THE life story of a Bewdley man who lost everything through alcoholism and bounced back to found Britain's biggest treatment centre for the addiction is set to be turned into a multi-million pound movie biopic.

The big screen version of Nick Charles's autobiography is tipped to hit cinemas in 2006 and will document the fall and rise of the teenaged carpet apprentice who wound up homeless on the streets of London, only to return as a celebrated MBE with a roster of rock star friends.

The producer behind the £20 million movie - to be called The Spirit Healer - said he could not contain his enthusiasm for the project and predicted it would be "the biggest box office hit this country has ever seen".

Roy Vernon, from Manchester-based Landon Productions, said: "I do not believe this man was meant to live and now he has founded the Chaucer Clinic I am beginning to believe that he was supposed to live and pass on his experiences.

"It will, without doubt, be the biggest box office success this country has ever seen. It will absolutely dwarf The Full Monty - this will be a worldwide hit."

The Spirit Healer will tell the story of 59-year-old Nick's early life as the son of a Bewdley police sergeant, through to his early career in the music industry and his descent into suicide attempts, sleeping rough and violence after his fateful first drink, in a Bewdley pub, aged 17.

One of the most touching scenes of film will see Nick return to the former Thomas Bond Worth - later Carpets of Worth - factory in Stourport to meet up with old work-mate, Dave Floyd, on the eve of the building being demolished.

Mr Charles - who was the first person to be honoured by the Queen for "services to people with alcohol problems" - said he wanted the picture to be a therapeutic journey for alcoholics and an eye-opener for moviegoers.

He said: "I hope it will help alcoholics with terrible problems. They will see my story and think if I can get better then anybody can. Every penny I get from it will go into the clinic.

"As a whole, it will actually make a lot of difference to the way people perceive alcoholics and the way they abuse it. The whole question of alcohol abuse will be seen quite differently."

Mr Charles opened The Chaucer Clinic in 1989 and was awarded the MBE in 1996. His autobiography, Through A Glass Brightly, followed two years later, to widespread acclaim.

He receives up to 1,300 e-mails a week about the clinic, in Southall, Middlesex. The clinic has attracted donations from music stars, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

I woke up in sewer and saw the light

THERE was a moment when Nick Charles realised enough was enough - a moment which is set to be a pivotal scene in the movie version of his life, The Spirit Healer.

He told the Shuttle/Times and News: "I was sleeping in a sewer and I woke up and saw the sunlight through this manhole cover. The sun was reflecting off something - a knife in my stomach.

"As I lifted my head up I saw two rats eating the congealed blood around the blade."

That was 1974 and was instrumental in helping him kick his drinking habit for good.

Nick Charles had been through the mill - an alcoholic by his early twenties, he was reduced to living under Charing Cross Viaduct after his drinking cost him a shot at his one true love - music.

At the tender age of 15, he was in Stourport group, The Zodiacs, and was encouraged to move to London.

Life in the capital was promising. He rubbed shoulders with legendary producer, Joe Meek, and sang with The Roger Laverne Combo, who eventually hit the big time as The Tornadoes with the vocal-less smash Telstar.

Yet he was haunted by his addiction to drink.

He said: "My marriage ended and everything was in tatters. I got to the end of the road when I was in Kidderminster. I bought a stack of spirits and lay down in a cave on the Rifle Range. Some days later, I came to and found I was still alive. Then I heard a train and decided to crawl there.

"I laid across the railway line and poured the last of a bottle of whisky down me to get unconscious and that was it."

The train never came but it was enough to push him over the edge and into Powick Mental Hospital, near Worcester. He left for London within weeks.

The past behind him, Mr Charles - whose actual surname is Miller - has not lost his fondness for Wyre Forest. He returned to Stourport this year to play music with old Thomas Bond Worth workmate, Dave Floyd, who has revived a career in music with a new CD, Always In My Heart, on Maestro Records.

Mr Charles has also returned to the creative arts with a book painfully close to home. Entitled Nikki . . . all about secrets, it tells the story of a woman who ensured homelessness, alcoholism and physical and mental abuse.

Nikki de Villiers is now general manager at The Chaucer Clinic.