0:00:14 > 0:00:16# Drink, drink, drink
0:00:16 > 0:00:20# To eyes that are bright as stars when they're shining on me
0:00:20 > 0:00:23# To the drink, drink, drink... #
0:00:23 > 0:00:27It's the magic liquid that unlocks the door to the human heart.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33In celebration, in commiseration, for hatches,
0:00:33 > 0:00:38matches and dispatches, most of us to reach for alcohol of some kind.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41# May those lips that are red... #
0:00:41 > 0:00:44The fundamental truth of drinking that goes back
0:00:44 > 0:00:50to the dawn of humanity is that alcohol lowers social inhibitions,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53makes us feel more benign and makes us feel better about ourselves.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56# Drink, drink, drink... #
0:00:56 > 0:01:00- I drink, I drink like a fish. - Isn't that a drug?- No.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Oh, no. A drop of beer does you good, mate, keeps you fit.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Our relationship with drink
0:01:10 > 0:01:14is so deep-seated we've developed a set of unwritten codes
0:01:14 > 0:01:18and rituals which govern every aspect of the way we consume it.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24You're not supposed be drinking double whiskies on a Wednesday
0:01:24 > 0:01:26night in the club, that's what you do on New Year's Eve.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30There's a time for port, and a time for sherry, and a time for champagne
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and a time for a gin fizz.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Over the centuries, these checks and balances have changed and grown.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38At times, they've been pushed to the limit.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44Brandy and Babycham is easily like a Molotov cocktail.
0:01:44 > 0:01:45Folk speak Spanish
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and don't remember their life after brandy and Babycham.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52# All I ask is the right to see... #
0:01:52 > 0:01:55This is the story of a nation with a deep love of rules,
0:01:55 > 0:01:57and an even bigger love of drink.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00When the two collide, strange things happen that define us
0:02:00 > 0:02:03more than we'd like to think.
0:02:04 > 0:02:10# Drink, drink, drink to lovers To lonely sweethearts, let's drink! #
0:02:12 > 0:02:16MUSIC: The Lambeth Walk
0:02:22 > 0:02:25In 1945, after six years at war,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Britain could celebrate victory in Europe.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Never was there a greater excuse for a good drink.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42I think if we were to say travel back to Britain the morning after
0:02:42 > 0:02:46VE or VJ Day and hope to drink the way we do now,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48we'd be sadly disappointed.
0:02:48 > 0:02:49There wasn't much around to drink.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52The little beer that was available was weak.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Pubs often ran out of beer.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58People were drinking a third of what they had done before World War One.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01They were drinking a quarter of what the French drank at the same time.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05The 10-15 years after the war were not great for the drinker.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Pubs were either bombed out, or if they were still in business,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13there was no money or materials to renovate or refurbish them.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16A lot of beers have been lost altogether.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19If breweries were bombed, you've lost the recipe and that was it.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Pubs were not the warm, welcoming social places they had been before.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Britain has always been a nation of drinkers,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31with plenty around to quench the thirst.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36In the Middle Ages, beer was even preferred to water
0:03:36 > 0:03:39as it was less likely to contain dangerous bacteria.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44But in the early 20th century, a series of dramatic curbs
0:03:44 > 0:03:48were placed on alcohol, starting at the outbreak of the Great War.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54In the First World War, drink was seen as an enemy.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58Drink was going to make workers work less hard,
0:03:58 > 0:04:03the drunkenness was a real threat to worker efficiency,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07and also morale, so during the First World War drink was restricted.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15Beer and spirits were taxed and the price of whisky increased fivefold.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20Pub licensing hours were reduced to just five and a half hours per day.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25And things very nearly went much further.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28We came within a hair's breadth
0:04:28 > 0:04:30of total prohibition of alcohol in the UK.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33It was only the perceived threat of communist revolution
0:04:33 > 0:04:36in places like Glasgow and Liverpool that prevented
0:04:36 > 0:04:38total prohibition of beer,
0:04:38 > 0:04:41because they thought it would be the final straw that caused revolution.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47By the Second World War, the lesson had been learned
0:04:47 > 0:04:51that actually access to pubs and drink was a positive
0:04:51 > 0:04:54in terms of morale, so people were encouraged.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Churchill, himself a heavy drinker,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01realised the importance of the role alcohol had to play.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06The troops serving abroad, Churchill personally mandated
0:05:06 > 0:05:10that every fighting man, wherever he was in the world, had a ration
0:05:10 > 0:05:13of eight pints of beer per week before anybody at home got a drop.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Arriving home after the war,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22troops were shocked to find the stock cupboards looking rather bare.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Rationing meant there was little grain to make beer, and what whisky
0:05:26 > 0:05:31there was being sold abroad to help pay off Britain's debts.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34They might make the stuff and they like it,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38but they, like other people in the British Isles, find it hard to get,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and it rolls up a large credit to Britain abroad.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55As rebuilding the country got underway in the 1950s,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58supplies of beer started to come through.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Good thing too. The workers were developing quite a thirst.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14People wanted to have a good time. They were fed up with the hard times.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18They were fed up with making do and not having any entertainment.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24And in many ways, clubs stepped into that role.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27# I love you, my rose I love you... #
0:06:31 > 0:06:36The central part of what went on in working men's clubs was drinking.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39As the night wore on and you had a half, or another half,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41then people would get loosened up.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45# For my one sweet Jane. #
0:06:45 > 0:06:48APPLAUSE
0:06:50 > 0:06:55Working men's clubs had been inspired
0:06:55 > 0:06:57by the gentlemen's clubs of the 19th century.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01But, initially, drinking was never part of the plan.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04You had well-meaning clergymen and philanthropists setting up
0:07:04 > 0:07:09the working men's club movement for working men and the idea there
0:07:09 > 0:07:13was that this would be a place of education, a place for stimulation,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15a place to kind of bring people on and turn them
0:07:15 > 0:07:17into more rounded, healthy citizens.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But you can't pull the wool over people's eyes.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23These working men would join these clubs, and say,
0:07:23 > 0:07:24"So, right. We're a club?"
0:07:24 > 0:07:27"That means we can have a club licence,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30"like the private members' clubs? OK, we'll do that."
