Go Gently with the drink
GEORGE Gently star Martin Shaw says Indian spiritualism saved him from demon drink.
The 64-year-old said he was consuming more than half a bottle of whisky a day but became teetotal and embraced vegetarianism and meditation long before he became a star in 1970s drama The Professionals.
He told Desert Island Discs that hard drinking was a "badge of office" among fellow actors when he was learning the craft. "At one point I was ill, and the theatre people sent me to see an eminent Harley Street physician. He prodded my spleen and asked me 'How much do you drink?' and I lied and said 'Half a bottle of Scotch a day'. It was considerably more."
He stopped drinking in 1970. "I discovered a spiritual path which is still the centre of my life, which involved teetotalism, meditation and so on."
• Shaw is on Desert Island Discs, Radio 4, today, 11.15am.
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