Best Of CBB: Michael discusses battling alcoholism

Michael Barrymore was a controversial entrant on Celebrity Brother 4. The tabloid press had fallen out of love with comic and he had been off TV screens for a number of years. The Strike It Lucky host seemed on edge during his stay in the house, but his openness about his failings endeared him to the public, who voted him into second place.

Michael has opened up about the battle with alcoholism that almost destroyed his life.

Even though he has now been sober for almost five years, the star still won't allow himself to have the occasional drink.

"Deep down, every alcoholic would love to be able to do what everybody else does and have a nice glass of wine when they want it but they can't," he told Rula in an early morning chat. "One's too many and a thousand isn't enough."

He continued: "People say to me 'you haven't had a drink for four-and-a-half years, surely you can have one?' I can't. I might get away with it for about six months, a year.. then slowly it'll start creeping back and the amounts [I drink] will start going up."

He went on to admit that he would often try to knock off rehearsals early so he could begin drinking at the pub as early as possible. "It's a progressive disease with a physical response," he explained, but added that he never suffered from hangovers.

"When people have got problems in life, they might go 'give us a gin' but they don't go 'I'll have 8, 9, 10 gins to solve my problem', they deal with it," he mused. "They deal with life on life's terms. Alcoholics and addicts don't - they do it by blocking the problems out."