'Best: His Mother's Son' Review

This drama was a different take on the George Best phenomenon. It was a look at his mother, Ann Best’s, seemingly unstoppable decline from perfect housewife to alcoholic.
We have been told thousands of times of the excesses of George Best’s life so it was interesting to see where his ruinous nature may have come from.
The drama begins five years after George had left the family home in Belfast to join Manchester United Football Club. His parents and five siblings are seen struggling to cope with George’s increasing fame. Reporters constantly harass them, camping outside their home and forcing them to change phone numbers regularly.
Whilst putting on a brave face, we start to see Ann crack up. Originally teetotal, she begins to seek comfort in the bottom of a sherry bottle and before long her decline is such that she is sneakily drinking bottles in pub toilets.
Whilst the accuracy of these events cannot be confirmed as the three main characters of George and his parents are now dead, the poignancy of the events is compelling and the acting by Tom Barr (George) and Michelle Fairley (Ann) is particularly good.
The design team also seems to have enjoyed making this drama as the props and décor are exactly what you would expect of early 1970s Belfast and the archive clips of real football games and interviews are periodically mixed in to give perspective and authenticity.
Ann Best died from alcohol related illness in 1978 aged 54, 5 years after the end of this drama was set and 5 years younger than George was when he died (aged 59 in 2005) which is probably why this story seemed so compelling and why the lessons learnt from it feel so real.
Stephen McShane