0:07:30 > 0:07:34So what had started as an attempt to broaden minds,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36had been seized on as an opportunity to drink.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43In this Horton club,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48they told me they took £2,000 over the bar during one recent holy day.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52At a shilling a pint, that's 40,000 pints in one day.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55The reason they drink so much is because they work down the mines.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59I don't know if you've been down a mine, but I have.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I was down about a year ago and I was absolutely scared stiff
0:08:02 > 0:08:04and when I was down there,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06you get all the dirt and grime into your throat.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09On when you come back up, the first thing you want is something
0:08:09 > 0:08:12to drink and obviously you don't want to drink water,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15so they have a wash and they want to go out to a pub
0:08:15 > 0:08:16and have a drink of beer, you see.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21A trip to the club was part of every working day,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24and twice a day at weekends.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28After a shift at the factory or shipyard, the working man
0:08:28 > 0:08:32would go home to have his tea with the family and then off to the club.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Once you've stepped inside a working man's club,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42you're almost expected to have a drink.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45There was pressure on you to drink.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48And it was almost you were shunning the company
0:08:48 > 0:08:50if you didn't have a drink.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53But this was drinking in moderation,
0:08:53 > 0:08:58and it was heavily ritualistic with numerous unspoken rules and codes.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04You learned that perhaps people could drink a bit more if it was
0:09:04 > 0:09:08a special celebration, a birthday or a wedding, or something like that.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12You also learnt, in a working man's club, if you ever went beyond that,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15if they were drinking too much, or the wrong type of drink
0:09:15 > 0:09:19on the wrong occasion, that they weren't long for the club.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20They would be thrown out.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24You're not supposed to be drinking double whiskies on a Wednesday night
0:09:24 > 0:09:26in the club, that's what you do on New Year's Eve.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30It's the wrong time, or the wrong time of day.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33So you learned that there were certain rules and regulations.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37I had a lovely story from one man who grew up in a place like this,
0:09:37 > 0:09:42and the more mature men who sort of quietly ruled the place
0:09:42 > 0:09:47would drink on a carpeted part of the bar, and the younger drinkers,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50the trainee drinkers, had to stand on the lino which wasn't as nice.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53And this bloke was telling me about the time
0:09:53 > 0:09:55he was called over by the men drinking on the carpets,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58"Just come over here, I want to ask you something."
0:09:58 > 0:10:01They asked, "While you're here, let me get you a pint."
0:10:01 > 0:10:04And that was his transition, his right of passage.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07He was now one of the carpet drinkers, with the mature guys,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11and his more childish mates were left on the lino, crestfallen,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and had to wait a lot longer before they made that transition.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22In pubs, the unspoken rules were no less strict.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24They even extended to the dress code.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30We had a pub on almost every street corner and it's where
0:10:30 > 0:10:35all the men, at the weekend, turned up in dark suits, straight out
0:10:35 > 0:10:38the factories and into their suit and into the pub
0:10:38 > 0:10:41and then smoked hundreds of cigarettes and drank hundreds,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and we weren't allowed to go in there, because it was
0:10:44 > 0:10:48a really bad social stigma if you had a child standing outside a pub.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52But as a trick, my friends used to open the door and throw me in,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55and I would tumble in amongst all these men in dark suits
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and my dad would roar when he saw me.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59You got picked up and thrown back out.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04But just the memory of being in there and the smells
0:11:04 > 0:11:08and that whole atmosphere, and smell of smoke and beer and murmuring,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10that background noise.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12I was fascinated.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14# So, set 'em up, Joe
0:11:14 > 0:11:20# I got a little story you want to know
0:11:20 > 0:11:22I remember my mum ironing his trousers.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26"It's Friday night, your Dad's gone to the pub!" And he dressed smart,
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and all his friends dressed smart as well,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34so I think it was a kind of social, we've worked all week,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39and this is us in civilian clothing now and we can relax
0:11:39 > 0:11:43and talk about men things, and football,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48and drink until we can't stand up and then sing some Frank Sinatra songs
0:11:48 > 0:11:50and wander home.
0:11:50 > 0:11:51That's the plan.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56# So make it one for my baby
0:11:56 > 0:12:01# And one more for the road
0:12:01 > 0:12:07# That long, long road. #
0:12:11 > 0:12:14While the working man's routine revolved around a pint of beer
0:12:14 > 0:12:19or perhaps the odd whisky, on the other side of the social divide,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21the choice of drinks was much wider.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33My father was never a pub man. They would go to drink parties.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35They would drink martinis.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40They would make martinis in a jug, a glass jug.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45They seemed to have them seven parts gin, one part vermouth.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48They would get quite sloshed on martinis is my memory.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57The higher you ascended the scale, the more diverse the range
0:12:57 > 0:13:01of drinks was likely to be, until you came to the aristocracy
0:13:01 > 0:13:06who had cellars full of French wine and a drink for every occasion.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10A time for port, and a time for sherry, and a time for champagne
0:13:10 > 0:13:11and a time for a gin fizz.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15Lynette is 19 and a debutante.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19She's giving this party in a friend's flat. Her own's too small.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Lynette enjoys parties.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Oh yes, I love parties, but not too many, of course,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28because one does get a bit blase, so they say.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33And I must admit one speaks the most enormous amount of drivel.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38For all the great variety of drinks,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42the established rules of drinking were still very traditional.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44But things were changing.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49When the austerity years came to an end and people
0:13:49 > 0:13:53started drinking again, they began to do so in slightly different patterns.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57We could call it a great deal of social mobility in drinking.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01People started experimenting and drinking different things.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06So not only did levels of consumption recover,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11but the things which people did consume also began to change.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15# Hey, mambo! Mambo Italiano!
0:14:15 > 0:14:19# Go, go, go, you mixed-up Siciliano
0:14:19 > 0:14:21# All you Calabriase, do the mambo like-a crazy. #
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Cocktail bars serving the punches, sours and slings,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28seen in the movies, started springing up in larger cities.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31# Hey mambo! Mambo Italiano!
