All three had the same reaction: they closed the book, looked at me and said something along the lines of: “Yep, that’s you. There’s not anyone who has ever been drunk, who wouldn’t be able to go, “Yeah, I lost a day to a hangover. At the conclusion of the second session he said, as I remember it, that he thought I probably had ADD – that’s ADHD minus the hyperactivity bit – but the medication might conflict with the stuff I take for hypertension, so it would need some thought. After university, while waiting for his broken leg to heal from an amateur football incident, he applied for and failed both Civil Service exams, before being asked to apply for MI5 — he failed the second interview.

Chiles started his education at Haybridge High School, and then worked in his father's scaffolding business, before graduating with a degree in English literature from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London). Getting through a few morning pints isn’t the same as the lads he knows who get stuck into the Sambuca. A merchant banker friend of mine told me how the head of a pharmaceutical firm had waxed lyrical to him about the huge commercial opportunities presented by the wider diagnosis of ADD and ADHD. I said if there was a party across the road now with 100 of my best friends in it, I wouldn’t be looking forward to it if I knew I wasn’t going to be allowed to have a drink there. AC: I wish someone had told me – no, I’m blaming other people – I wish I’d been intelligent enough as a teenager to hear: alcohol is a drug, it is addictive, it can lead you into problems and, above all, it’s not the be-all and end-all.

Yet while the alcohol industry depends on a minority of problem drinkers, the majority really do enjoy in moderation.

John Robins: I think my ears pricked up when you talked about moderation, because it was my obsession, for six years.The stories of a varied cast of avid West Bromwich Albion supporters whom Chiles met over the course of the 2005–06 season, at the end of which the team was relegated from the Premier League. On 23 November 2009, Chiles released a 2 Good 2 Bad: The World Cup DVD based on the popular segment from Match of the Day 2.

As a radio presenter Adrian currently hosts Question Time Extra Time and Chiles on Friday, both on 5live. The show failed to capture a larger market share than its competitor Breakfast, and on 18 November 2011 it was announced that Chiles would be axed from the show. On 7 May 2008, his co-presenter on The One Show, Christine Lampard, sang part of a song with Chiles accompanying on piano. His journalistic training and love of football resulted in his presenting business programmes such as Working Lunch and The Money Programme as well as sports programmes like Match of the Day 2. This, Anita and the psychiatrist both said, was absurd thinking: the pills were just getting me up to the same operating level as everyone else.Viner was raised in Yorkshire and went to Ripon Grammar School, so the pair spend a lot of time in Yorkshire. Robins – whose new comedy show Howl explores his relationship with alcohol and his journey into sobriety – was experimenting with drinking in moderation; Chiles was writing his book, The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less. Adrian interviews John in the hardback, and they’re both enthusiastic, freshly minted moderate drinkers. In January 2018, he was moved to Fridays only and the title was changed to Chiles on Friday, with Emma Barnett hosting from Monday to Thursday under the title The Emma Barnett Show, although the content remains essentially the same.