The 90-minute factual drama - Best - is described as a `frank account' of his alcoholism.

Due to be screened on BBC2 next spring, it will also show how the same illness affected George's mother Anne. Filming began in Belfast this week. The production is set both there and in Manchester in the Sixties and Seventies.

Rising star Tom Payne - student Brett Aspinall in Rochdale-filmed Waterloo Road - will play the late Reds and Northern Ireland star. He said: "I'm excited and honoured to be playing the role."

Hailed as one of the greatest footballers ever to play the game, George died in 2005 - three years ago this week - at the age of 59 from multiple organ failure after a long battle with the booze.

Belfast boy George's late mother will be played by Michelle Fairley, whose previous credits include Salford-filmed BBC1 drama The Street.

Former Cracker star Lorcan Cranitch takes on the role of George's father Dickie Best, who died this year, aged 88.

Belfast-based writer Terry Cafolla has created a fictional account based on real-life events to chart the once teetotal Anne Best's descent into alcoholism, at the same time as her son's rise to football fame.

The BBC says the `carefully crafted' film will be `a sensitive study' of alcoholism.

Members of George's family were told about the production before it went ahead.

Best will be screened with the support of the BBC's Headroom initiative -an offering of programmes and online content raising awareness about mental health issues.

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