0:14:31 > 0:14:34# Try an enchilada with-a the fishy bacalan
0:14:34 > 0:14:37# Hey, goombah, I love-a how you dance the rumba
0:14:37 > 0:14:42# But take-a some advice, paisano, learn-a how to mambo,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46# If you're gonna be a square, you ain't-a gonna go nowhere.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49# Hey, mambo! Mambo Italiano! #
0:14:49 > 0:14:51And bistros offering them exotic food
0:14:51 > 0:14:55served with a charming splash of Mediterranean eccentricity.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02# When you Mambo Italiano. #
0:15:09 > 0:15:13But alcohol had other more rebellious uses.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18For the beatniks, it was a potent symbol of their non-conformity
0:15:18 > 0:15:20with the familiar order of Fifties Britain.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24You'll see it in the sort of Soho painters and writers
0:15:24 > 0:15:26who inhabited that circle,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30that they all seemed to be exploring the darker side of drinking.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Drinking for oblivion, drinking to forget.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38Drinking to see how far down and
0:15:38 > 0:15:41how much they can demean themselves, as much as drinking in the good
0:15:41 > 0:15:46old-fashioned sense that one gets a rosy hue around the drinkers
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and it comes into a magic circle of drunkenness.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Making a challenge of his own, but for very different reasons,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19was the young, working-class man.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28# I can't get no satisfaction
0:16:28 > 0:16:33He'd been told he'd never had it so good, but even in this time
0:16:33 > 0:16:35of full employment, that didn't feel good enough.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40You know, the work had come, people had money in their pockets,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43but what had come wasn't the promised Land of Hope and Glory
0:16:43 > 0:16:47that the war had been fought for.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51We see the young workers beginning to get the fruits of his labours.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53It's very much a new generation
0:16:53 > 0:16:55from those who gave themselves in sacrifice in the war.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58We can please ourselves exactly when we work
0:16:58 > 0:16:59and when we don't want to work.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03That's the best sort of life. Do what you want, be your own gaffer.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You'll never get me working for a boss.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09We don't want no-one forcing us out of bed and having to clock in
0:17:09 > 0:17:10and all that game.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12We like to work when we feel like working.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19The old order of hard work and moderate drinking
0:17:19 > 0:17:24handed down from generation to generation was now being rejected.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And we begin to see a new sort of drinking,
0:17:29 > 0:17:31they seem to drink in quite a negative way.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35They would go out and have their 10 pints on a Friday night
0:17:35 > 0:17:37and drink to escape from their work,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40as opposed to celebrate life in general.
0:17:42 > 0:17:49Whatever men were using the pub for, it was very much their world.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55# This is a man's world
0:17:56 > 0:17:59# This is a man's world
0:18:02 > 0:18:06# But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12# Without a woman or a girl. #
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Despite frequenting pubs during the war,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23women were now being made much less welcome.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31They were allowed in, but only under certain terms and conditions.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I think women in pubs were accepted initially
0:18:36 > 0:18:38when they were there with their men.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42If the man is a regular, and he brings his wife in,
0:18:42 > 0:18:43probably on a Saturday night.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47When I was growing up, Friday night was when you went out with the lads,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49and Saturday night was when you went out with the missus.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51And there were rules about it.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55And if you went in on your own, as a woman, I think
0:18:55 > 0:18:59there would have been raised eyebrows and quite probably some harassment.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06Once inside a pub - with her husband, of course - the female
0:19:06 > 0:19:09drinker would be expected to stay in her clearly designated area.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14# Message understood. #
0:19:14 > 0:19:18The pub itself was split into different sections.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24Standing at the bar was largely a male preserve.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Men tended to order drinks at the bar.
0:19:27 > 0:19:28Women tended to sit,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and they certainly won't go into the vault, which was the men's area.
0:19:32 > 0:19:38And in some pubs today you still see evidence, the evidence of those
0:19:38 > 0:19:42different parts of the bar, the different uses of pubs.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49But there was one area of the pub which women could call their own.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Every pub then, and I remember it clearly, had a snug,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58or an off-licence as it was called, which is where the women went.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03It was basically a glass door that had stripes on it, and you open that
0:20:03 > 0:20:08door, and there was no seat and there was a bench where the barman
0:20:08 > 0:20:11would come and sell you drink to take away.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Some pubs in Glasgow didn't even have a ladies' toilet.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Because there was no need for one to be there.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21And I used to go with my mum into the off-licence, the snug bit,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25and I would try to peer over and see all the men drinking
0:20:25 > 0:20:29and she would get a couple of cans of Sweethearts Stout, because it
0:20:29 > 0:20:33had the word "sweetheart" in it, so that was OK for women to drink.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Yet attitudes were slowly changing.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42And as women ventured into the pub a little more,
0:20:42 > 0:20:47so the pubs started making an effort to accommodate them.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52And the results? Carpets, upholstered comfort,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55wood carvings, coquetry.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57For feminine scenes of civilisation.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05In working men's clubs, it was a different matter altogether.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Rules being rules, women were by no means guaranteed membership,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12even in the Sixties.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17Working men's clubs, as in the name, were for men. Right from the word go.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22But even from the word go there was always a debate about
0:21:22 > 0:21:24whether women should be allowed in.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29Mr Chairman, I'm strongly against the admittance of women
0:21:29 > 0:21:30as members to this club.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33And some clubs just simply said no, no women at all.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35I'm quite definite about that.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Others decided and eventually changed their minds,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42and said we'll let them in, but only on certain days
0:21:42 > 0:21:46and they have to be accompanied by their father or their husband.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48So there were constant negotiations.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51It's got to go. This old archaic system whereby the man is the lord,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53and the woman the docile servant.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Surely Horton Working's Club will go
0:21:55 > 0:21:58and we'll have a Horton Social Institute where a woman
0:21:58 > 0:22:01is on the same equality and same lines as a man.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05And some women did manage to get in. In some clubs, it was allowed,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07but there was always limitations.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Once we have lady members in this club, we will have no rights
0:22:11 > 0:22:15at all, unless we make a bylaw to keep them out of the bar.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Some places would say they could come in the club
0:22:17 > 0:22:19and sit in that room, but they can't come in this room.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26Well, we used to sit in the ladies room, drinking and we were
0:22:26 > 0:22:31very lonely and the men were all in the bar, so we decided we'd form
0:22:31 > 0:22:35a ladies' darts team, and ever since it's been a great success.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40- One ton!- Ooh, well done, Ethel!
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Now that women were becoming more accepted in pubs and clubs,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51there was the small matter of what they should drink.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Women became a commercial target audience as they started
0:22:55 > 0:22:58to enter the workplace and started to earn a bit of independence
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and money of their own, they became a target.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05So, for example, lager brewers who had failed time
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and time again to get men interested in lager said, "Right,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11we'll spend millions advertising lager as a woman's drink,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14and there were all these ads for things like Carling Black Label
0:23:14 > 0:23:19with slogans like, "A blonde for a blonde" - talking down to women.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Then, of course, lager created a rod for their own back,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25because when they decided they wanted to sell it to men,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27men said it was an effeminate drink,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29so they had to spend more money saying,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32"No, it wasn't a drink for women, Don't know where you got that idea!"
