COLERAINE actress Michelle Fairley has landed a role in a factual drama about how alcoholism destroyed the life and career of football legend George Best.
Michelle Fairley, who appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in movie The Others, will take on the role of Best's mother.
Best, which is being aired in the Spring, also reveals how Best's mother Anne was afflicted by the disease.
Actor Tom Payne, who a
ppeared in BBC One drama Waterloo Road, will play the former Manchester United winger.
Best, who had a liver transplant as he battled the effects of alcoholism, died in 2005 aged 59.
Payne, 26, said he was "excited and honoured to the playing the role of footballing hero and icon George Best".
George Best is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time
The film, which is set in Manchester and Belfast during the 1960s and 1970s, is billed as a "sensitive study of the impact of alcoholism".
Executive producer Nick Mirsky said: "George Best is the most charismatic footballer the UK has ever produced, but he's also our most famous victim of alcoholism."
He called Belfast-based television dramatist Terry Cafolla's script "deeply sympathetic, through which you can really understand the effect of alcohol not only on George, but his mother and indirectly the rest of the family".
The film will be screened as part of the BBC's Headroom initiative, a rolling offering of programmes and online content to raise awareness of mental health issues.
Michelle will also appear in Brian Friel's Olivier award-winning play, Dancing at Lughnasa at The Old Vic in London in February in its first West End production since its premiere in 1990.
Anna Mackmin will direct an outstanding cast including Niamh Cusack, Susan Lynch and in her London stage debut, Andrea Corr.
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