When comic Dan faced up to Tony

DAN Atkinson has vowed not to go for a weekend night out in York again.

Unhappily he is not the first to do so. Many older residents regard the night-time city centre as a no-go zone, fearing unpleasant encounters with crowds of boorish drinkers.

But Dan is only 25.

If a man his age considers York too nasty, aggressive and downright dangerous to visit after sundown, then this city is in real trouble.

What makes it so bad? Those two words that now go together like gin and tonic - binge drinking.

"It's a problem spiralling out of control," said Dan over a coffee at City Screen. "Vomiting, urinating, thuggery and the like - all these things I have seen at first hand."

He stresses that he is a liberal, not some rule-bound reactionary. His philosophy: let people do what they wish, within reason - so long as it does not impinge on others' well-being.

Those who drink so much they throw up and urinate on the street, or shout abuse or assault others, erode everyone else's right to an enjoyable, safe night out.

Neither is Dan a teetotal spoilsport. "I am delighted to have a bottle of wine to myself some evenings," says the stand-up comedian who runs York's weekly comedy club The Other Side.

But "the gratuitous and aggressive marketing by drinks companies", with happy hours and other cut-price promotions, encourages people to become as drunk as possible. York is scarred by the results.

He has now taken the problem to the top. On Sunday, Channel 4 viewers can watch Dan berate Prime Minister Tony Blair about his Government's ambivalent attitude to binge drinking.

It is part of an hour-long programme Tony And June, a commendable attempt to bring mainstream politics to a young audience. In another segment, presenter June Sarpong spends 24 hours in the company of the Prime Minister. Short films on issues of importance to young people are followed by a studio debate in which Tony Blair is given a grilling over his policies.

A Warrington skateboarder tackles him on sex education, and a teenager who wanted to join the marines hits out at the Iraq war.

Dan's contribution is to contrast "sleepy, picturesque" daytime York with the monster he believes it becomes at night. He was asked to take part by researchers who dug up an article he wrote for the Evening Press's sister publication, YO1, berating our city's drink problem.

His film is not a pretty sight, and will give York's tourist bosses palpitations.

Dan and a TV crew spent the last Saturday night before Christmas on patrol with York police. Micklegate drinkers were filmed outlining their plans to "go out, drink as many intoxications as possible and I don't know where we'll end up".

Some end up vomiting in doorways, some are prone on the pavement, others swear or become physically aggressive.

Although he had encountered the binge brigade before, Dan was still taken aback by their behaviour.

"This opened my eyes. I had been out in York at night a couple of times working, and I would try to avoid trouble, looking down.

"When you go looking for it, you would be surprised by what goes on.

"I have been known to exaggerate for comedic effect from time to time, so I imagined I had just created the worst scenario in my mind.

"But it's all true. I was astonished."

For the police, it wasn't a particularly bad shift. Fridays tend to be more unpleasant than Saturdays, they told Dan, and the previous night they had made so many arrests that they filled the police cells at York, Selby and throughout North Yorkshire - a fact we reported under the headline "Black Friday".

That night was a turning point for the comedian whose shaggy hair and beard make him a target for drunken abuse.

"I will not be going out again in York at the weekend," Dan said. "Even if there's a play on, if it comes out at 11 o'clock I won't risk it."

At least it provided him with some new material to use in his act. His observations on binge drinking went down well at a gig in Bath, also filmed for the programme. His set included some jokes inspired by a now infamous Evening Press photograph of two drunken women, one being sick, the other kissing a beggar.

To complete his role in the show Dan travelled to London last week to take part in a studio debate with Tony Blair. He came away impressed with the PM.

"He's down to earth, easy to talk to, clearly very clever."

Dan questioned Mr Blair over why his Government accepts binge drinking is a serious problem, yet is pressing ahead with 24-hour licensing. That reform should be delayed until the problem is under control, Dan argues.

"The whole 24-hour licensing could be good. But what we know now is there's a problem with binge drinking.

"Why can't we wait until we see some credible reduction in anti-social behaviour before going for 24-hour drinking?

"The gesture seems like a reward to the drinks industry, as they're going to profit and sell more booze."

And he can't imagine the new law will transform York into a laid back, Mediterranean-style city. "Twenty-four hour licensing isn't going to make us more cosmopolitan. There's nothing cosmopolitan about being sick."

Acknowledging that there are plans for more police and tougher penalties for both binge drinkers and the pubs who serve them, he would like to see more emphasis on prevention rather than cure.

That would mean cracking down on a drinks industry which targets young people with strong booze at a time when alcohol costs effectively half what it did in the 1970s.

With Dan's film, Britain will see a glimpse of an altogether more unsavoury York than the famed tourist trail of Minster, walls and museums. Should we really be exposing this to the nation?

"I have filmed the worst side to York," said Dan. "I am not denying there's a nice side to York - I live here, I have no desire to leave.

"But I do think it's a shame that I feel too intimidated to go out in the evenings."

Tony And June is on Channel 4 this Sunday at 1pm

Updated: 09:47 Friday, January 28, 2005