live forever.

'Well, I don't want to live forever. I can think of nothing worse. I'm aiming for 75 to 80. I don't want to be in a nursing home aged 120, and the nurse coming over and saying: "Are you enjoying your 120th birthday, Mr Hughes? Blink if you are".

'How many blinks for "turn off this machine? And who is Mr Hughes?"

He added: 'I have pushed my body to extreme hedonistic limits...I once overdosed on amphetamines: I was rushed to hospital and made to work the night shift.' 

He also wrote The Irish Times about his relationship with alcohol, and that he once stopped drinking for a while because he was 'drinking too much', before starting again.

He wrote: 'The other night, pretty drunk at the end of the evening, my friend asked if I wanted to go for a "proper" drink.

'Thank God those days are over for me now. I quit drinking totally for a couple of years because I was having too many "proper" drinks. I knew I was drinking too much when I had to be put out at a party. I don't mean I was asked to leave. My jacket was on fire.'

He continued: 'When I started drinking again, I thought my friends would be concerned, but they welcomed my return with a "great to have you back" attitude.

'Apparently I'm tedious when sober. People were uncomfortable when I wasn't drinking. It made them question their own habits.'a 

Hughes made his name when he became the youngest person to win the coveted Perrier Award - now known as the Edinburgh Comedy Award - at the Edinburgh Festival, at the age of 24. 

Recalling that in a later interview he said: 'I was told that I had won the Perrier award as I walked off stage after another sweaty performance. The judging panel rushed on to the stage to congratulate me.

'If the panel had made it 10 minutes earlier, they would have seen two people walking out of my award-winning show.'

After making his name on the comedy scene, Hughes went on to make several appearances as an actor later, including playing comedian and writer Tony Hawk in his adaption of Round Ireland with a Fridge and ITV's The Last Detective.

He also had a minor role in the cult 1991 movie The Commitments - in which he played Dave, a talent scout for Eejit Records - and starred in Coronation Street as Pat Stanaway in 2007. 

He returned to Edinburgh in the same year after a seven-year break with his show the Right Side Of Wrong. 

In 2015, the London-born Irish star also played station master Mr Perks in the award-winning London play, The Railway Children. 

Away from the stage and screen, Hughes was also a writer and had penned two collections of prose and poetry, including Sean's Book.  He wrote best-selling novels The Detainees and It's What He Would Have Wanted.   

Hughes, the second of three brothers, was born in Archway but moved to Dublin when he was six. He described how he had a 'little cockney accident' during the height of the Troubles in Ireland.

He said: 'I got a lot of stick, like "shut up, you Brit" and I felt like an outsider from very early on.'

He later moved to Firhouse, a suburb on the edge of Dublin, before returning to England at the earliest opportunity. 

In a Guardian interview in 2012 he revealed how he 'harboured a lot of resentment' as a youngster. 

'I had no support when I was going into a creative career,' he said. 'I had a part-time job in a supermarket and my mum and dad would have been delighted if they'd given me a full-time job. That was their ambition for me. That hurts.

'They weren't being hurtful but it made me quite hard towards them, which was probably unfair.'

In the same interview Hughes, who was caught up in the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, spoke about his brush with death.

'I'm lucky to be alive,' he said. 'But it changes you for two days, then you're back watching Neighbours at lunchtime.'

Despite enjoying a party lifestyle for many years, Hughes, who was not married and did not have children, became a teetotaller for a couple of years.

At the time, he admitted he had 'matured very late in life' and 'was blocking things out with drink'.

Following the death of his father from leukaemia in 2010, he said: 'You realise that when you're dealing with a death you can't block it out. But you have to come to all these places on your own. Once you realise that, you become a more rounded person.'  

The comedian, who lived in London, lived on his own for most of life saying 'relationships haven't worked out'.

He said: 'Without wanting to sound too pretentious about it, I chose art over life. I decided to concentrate on my work. I don't think I am cut out to get married and have kids. I am quite selfish and like to do things my way.' 

This article was first published on dailymail.co.uk and is reproduced here with permission.