0:23:32 > 0:23:35I think the interesting thing about women's relationship to drink
0:23:35 > 0:23:38is the women are far more adventurous than men.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Men, when they go out to drink,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44and this is a massive generalisation, but on the whole there tends
0:23:44 > 0:23:46to be that idea that men will drink beer or lager or maybe,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50if they're feeling a little bit frisky, they might have a Guinness.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Whereas women are going to drink a whole range of drinks potentially.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56They might be drinking red or white wine,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59might be having a whisky and Coke.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03There is that sense that the female market is a market where
0:24:03 > 0:24:06you can introduce completely new,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09sometimes completely mad, drink items.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14It's women who might drink the new things such as Taboo or Mirage.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18You might have a Snowball, which was this wonderful,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22yucky yellow drink in a round glass with a fake cherry on top.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Pints and pints of eggnog.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26- Campari. - A rum and black.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28- Babycham.- Babycham.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Babycham, a pear champagne, or perry, was created
0:24:38 > 0:24:41by a Somerset businessman trying to ferment fruit juice.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44It had crept onto the market in the late 1950s.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Helped by sophisticated television advertising, by the 1960s,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54bottles were selling by the million.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06I guess the drink that was famous at the time was Babycham.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07Certainly my aunty used to drink it
0:25:07 > 0:25:09from my earliest memories.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11So she must have been drinking it in the Sixties.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15I remember Babycham been derided as quite a comical drink,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19I guess because it was marketed specifically to women
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and it had a cartoon deer on the front,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25but when you pour it out now and have it as a perry,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28and against other perries, because that's making a comeback,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30it's actually quite a decent drink.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39WOMAN: Babycham! I'd love a Babycham!
0:25:42 > 0:25:47The aesthetics of drinking, or of drink, is quite interesting.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53The Babycham glass, the Babycham itself, it looks beautiful.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54And it's delicate.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58If you ever come across those Babycham glasses today,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00you'll see they're smaller than you would think.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Smaller than the classic, wide-open champagne glasses.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06They're really, really dinky.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10And it is their dinkiness alongside the fact that they
0:26:10 > 0:26:16are relatively low alcohol, which I think makes them a woman's drink.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20# Summertime is with us once again... #
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Soon the meagre choice of drinks that Britain had got used to
0:26:26 > 0:26:28would change beyond recognition.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33# And the cold days of winter are behind us now
0:26:36 > 0:26:40# And that the spring time promises all come true. #
0:26:43 > 0:26:47The availability of cheap package holidays meant the average man
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and woman was now exposed to an abundance of new drinking delight
0:26:51 > 0:26:56previously afforded only to the upper classes, in particular, wine.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02In the Sixties, when people began to travel abroad,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04it changed their views on drinking.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Prior to that, they had only been used to what they saw in Britain,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11quite a simple choice of drinks.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16Once they got over the Channel and into the continent,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19and saw where drinking was much more of a unisexual activity,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22people of all ages, and all status, drinking wine,
0:27:22 > 0:27:23this changed their attitudes
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and they tried to bring it back home with them.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33MUSIC AND CLAPPING
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Back home, television allowed these new travellers to be bombarded
0:27:54 > 0:27:59with adverts promising a taste of the exotica they'd just glimpsed.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04# Any time, any place, anywhere
0:28:04 > 0:28:06# There's a wonderful taste you can share
0:28:08 > 0:28:10# In the right one, the right one
0:28:10 > 0:28:14# That's Martini. #
0:28:16 > 0:28:19But some aspects of this foreign invasion had more to do
0:28:19 > 0:28:21with the Cold War than sunny holidays.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Some of the influence on wine-drinking didn't come
0:28:28 > 0:28:31from carefree holiday makers, but from the vast amount of troops
0:28:31 > 0:28:34and their families stationed in Germany.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39So the first wine market outside let's say the traditional claret,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42burgundy-drinking squires and politicians,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45had been the troops and their wives who were exposed
0:28:45 > 0:28:52to the much weaker, more floral, sweeter, German wines.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56One thinks of the later adverts for Blue Nun and Black Tower.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59Tonight, I've remembered everything.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02I remember Lucy was coming round for a cosy evening
0:29:02 > 0:29:03in front of the telly.
0:29:03 > 0:29:04I remembered the little eats.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Supper in the oven, phone off the hook,
0:29:07 > 0:29:09and, of course, the Black Tower.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11Definitely a German white wine worth remembering.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Wunderbar, as they say.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18And my guest on Friday Night Live, Leslie Phillips!
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Leslie?!
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Whatever you forget, don't forget The Black Tower.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25LESLIE?!
0:29:28 > 0:29:31By the arrival of the 1970s we were becoming much more relaxed
0:29:31 > 0:29:34about how we were drinking.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38And now there was more choice, everyone could enjoy a bit more.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Then, there was George Best.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47MUSIC: "Whisky in the Jar" by Thin Lizzy
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Best was the first celebrity footballer, but he would become
0:29:59 > 0:30:03as famous for his drinking as for his wizardry on the field.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09He came from a family who were steeped in alcohol.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12His mother was an alcoholic and died of the disease.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14He's seen it around him as a kid.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17He'd come from the Protestant area of East Belfast
0:30:17 > 0:30:19where there was a lot of drinking.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22When he got more money
0:30:22 > 0:30:26than he, or almost anyone else in the country had ever dreamed of,
0:30:26 > 0:30:28when he got the adulation,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32when he got the screaming girls, he didn't know how to cope with it.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34And we have to be sympathetic here.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37There were no rules. How would you cope with it?
