Saving Ed Mitchell (2008) (380p)

in this sort of climate a recovering shares in London recognize this face it once belonged to one of the Rising Stars of TV news I would say he was a golden boy he had it all he looked marvelous I mean he actually had before a chair really really good looks the sort the camera loves but fast forward 20 years and Ed Mitchell is frightening proof of how drink can destroy lives he's lost his job his marriage his home and his self-respect and I want to get back to being true to myself he's now been given a final chance to turn his life around but can a man who had it all then threw it away really be saved I'm Carol Barnes for 27 years I was a reporter a news reader for itn Citizens Advice bureaux say so many people are now coming to them with debt problems when the Chancellor stops here to pose for photographs ed Mitchell was once one of my colleagues talented handsome and seemingly destined for big things so much is expected of him because his fortunate financial position our paths separated in 1988 and I hadn't seen ed since but then just before Christmas this photo of us together appeared in the newspapers Edie was back in the media spotlight but for all the wrong reasons night after night in the last five six weeks that has been down here I should I'd never thought it would come to this you do learn basics which is get some very good dry cardboard get a damn good sleeping bag you sleep with one eye open because you never know what might come your way in my case I've got to say that a good night's sleep is waking up alive after losing his own home over a year ago ed had gone to live with his ailing mother but tired of his drinking she told him to leave he'd been sleeping all this seafront bench in Brighton for six weeks with each evening bringing anxiety and nightmares is it really Christmas Eve I did find it cold and then truth be known I'd rather be somewhere else but I woke up alive and that's all as a bonus is no the story of its spectacular fall from TV star to homeless alcoholic had shocked me more than most I wanted to find out how it all happened so on Christmas Eve our set out to find Edie it's a difficult way to sleep but it really was the only alternative the only way forward and you're sleeping on this bench just it's appearance may have changed since we work together but some characteristics haven't these figures by themselves do not in the 80s TV newsrooms had their share of hard drinkers but even then ads habit stood out more sophisticated punter ed Mitchell News at Ten the city I've seen you think drink in the morning no that's not normal even in those days not normal but not unknown and yes of course I I've confessed to the fact that I had a drink problem broadcasting live you must know this makes you a bit nervous it produces adrenaline and one way of self-medicating is to actually use alcohol to make you see more extrovert and secondly to bring you down from the last broadcast that you made did you feel then that you needed a drink to get through the live broadcast good lord yes everybody who worked close to him became aware after a time that he had a drink problem I don't know how much he had to drink before he fell over but he was drinking an awful lot but however bad Ed's habit was then it's far worse now he drinks around a hundred and fifty units of alcohol a week that's 75 pints of beer 16 bottles of wine or four litre bottles of vodka I'm going to say after a night on the streets the one thing I do look forward to is actually having a drink in the morning currently anyway but this is the first stop cheap booze and close to where I sleep ironically the park bench where he does sleep is just around the corner from here the house he once shared with his wife Judy son Freddie and daughter Alex as dad how was he with the children those days he was marvelous wonderful I know he was totally involved with him when they were babies and toddlers and we had great family outings we're always doing things at the weekend or was out in the country or having picnics then you know things couldn't have been better but trouble was stirring although earning around a hundred thousand pounds a year Edie was spending much of it on drinking gambling the debts started to mount I mean the whole problem actually began fairly slowly fairly slowly one or two credit cards I was actually paying the mortgage on credit cards at that stage did have twenty five credit cards and the minimum eventually turned out to be about a thousand per month on each and it did build up to a debt of about two hundred and fifty thousand quarter of a million and then Ed's debts finally forced the family to sell the house in 2003 over the next three years they moved to rented accommodation and downsized again in a desperate bid to stave off bankruptcy I just thought if I just kept up the facade I would actually escape from the problems that I knew responsibly and knowledgeably were there I mean the stress is enormous you know I wasn't sleeping I was waking up screaming I was relying on alcohol to keep me going it was awful what would he do when he was drunk he was he was run over he had accident he collapsed at a station in London and had to have his clothes cut off in by the ambulance crew looking back now I can see all the symptoms that were there the blackouts the falling over the broken ankles the traffic accidents that I had smashing myself up in sports cars lost weekend's you know that ought to have been a warning signal and I didn't think it