Act 2 - Sober and the city Louise MarwoodAct 2 - Sober and the city Louise Marwood
Alcohol Free Life - Janey Lee Grace
Actor and comedian Louise Marwood talks with Janey Lee Grace about her years of heavy drinking and cocaine use, the shame and isolation that followed, and how she rebuilt her life through recovery work and Sober and the City. They also discuss community, coaching, and a new sobriety app that aims to support people in real time.
35:03•22 May 2026
From Emmerdale to "Sober and the City": Louise Marwood’s Second Act
Episode Overview
- Heavy drinking can start as a cultural norm but gradually erode identity, relationships and self-worth.
- Quitting alcohol often exposes an emotional age far younger than someone’s real years, which can feel like an identity crisis.
- Standard routes like rehab and AA help many, but anyone may need to experiment to find support that truly fits.
- Understanding your own thought patterns and "addict brain" is crucial, and tools that reflect those patterns back can make change easier.
- Sobriety opens the door to genuine joy, kindness and creativity, rather than numbed emotions and shame.
“Seven years ago, I was a walking apology... I’ve got my soul back.”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? This conversation between host Janey Lee Grace and actor-comedian-turned-sober-founder Louise Marwood has a lot of answers. Aimed at anyone who’s quit drinking, is sober curious, or feels stuck in an alcohol-and-party identity, the chat mixes humour with hard-hitting honesty. Janey sets the scene by questioning quick-fix solutions like medication for heavy drinking and champions actually stopping drinking and enjoying the benefits instead.
Louise then talks openly about her years in shows like *Emmerdale*, *Hollyoaks* and *Coronation Street*, and how the "ladette" culture, ADHD, and work in comedy fed a pattern of drinking for oblivion rather than connection.
She explains how alcohol and cocaine "derailed" her, how denial kept her chasing “moderate drinking”, and how shame and isolation deepened during lockdown: "I wasn't safe in my own company." Rehab, AA and multiple sponsors still left a gap, so she had to "beat my tricky brain" herself. She describes realising that her drinking had frozen her emotional maturity as a teenager and that giving up meant an identity crisis as well as physical withdrawal.
From that painful stretch came Sober and the City and her new tech project, "sponsor in my pocket" – an app built with AI that captures her methods and tracks each person’s patterns in real time. Louise sees it as creating the thing she needed years ago: personalised support, humour, and honesty without pressure.
Janey also talks about her own journey, the Sober Club community, and training people to become sober coaches, stressing how much kinder and more authentic life feels without booze. If you’ve ever wondered who you’d be without alcohol – and whether it’s actually more rock ’n’ roll to manage your feelings than numb them – this episode might be the nudge you’ve been waiting for.
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