0:30:37 > 0:30:40# Wait for my daddy-o
0:30:40 > 0:30:43# There's whiskey in the jar-o... #
0:30:50 > 0:30:54In 1972, aged just 25,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Best walked out on his Manchester United team-mates
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and decamped to Marbella.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04There he participated in the sort of drinking
0:31:04 > 0:31:06which would one day be his undoing.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14By his own admission, he would wake up mid-morning,
0:31:14 > 0:31:19have a couple of shandies - this was purely, as he put it,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21just to clear his head.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Then as the morning drew on, he would have little wine,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28then as lunchtime drew further on,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31he would have quite a few beers.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35Then, as you do, he would go and sleep it off,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38waking up just in time for the afternoon,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42where this fantastic athlete would then go onto the hard stuff,
0:31:42 > 0:31:43ie vodka,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46which at the time was his favourite spirit,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48and he'd go to bars frequented by tourists.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Ironically, because he was quiet drunk, a functioning alcoholic,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57he's get regularly, repeatedly, annoyed by the drunken antics
0:31:57 > 0:31:59of his fellow bar-dwellers.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03So, he'd go back to his hotel,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06ironically called The Skull Hotel, in Marbella,
0:32:06 > 0:32:11and he would go to their cocktail bar where he would have a few nightcaps.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19George Beat's downfall would prove great business on Fleet Street,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22feeding an ever-hungry print media.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25# Show me the way
0:32:25 > 0:32:28# To the next whisky bar
0:32:28 > 0:32:32# Oh, don't ask why
0:32:32 > 0:32:33# Oh, don't ask why
0:32:33 > 0:32:36# Show me the way
0:32:36 > 0:32:39# To the next whisky bar
0:32:39 > 0:32:41# Oh, don't ask why... #
0:32:41 > 0:32:45With circulation through the roof and expense accounts to match,
0:32:45 > 0:32:49journalists, not adverse to the odd snifter themselves,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52went out drinking to epic proportions.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56# I tell you we must die,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58# I tell you
0:32:58 > 0:32:59# I tell you
0:32:59 > 0:33:02I tell you we must die... #
0:33:02 > 0:33:04Fleet Street was boozy
0:33:04 > 0:33:07and the whole notion of the long lunch
0:33:07 > 0:33:09was not something that was made up.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13People would disappear at one and not come back till four,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17or not come back at all, and people would have two bottles of wine,
0:33:17 > 0:33:23three bottles of wine over lunch, plus...a martini,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27plus a gin and tonic, plus a something to get going on
0:33:27 > 0:33:30and people would then more or less drink through the day.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33In the newspaper world, or any media world,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36there are a fantastic amount of functions and events
0:33:36 > 0:33:38that kick off around 6, 6.30,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40so you could just more or less barrel on into them.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43I can remember quite a lot of days
0:33:43 > 0:33:47where I'd be slightly sloshed more or less from one onwards.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49It was a hugely drinking culture.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53You look back and you think, how did people get any work done?
0:33:55 > 0:33:58There's a lovely epigram in Ancient Greece which is that,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02"If a man sticks to drinking water, he'll never write anything wise,
0:34:02 > 0:34:03"but wine is a horse upon asses
0:34:03 > 0:34:06"which carries the bard to the skies."
0:34:07 > 0:34:09For those working on Fleet Street
0:34:09 > 0:34:12like the celebrated journalist James Cameron,
0:34:12 > 0:34:17dinking wasn't considered a luxury but a prerequisite for work.
0:34:19 > 0:34:25I find drinking a certain amount is a necessary corollary to working.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30There must be a chemical factor involved in this, I daresay.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33I mean, I'm by no means a lush,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36but I know that if I suddenly find myself with a job to do
0:34:36 > 0:34:40in a hell of a hurry and I haven't got a drink, I'm in dead stuchk.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44I think that anyone who writes and likes a drink
0:34:44 > 0:34:46creates a romantic relationship
0:34:46 > 0:34:49between alcohol consumption and creativity.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52I see it terms of a graph
0:34:52 > 0:34:55of creativity versus alcohol consumption
0:34:55 > 0:34:59and there's a band in this graph where you hit creative heights
0:34:59 > 0:35:02after you've been loosened up by a few drinks.
0:35:02 > 0:35:03You think, I'll keep it going,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06and you push it too far out the other end, drink too much,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09and you've lost it, you can't write anything.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Journalists would go to extraordinary lengths
0:35:12 > 0:35:15to keep the creative juices flowing.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19It seems nothing could keep the hack from his pint.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25Drinking in Northern Ireland during the Troubles
0:35:25 > 0:35:28was a trial and a test
0:35:28 > 0:35:32for the most hardened boozer, quite frankly.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36I remember once being in a hotel at the bar on the first floor
0:35:36 > 0:35:40and two masked men came in, as they did in those days,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43and planted something on the bar and said,
0:35:43 > 0:35:45"You've got half an hour to get out,"
0:35:45 > 0:35:47which was how they did it then.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50And I said, "Oh, we've got time for another pint of Guinness."
0:35:50 > 0:35:53I looked up and the barmaid had gone,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56as you might imagine, so there was no other pint of Guinness.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59In fact, it was an hour and a half before the pub blew up,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03so I would have had time for two or three more pints.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11Pushing the excesses of Fleet Street's consumption levels
0:36:11 > 0:36:14to the limit was the Spectator journalist, Jeffrey Bernard.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19His column tracing his own alcoholic exploits
0:36:19 > 0:36:22was described by another writer as,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26"A suicide note in weekly instalments."
0:36:26 > 0:36:30I pour myself a drink, which seems to lubricate the typewriter,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34and it certainly makes me feel less inhibited.
0:36:34 > 0:36:41It was probably abut 1975, I think, that I met Jeffrey
0:36:41 > 0:36:42and we used to...
0:36:42 > 0:36:45I was drinking pretty heavily by then.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49I was drinking a lot of whisky, lot of spirits, lot of vodka.
0:36:49 > 0:36:50Um...
0:36:50 > 0:36:54I think it takes one to know one and we both recognised in each other
0:36:54 > 0:36:56that we liked drinking,
0:36:56 > 0:37:00we liked drinking pretty seriously, and we used to go drinking.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Large vodka and orange, please.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08It was a ferocious drinking club culture
0:37:08 > 0:37:11in which Jeffrey was an extraordinary character
0:37:11 > 0:37:14because, despite the level of the drinking,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17he still managed to write his column for the Spectator
0:37:17 > 0:37:20and he still managed to be a genius.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23I tried to get all my work done by 11.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25There are always deadlines to meet
0:37:25 > 0:37:29and I make mine opening time, whatever the editors may say.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33There's a sense of urgency about lunchtime drinking that I like.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37In the evening, people are just plundering time.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40If I arrive at the Coach & Horses at 12 and not 11,
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Tom Baker tells me that I'm late for work.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52I think most people lead lives of such annihilating boredom,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54paralysed by the awfulness of life,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57that being in an alehouse drinking with a few acquaintances
0:37:57 > 0:38:01and talking a load of rubbish half the time is a tremendous relief.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04It's marginally less worse than not being, I suppose.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Yeah. Most people are bored out of their minds, aren't they?