at the time because I thought it was actually perfectly normal I think the words I would connect with Ed and drink or that he saw it as an old friend that's what he used to say indeed by the standards of sanera cos vows Mitchell ITN down next Raiders but Chancellor's have had to face worse problems it's marriage may have been increasingly affected by alcohol but in the early 90s his career seemed to go from strength to strength after he'd been at IIT and he went back to the BBC and I was watching one of their main bulletins i ned was presenting it the headlines this Friday morning a brothel Kali he really has got it all he's really terrific and do everything and now he's there presenting that this could be his career because that's that's the best job in the building good morning and a warm welcome to business breakfast with business news from around the world but behind the scenes drink was rapidly taking over its whole life losing and losing the thread here and that promising career was to crumble it was very traumatic to have been sacked by the BBC he attempted to go on air having had too much to drink and it was obviously a drink too far because he must have gone on air loads of times lot oh all right that's completely wrong yeah in a letter sent down by a motor cyclist a courier came round with a letter it was a absolutely ghastly well I'm going to collapse on the deck chair on brighton seafront and that's all from business breakfast for now hello and welcome to Idi read on drinking and other jobs would end in similar fashion my style of broadcasting they didn't really like it executive vice president of surrenders over though it's probably beyond my pocket and I certainly wouldn't get my Dalmatian in the back of it and I've got absolutely monstrously pissed and decided stupidly to go back and tell the editor that she was entirely unsuited to her job and them yes that led swiftly to my exit from the company the professional and personal descent accelerated and unable to find work Ed's alcoholism worsened Judy eventually divorced him and had to move to a flat in the local area it hasn't worked properly since 2000 always happy Christmas oh thank you very much very keen on recycling he now lives on 52 pounds a week Jobseeker's Allowance most of it spent on alcohol I think today smell of shall I tell you what the truth is about this is that vodka is the best of all drinks because it hits the spot that much more quickly there are times when I would actually swim out to sea with a bottle of vodka and I float on my back I think this is the most magical magical moment vodka through your bloodstream looking over the sky thinking of nothing except the freedom of the soul when looking up into the blueness depending on the tide it was a close-run thing whether I ever got back to the shore throughout their early childhood as children Freddie and Alex looked up to their father now adults themselves they've tried and failed to recreate the relationship they once had I feel like I've lost the dad I used to know in love I feel like I've lost that life and I'm never going to get her back which is quite hard for me really I can't help him anymore I can encourage him I can stick by him support him but it's down to him Ed's time is running out as an advanced alcoholic he's no longer able to eat properly and his liver is close to collapse I had my drinking by being secretive and any alcoholic out there will know that you have to create a private life the thing about creating a private life to cover up your drinking is that you're not true to yourself and if you're not true to yourself then you're not really a real person and that's the awful thing is that you actually lie to yourself you lie to yourself and you no longer exist as a real you know bloop you no longer exist is a real person to yourself and the only thing that matters everything matters is the true to yourself and I want to get back to be true to myself as Christmas Eve draws to a close Brighton shoppers buy their last-minute presents and head home Edie has a choice to either sleep on his normal park bench or head for a homeless persons refuge the night shelters are actually not a not that I'm being picky or choosy but it's not a very nice place to stay violence screaming I'm going to say from my point of view unless the temperature falls to a certain level over a certain period of time I'd rather be out in the cold in the open area from in that sort of atmosphere but as the December temperature drops Edie decides it may be more comfortable indoors have you got me a room accommodation tonight at all yeah we've got the night cafe open tonight this is not a room it's just a bed in a hall with okay that's enough hangover 1388 and neutral though my soul may sit in darkness it will rise in perfect light for I blood the star so fondly I will never be fearful of the night it is a piece of poetry littlez kept me going I got through the night and it was awful absolutely awful they don't think that someone like me can be homeless but I am homeless and that's it they're Street tramps they're violent people and I was last night threatened with violence well they're gonna beat me up they're gonna you know I'm getting to a low of course you know that you know that don't you once Edie would have spent Christmas with his family this year the day will be shared with his drinking buddies and his new partner Mandy I met Mandy bubbling in home she does have a the occasional taste for the liquor which is something we shared