In a time when it can be cheaper to buy alcohol than bottled water William asks if the amount of alcohol we consume has gotten out of control and explores what role it plays in our lives, both inside and out.
In the programme William goes out on the town for a night of binge drinking before starting a tough challenge of abstaining from alcohol for a month.
During his challenge, William meets everyone from teetotalers and doctors to social drinkers and alcoholics to discover the extent to which drink affects our lives, whether we use it as a social lubricant, to de-stress after a hard day at the office or as an emotional crutch.
After discovering whether or not alcohol has already taken its toll on his health and learning some deeply personal lessons about his own relationship with alcohol, William finds himself wondering if he will ever drink again.
William says: “When we began this programme, I wanted to explore the four possible relationships we can have with alcohol. At one end of the spectrum is teetotalism, at the other end is alcoholism and, in between these poles, which is where most people are found, is social drinking and binge-drinking. I was a late-starter with alcohol; I abstained entirely throughout my teenage years and into early adulthood. Part of the reason for that deliberate teetotalism was my family background – my father was an alcoholic and I grew up wishing to avoid the choices he seemed to have made.
“Since my early 20s, I would place myself in the ‘social drinker’ category and, on the odd occasion, I probably strayed close to the ‘anti-social drinker’ category. I don’t think I expected this programme to be such a challenge, or to get under my own skin as much as it did. And the question of whether I would even drink again after the programme became a very real one by the end of filming.”
Brian Henry Martin, director and producer of Dying For A Drink, says: “We wanted to take the issue of our society’s relationship with alcohol out of the news, out of the headlines and take a more measured approach. We wanted to make a film that would appeal to everyone who has an interest in this subject. William Crawley meets people from all sides of the debate, who talk frankly about how alcohol has affected their lives - ordinary people with extraordinary attitudes towards drink.
“William reveals his own personal experiences with alcohol, talking candidly about how alcohol has affected his life as a child and as an adult.
“It was important for me, to set William a personal challenge over the course of the film. This challenge was to abstain from alcohol for one month. The challenge proved to be more difficult and life changing than William first would have thought. During this time, William recorded his own tee-total video diary at home with surprising and compelling results. And at the end of the challenge – and the film – William has the choice to drink alcohol again or not. On the day of filming, we genuinely did not know what decision William was going to make.”
Dying For A Drink is a Doubleband Films production for BBC Northern Ireland.