0:38:07 > 0:38:13Like Jeffrey Bernard, the dark extremes of heavy drinking
0:38:13 > 0:38:17would lead his friend, Rosie Boycott, into alcoholism.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21I was a heavy drinker, I liked to drink,
0:38:21 > 0:38:26I liked to drink with the boys, I liked getting drunk, actually.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28I liked the feeling of getting drunk.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33But then, as the years went by, the drink got the upper hand on me
0:38:33 > 0:38:37and it was no longer me running the drink, it was the drink running me.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41I started to have blackouts, I smashed my car once,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45I ended up in some very difficult compromising positions
0:38:45 > 0:38:48and then I went into a treatment centre.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53In the House of Commons,
0:38:53 > 0:38:57professional drinking of another kind was taking place.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02Here the combination of alcohol and power proved a heady mixture,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04lubricating the kind of political gaffes
0:39:04 > 0:39:08the Westminster press lobby was only too happy to write up.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Chris Moncrieff is the chief lobby correspondent
0:39:14 > 0:39:17of the Press Association, Britain's national news agency
0:39:17 > 0:39:20that supplies stories to virtually every newspaper
0:39:20 > 0:39:22and radio and television station in Britain.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30You know, if you needed to interview an MP,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35a couple of pints of beer would always loosen him up, soften him up,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and very often if I needed quotes late at night,
0:39:39 > 0:39:45I would go down to one of the more rowdy bars in the House of Commons,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48because I'd know that by 11 or midnight
0:39:48 > 0:39:52a lot of the MPs would be, excuse the phrase,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56pie-eyed and they would pretty well say anything you wanted them to say.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58It was really like taking candy from kids.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02I suppose I should be ashamed of it, but I'm not.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07I once went down late at night to the Strangers Bar
0:40:07 > 0:40:12to get a quote and this chap came out.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15He gave me a quote on whatever it was.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18I filed it and went home, that was about midnight.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23I got phoned up about three or four in the morning by this self-same MP.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27He said, "Did we have a conversation last night?"
0:40:27 > 0:40:29I said, "Well, yes, we did."
0:40:29 > 0:40:32He said, "I've had the BBC on, they want me to go on
0:40:32 > 0:40:35"as a result of some quote that appeared on the PA.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38"They want me to go on the Today programme."
0:40:38 > 0:40:40I said, "Oh, good."
0:40:40 > 0:40:43He said, "Can you actually - sorry about this - remind me
0:40:43 > 0:40:46"what I was talking about and what the subject was?"
0:40:46 > 0:40:50So, I told him and he said, "Could you also just remind me
0:40:50 > 0:40:53"what my view is on this matter, please?"
0:40:53 > 0:40:54And he went on and was a hit.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Hello? Anybody at home?
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Of course, you didn't need to be at work to have a glass at your side.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12A new explosion in entertaining at home was now under way.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20Be an angel, could you, gin and bitter lemon?
0:41:22 > 0:41:26And it wasn't just the middle classes enjoying this.
0:41:26 > 0:41:32Everyone was benefiting from easy access to an abundance of alcohol.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35'If you can't pop out to the off-licence,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38'why not let the off-licence pop out to you?
0:41:38 > 0:41:40'Enjoy your drinks at home the Davenports way.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42'There's magnificent beers -
0:41:42 > 0:41:45'they should be, we've been brewing them for over 130 years -
0:41:45 > 0:41:47'and wines, spirits, pop and squash,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52'all at the right sort of prices and brought direct to your door.'
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Homes are just nicer places to spend time
0:41:55 > 0:41:59and entertaining your friends in your home
0:41:59 > 0:42:02is increasingly something that you want to do.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06You've got a nice house, you want to have people round to your house,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10you will entertain them by feeding them and providing alcohol.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12The idea of having a drinks cabinet
0:42:12 > 0:42:15so that when people come round to your house
0:42:15 > 0:42:17you don't just have a rogue bottle of wine
0:42:17 > 0:42:21that you happened to have got from the supermarket that day,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24you've got a range of items which you can offer somebody
0:42:24 > 0:42:26according to their taste.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28The pretensions of the home drinks cabinet
0:42:28 > 0:42:30were excruciatingly satirised
0:42:30 > 0:42:33in Mike Leigh's comedy of manners, Abigail's Party.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37- Would you like a drink? - Yes, please.- What would you like?
0:42:37 > 0:42:42- Bacardi and coke, please.- Ice and lemon?- Yes, please.- Great. Angela?
0:42:42 > 0:42:46- Have you got gin?- Gin and tonic? - Please.- Ice and lemon?- Yes, please.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49Great. Laurence, would you like to get the drinks, please?
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Tony would like a Bacardi and coke
0:42:52 > 0:42:53with ice and lemon,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Angela would like gin and tonic with ice and lemon
0:42:56 > 0:43:00- and I'd like a little fill-up. OK? - Fine.- Thanks.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Not all drinking at home was quite so aspirational, though.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Women started to drink more in the house,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11and there would be a women's drinking party
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and my mum and her friends would come round
0:43:13 > 0:43:15and they would bring cans of beer
0:43:15 > 0:43:17and then they would sing
0:43:17 > 0:43:19really sad, sad...
0:43:19 > 0:43:22# A man broke my heart... #
0:43:22 > 0:43:24Those songs. And I used to think,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28"There must be happy songs. Abba's... Sing an Abba song." "No."
0:43:28 > 0:43:31It all had to be... # He broke...
0:43:31 > 0:43:34# Cos I'm crazy for feeling so blue. #
0:43:34 > 0:43:38And the woman sang these maudlin, sad, sad songs.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41There was one wee women I remember. She got up and sang...
0:43:41 > 0:43:43# Beneath the snowy mantle far away... #
0:43:43 > 0:43:47And all the women went, "There'd better be a death in this song."
0:43:50 > 0:43:54While the women were at home, the men were out,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58together, watching football and drinking.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06We would catch the train
0:44:06 > 0:44:08and we would arrive, as much as we could,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12to places in time for opening time.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Then we would drink, quite heavily,
0:44:14 > 0:44:18not so much me, cos I was more there as a mascot.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20I was much younger than them
0:44:20 > 0:44:23and certainly not the hardy drinker that the guys I was going with were.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26And for two, three, four hours before the match,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28they would drink steadily.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30They'd go to the game. At the game, it was possible
0:44:30 > 0:44:35to buy alcohol in most grounds in those days.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Then we would return. There would be drinking on the train,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and if we weren't travelling too far away, we'd get back in time
0:44:42 > 0:44:45for last orders and have a couple of nightcaps.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50And much like the unwritten codes of male drinking 30 years earlier,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54here, the young were being guided by the old.
