Drinking Yourself to Death

In this urgent, important film for Channel 4’s Dispatches strand, Deborah Davies and producer Charlie Hawes reveal that top doctors believe Britain faces a liver disease epidemic within 15 years that the Health Service will be incapable of handling.

Using technology not yet available to the NHS, the team found that fifty per cent of people they tested in two cities had liver damage – doctors expected the figure to be just five per cent.

As drink gets cheaper, stronger and more readily available Drinking Yourself to Death paints a grim picture of a nation under the influence.

It reveals a government unwilling to confront the power of the supermarket and drinks industries, and exposes how those industries have blocked proposals that might avert the crisis. The film caused headlines in many major UK newspapers.

"Alcohol binges risk epidemic of liver disease"
- Daily Telegraph

"deadly epidemic of liver disease among middle-class tipplers - and why the Government is cynically ignoring it"
- Daily Mail

"50 per cent damage their livers by drinking"
- The Sun

"Half of us have damaged liver by drink"
- The Express