Merry Christmas to everyone and a happy new another marathon drinking session begins you get barbecue okay alcohol is such a devious molecule I mean it really actually locks into your brain and it it makes you do things that you wouldn't normally do Fred's family there are echoes of Christmases past we gave up having dinner parties and people ran for dinner because it was just far too much she with he was a liability you can't you can't possibly be holy it was pretty bad over several Christmases he was he was unpredictable and totally unreliable would disappear for days and then come back try to look after him everybody don't I just dunno he's getting a little bit of beard on man don't you forget his he told me so many times he hated what drink did to him he hated drink but it was always like an old friend and hated doing and he drank mouthwash and had alcohol in it he was so desperate even my daughter Alex she said why are you still with him for God's sake leave he's never going to change this is as low as a person can get alkyl ism gets a grip on you to the point where it actually changes your life and ruins your life I don't give a f--- anymore I don't go a penny more ruins your life I don't give up 30 more tell me more the following morning Edie wakes up with little knowledge of what happened the day before what he does know is that he's destroying his life and if it's carried out I'd be dead why honestly I'd be dead dead I mean you can't sweet rough night after night without your health deteriorating we can't come it will kill you following Ed's life over the past few days has been distressing and unnerving but I'm not the only one who's been moved by his story former alcoholic and cocaine addict Dan butcher is founder of an addiction support group I was sitting in my brother's house I read an article in the mail on Sunday and saw a picture of somebody that I recognized lying on a park bench and I was shocked to see that it was a DES had interviewed me some years ago on CNBC he's lost his career he's lost his family he's lost everything and just felt compelled that I had had to try and help dan has offered a presenting job on the recovery networks new TV channel the only proviso is he must accept their offer of rehab at the Priory first this is a lifeline Edie can't afford to throw away my main motivation is selfish I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired but another motivation is to win back the respect of my children the alcoholic hopes that they never hurt someone but in truth they do I just hope that I have woken up and I'm not in denial and for all those that have been hurt I say well I'm sorry it has been in rehab before in 1997 he dried out and was sober for ten months before eventually going back to the bottle why would you promise to your young son that you're going to get better you're gonna get better and then do it countless times and you look at me crying looking into my saying this is this is it this is the time on that I end it and so when he'd drink again then you know I mean what were you supposed to think really because you don't have much hope for him I do think it affected them a lot Alex became very sullen and introverted and Fred just glued himself on as a computer with his headphones on escaped that way I wrote to him in a letter the other day which I hope he's read which is take this chance you know you probably won't be offered another one do it do it for yourself and do it for Freddie and Alex and view for me as well I'll be happy feet on sale as 2007 draws to a close the possibility of a new life for ED beckons his admission to the Priory is imminent but the success of his treatment is by no means guaranteed alcoholism is fundamentally a disease of the brain and it's a survival technique and people use and then abuse substances and in Ed's case alcohol so the point where the brain without it is a very scary place if you're elapses got to bid how long is he going to survive potentially not very long I've worked with people whose liver functions are so diminished that another drink will kill them and edits very likely one of these people I have had this long love affair with alcohol and I'm having to say goodbye and mmm I'm having to say goodbye to it that which has become my enemy but also say goodbye I think to some people that I could perhaps no longer be with it's daunting but it's also quite exciting because there'll be a hell of a relief to say goodbye to drinking and that sort of lifestyle Edd's descent into addiction and illness has been a tragic and terrifying journey but he's not a no in Britain it's estimated that one in 20 that's 3 million people are our products Fred the next journey could be even tougher can he become a man who no longer has to have a drink in his hand to face the day traditionally no one goes into the Priory sober so I'm just going to have my am last slurp of the demon booze and that's it - bye if it doesn't work this time then that's the end if you have or think that you may have a drink problem contact Alcoholics Anonymous on Oh 8 four five seven six nine seven five five five addicts or anyone affected by addiction can find support online from the recovery network at wwt RN t vo UK you

Channel: The Documentary Channel 109

Views: 95,477

Keywords: yt:stretch=16:9, ed mitchell, ed mitchell itv, Alcoholism (Disease Or Medical Condition), intervention, carol barnes itv

Id: TnKOhVrMBKY

Length: 26min 19sec (1579 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 26 2015