0:44:55 > 0:45:01Going on these football trips was a fantastic rite of passage.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03It introduced me to drink in quite a gentle way.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06I personally was always looked after.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08I was not allowed to drink too much.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12There was always the firm metaphorical hand on my shoulder
0:45:12 > 0:45:15which would stop me from drinking and embarrassing everybody.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24But when those codes collapsed, the result was very ugly.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31I remember a time at Oldham when they played my team,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33Sheffield Wednesday, and there was a riot.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Sheffield Wednesday supporters have been banned
0:45:36 > 0:45:39from attending the club's next four away games following the riot
0:45:39 > 0:45:42at Oldham Athletic on September 6th.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44It was quite frightening.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47It was quite a frightening experience for everyone.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49There were an awful lot of arrests,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53and everyone arrested had been drinking.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55They weren't nasty people.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58They weren't particularly violent people.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01They were mild people who turned violent
0:46:01 > 0:46:04under the influence of alcohol,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08allied to the tribalism that football brings.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13In Glasgow, the problem was even worse.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16The Cup Final of 1980 between Celtic and Rangers
0:46:16 > 0:46:18would provide the breaking point.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23REPORTER: Celtic's fans, drawn mainly from Glasgow's Catholic population,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26stormed over the ineffective barricades onto the pitch
0:46:26 > 0:46:31to taunt Rangers' mainly Protestant supporters at the other end.
0:46:31 > 0:46:32They counter-attacked.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36The violence so close to the surface of this long rivalry spilled over
0:46:36 > 0:46:39into the worst football riot here in living memory.
0:46:43 > 0:46:48Football supporters play a big part in the drinking culture in Glasgow.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Every single time there was an Old Firm match,
0:46:51 > 0:46:52Rangers versus Celtic,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56domestic violence goes up by about 80% on those days.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58So, it's a frightening aspect.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01I'm sure I've got an ulcer somewhere to this day, worrying about it.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05The 1980 Scottish Cup Final
0:47:05 > 0:47:07would become famous as the match
0:47:07 > 0:47:12which led to a total match-day ban on alcohol in Scottish football.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17England would follow suit five years later.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Elsewhere, drinking patterns were changing.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27Young men with money in their pockets
0:47:27 > 0:47:28had a new drink of choice.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please.
0:47:37 > 0:47:38I'll have two pints of lager
0:47:38 > 0:47:41and a packet of crisps, and pickled onions
0:47:41 > 0:47:43and a bit of cheese, please, thank you.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46Lager exploded in about 1976
0:47:46 > 0:47:51from a very small base to start growing really rapidly,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55thanks mainly to the really funny TV adverts.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57But by the '80s, it wasn't just a new trend,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00it was becoming increasingly commonplace.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02It's what young men would go out and drink.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06It became a symbol of affluence, a symbol of a new generation.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Ever since the first attempts
0:48:10 > 0:48:13to introduce lager onto the mass market,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16it had been regarded as the enemy of beer.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20THEY CHANT: Save real beer! Save real beer!
0:48:20 > 0:48:23In its infancy, it was considered to be
0:48:23 > 0:48:27a foreign drop that wouldn't satisfy a man.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32It lacked all of the cultural associations of ale and bitter,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35and people were outright suspicious of it.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39But now young men were looking to distance themselves
0:48:39 > 0:48:40from the old traditions,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44and in crisp, fresh lager, they found the perfect fix.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48G'day. They're really nice people in this pub.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52If you don't fancy a pint of Foster's,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56they'll make you a nice mug of coffee.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59They were funny, they made you laugh. And they were irreverent.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01They referenced other advertising
0:49:01 > 0:49:04and in a way tore down the fourth wall
0:49:04 > 0:49:06between the viewer and the telly.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09It became part of our culture and part of our language.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11"Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach."
0:49:11 > 0:49:14"I bet he drinks Carling Black Label."
0:49:14 > 0:49:17These all entered the vernacular.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20I thought you had to wear a tie to get in here.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23In an age when image was everything,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26lager provided an identity for those who lacked one.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28It even gave them a new leader.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31'Life in a Bavarian forest was boring.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34'The big event was me and Ronnie Rabbit
0:49:34 > 0:49:36'watching a leaf fall down.'
0:49:36 > 0:49:38- A leaf! I saw a leaf!- Hey.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40'Then one day,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44'I discovered Hofmeister lager with a picture of my grandpa on it...'
0:49:44 > 0:49:48The advertisers did very detailed research
0:49:48 > 0:49:51into who their target audience was.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55It was young men of the drinking age, but only just,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58who were insecure, who liked to hang out in packs,
0:49:58 > 0:50:02and who wanted a leader who they could look up to.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04And then they formulated someone in a bear suit
0:50:04 > 0:50:06who would fulfil these aspirations.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09He was better at darts. He got the girls. "Follow the bear."
0:50:09 > 0:50:11'The moral is...'
0:50:11 > 0:50:15Being clearly identified with the other men in your pack
0:50:15 > 0:50:19was essential, creating a whole subculture of conformity.
0:50:19 > 0:50:20'Follow the bear.'
0:50:22 > 0:50:25When I've spoken to guys who go out drinking from that culture,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28they will say, "We go out, there are eight of us,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30"and we have eight bottles of Becks.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32"That's what we have. That's our round.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34"Sometimes, we might get adventurous
0:50:34 > 0:50:36"and have eight bottles of Bud instead."
0:50:36 > 0:50:38But no-one can break that group code.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41The difference between Bud and Becks is trifling to most of us,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45but these tiny differences take on huge significance in a culture
0:50:45 > 0:50:49where everything down to your cuff buttons is scrutinised
0:50:49 > 0:50:52and is a symbol of the pack that you're in.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Away from the conspicuous consumption of lager,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03in one of the country's most deprived areas,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06a form of extreme drinking was taking place.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12My husband and I ran this pub, and it was down in the East End,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15which is a wee bit different from where I was born.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18It was not a kind of pub where men dressed up in suits
0:51:18 > 0:51:21and came out for a sing-song. It was hardcore alcoholics.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23You were lucky if some of these men were dressed.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27It was just proper hardcore wine drinkers.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30And when I say wine, I don't mean, "Oh, that's a lovely rose."
