‘I was in a terrible state’: actor David Morrissey tells how social anxiety led him to alcoholism

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Liverpool-born actor says depression and anxiety followed death of his father when he was 15

The actor David Morrissey has spoken of how “terrible” social anxiety contributed to him becoming an alcoholic.

“I am a recovering alcoholic,” Morrissey, who has been sober for 21 years, told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “Drinking first was about anxiety. I’ve had this terrible social anxiety and that helped me get through it.”

He said he started drinking in his teenage years after the death of his father and then “in my adult life, I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t drinking to be convivial. I was on my own in the pub. That was really hard and very hard for my ex-wife and people around me.”

Morrissey, 61, is regarded as one of the UK’s most versatile actors whose many TV, film and stage roles have included the ruthless, monstrous Governor in The Walking Dead, Gordon Brown in The Deal and a dedicated detective in James Graham’s Sherwood.