Now here's a shocker. Shane MacGowan was so drunk while filming the video for Fairytale of New York that Matt Dillon had to hold him up. Call it method acting.

The Irish hellraiser enlisted the Hollywood actor to star as a policeman in the video accompanying his festive song but Matt, 48, revealed Shane was beyond intoxicated as they filmed it in a New York police station.

Matt said: "There was a pile of drinking going on. That's The Pogues - drinking. Even if I'd wanted to catch up, I couldn't because they were so out there. Shane was pretty liquored-up, so when I was holding his arm, he could have gone down the stairs."

Shane - who turns 55 today (yes, Shane's just like Baby Jesus) - admitted the policemen were not impressed at his drunkenness while filming the video in their station in 1987.

He said: "We nearly all got arrested because we did the jail scenes in the nick and we were all really p****d."

Again, none of this is news, however, this might be - Fairytale of New York was the most played Christmas song on UK radio in 2012.