0:51:30 > 0:51:34I mean, "If I don't drink this, I'll be drinking methylated spirits."
0:51:35 > 0:51:37The area had been run down, really run down.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41In fact, there was no street lighting at that point. I remember thinking,
0:51:41 > 0:51:47"This is like a post-apocalyptic scene from some movie."
0:51:47 > 0:51:51The tenements had all been pulled down. It was just broken streets,
0:51:51 > 0:51:56and this pub stood with nothing round it, no street lights.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58It might have been a time warp.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02WOMAN SINGS >
0:52:06 > 0:52:10# And now if you should see... #
0:52:10 > 0:52:13This was drinking to escape, drinking to forget.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15But even in these circumstances,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18it could take on a bizarrely exotic air.
0:52:20 > 0:52:21Babycham was a big hit.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25And it's a lethal combination - nobody knew it - brandy and Babycham.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Women thought that was a dinky drink to have.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Brandy and Babycham is easily like a Molotov cocktail.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Folk speak Spanish and don't remember their life
0:52:34 > 0:52:37after brandy and Babycham, yet people thought,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39"I'll have a wee brandy and Babycham."
0:52:39 > 0:52:42It was like, "Yeah, you might get pregnant,"
0:52:42 > 0:52:43but that was a crazy drink.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48There was a great trend for cocktails.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51They saw them in videos like Club Tropicana.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55# Club Tropicana, drinks are free
0:52:55 > 0:52:59# Fun and sunshine There's enough for everyone... #
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Every single '80s pop video had a woman with a cocktail
0:53:02 > 0:53:05or champagne glass, and everybody wanted to try it.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08So, what the marketeers did
0:53:08 > 0:53:12is they sent you a cocktail in a silver plastic bottle
0:53:12 > 0:53:14that you shook and poured.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18You weren't even allowed to make it yourself in case you got it wrong.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22And it was all very pink and grey and silver, with cherries,
0:53:22 > 0:53:23the wee cherry.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Women loved anything.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I suppose it's a sense of, "We can drink alcohol.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33"As long as it tastes like custard then it's fine."
0:53:45 > 0:53:47With the arrival of the 1990s,
0:53:47 > 0:53:49the mood of the country changed again,
0:53:49 > 0:53:54and with it, the drinking habits of young people.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56This time, the rules of drinking
0:53:56 > 0:54:00would be transformed beyond all recognition.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07The '90s was quite a hedonistic decade when we look back on it,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11not just with drink, but a lot of other things as well. In '93, '94,
0:54:11 > 0:54:13the amount we were drinking briefly plummeted
0:54:13 > 0:54:16as people were switching to recreational drugs.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18The whole ecstasy and rave culture
0:54:18 > 0:54:20had a massive impact on what we were drinking.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29The drinks industry countered that with alcopops,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32and started to get us onto spirits much earlier.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34There used to be this transition
0:54:34 > 0:54:37where you would start drinking something sweet, cider,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39lager and lime, lager and blackcurrant.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42Then you'd get onto bitter as you got more mature.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44In your 30s, you'd go onto wine and spirits.
0:54:44 > 0:54:49And suddenly you had people starting their drinking careers at 17, 18,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51drinking quite hard spirits
0:54:51 > 0:54:55and getting into big alcohol consumption a lot earlier.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Around '97, '98, you see the term "binge drinking"
0:54:58 > 0:55:00appearing in the press for the first time.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04MUSIC: "Cigarettes And Alcohol" by Oasis
0:55:04 > 0:55:06SIREN BLARES
0:55:09 > 0:55:12Now, the unwritten checks and balances
0:55:12 > 0:55:17that had governed British drinking for years were being discarded.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21This was over-indulgence on a scale not seen before,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25and it was happening on the high street.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28# Is it my imagination
0:55:28 > 0:55:35# Or have I finally found something worth living for? #
0:55:38 > 0:55:41I do remember, come the middle of the '90s,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43when I was editing the Independent on Sunday,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45we started to look then
0:55:45 > 0:55:48at the fact that drink was suddenly making a massive impact
0:55:48 > 0:55:54on society in a public way, and in ways that it had never done before.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02The boast when I was a teenager was,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05"Oh, I can have ten pints and still walk in a straight line."
0:56:05 > 0:56:08The thing that changed in the late '90s
0:56:08 > 0:56:10was glorifying drunken excess
0:56:10 > 0:56:12and actually being cool if you're on the floor,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15puking your guts up. Don't know where that came from.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18# ..make it happen
0:56:18 > 0:56:21# You gotta make it happen
0:56:21 > 0:56:24# You've gotta make it happen... #
0:56:24 > 0:56:28The ugly side to British drinking had always been kept locked away.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31Now it was right there in front of us.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38Roughly 10% of any society has some degree of problem with alcohol,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42and roughly 5% of a society is alcoholic.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44That seems to be true in most countries,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48and probably is the figure that is true and has remained true.
0:56:48 > 0:56:49What's happened is that
0:56:49 > 0:56:54that 10% is in your face now. It's visible.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57But for all the bad behaviour
0:56:57 > 0:57:00that seems the modern face of British drinking,
0:57:00 > 0:57:05we might not be the nation of excessive drinkers we think we are.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09The real extent of our alcohol intake is quite unexpected.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13People are drinking about the same
0:57:13 > 0:57:16as they did at the turn of the 20th century.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18We drink now about what we did in 1900.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20It's gone through a great dip in the middle.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30For 100 years,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34our relationship with alcohol has been constantly changing.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38We've run the gauntlet with measures to curb our drinking.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42We fought for our country when the barrels were nearly dry.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46We've had rows about who should drink, and what they should drink.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51We've travelled the globe looking for new tastes.
0:57:51 > 0:57:57We've drunk at home, and at work, drunk to remember, and to forget.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01And at the end of all that, we're right back where we started,
0:58:01 > 0:58:05drinking what we did 100 years ago.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14I think that we often focus on the downsides of alcohol.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18But actually, for various people at various points in their lives,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21it is very pleasurable.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23It's a really pleasurable thing to do,
0:58:23 > 0:58:29and it can take you to a place that you don't otherwise go,
0:58:29 > 0:58:31which is sometimes a nice place to go!
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:58 > 0:59:01E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk