A DOCUMENTARY featuring former government spokesman Alastair Campbell has confirmed the fears of NHS chiefs about the risks being posed to wine drinkers in East Lancashire.

Mr Campbell, who is on the board of Burnley’s University College of Football Business, has examined the increasing numbers of middle-class ‘functioning alcoholics’ for a BBC Panorama documentary.

Last night’s BBC One show included footage filmed in Burnley and an interview with former Clarets defender Clarke Carlisle.

And with leading medics insisting Britain is in the grip of an alcohol ‘crisis’, he discovered it is not only those in the gutter who are left clutching a bottle.

Last August the Lancashire Telegraph revealed the ‘hidden’ toll being inflicted by wine-drinkers in wealthier areas like Simonstone, Sabden and Clitheroe.

Those enjoying a regular after-work tipple were risking heart disease and lowering their IQ levels by up to 50 points.

Mr Campbell had his own battle with booze in the mid-80s, while working for the Daily Mirror, and knows how easily drink can become part and parcel of a professional working life.

“I think a lot of people who have a drink problem are very good at hiding it,” added the ex-spin doctor, who quit drinking in 1986.

He interviewed former colleague Anne Robinson for the programme, who confesses that at the time Fleet Street was a ‘sea of alcohol’.

In the show Mr Campbell also visitded Clouds House, a specialist alcohol rehab centre in Wiltshire, which has treated thousands of patients, and meets doctor, lawyers and actors with similar problems.

Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance, added: “From the perspective of a clinician, we are currently in the middle of a crisis.”

Latest figures show that Burnley has one of the worst rates for hospital admissions involving alcohol-related harm in the country.

The documentary was broadcast last night and is now available on the BBC’s I-Player service online.