Australian Penthouse

Director: Colin Barr

Stars: Michelle Fairley, Tom Payne, Laura Donnelly, Lisa Hogg, Lorcan Cranitch

ROADSHOW/ABC DVD

WHEN George Best left Northern Ireland to play for English football giants Manchester United in the early 1960s, nobody was prepared for the level of fame he would achieve. Factual drama His Mother’s Son focuses on the effect it had on George’s mum Ann.

Already struggling to cope with three children aged under five, Ann (Fairley) begins to feel disconnected from the world around her and can’t quite understand the intense press interest in George (Payne) as he leads United to one stunning success after another, becoming the world’s first soccer celebrity in the process. A tee-totaller until the age of 40, Ann starts drinking and quickly spirals into alcoholism. Tragically, George is on a parallel path of booze-fuelled self-destruction and it doesn’t end well for either of them.

His Mother’s Son presents a side to the George Best story that’s rarely been explored in film and the acting is excellent, particularly from Michelle Fairley, whose transformation from loving matriarch to alcoholic zombie is as startling as it is unsettling. A cautionary tale if ever there was one.