Take a walk on the wild side in 1920s Prohibition-era USA

Nigel Booth drinks in Atlantic City Prohibition

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The main cast of the hit TV drama Boardwalk Empire.

(Getty Images)

Walking into a supermarket or a pub for alcohol and having a casual drink on an evening is commonplace, but imagine being denied a recreational tipple and demonised as a devil’s disciple if alcohol passes your lips.

That is the premise of the HBO series now being shown on NOW TV and Amazon Prime Video for rent, in the boxset Boardwalk Empire.

On one side of this divide are temperance leagues, church communities, reformers and the Feds, with gangsters/bootleggers and imigrants who viewed beer and wine as part of their culture on the other side.

The series accurately reflects Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 to 1933 and was intended to support social reform, moral improvement and improve workplace efficiency, but did in fact cause widespread disobedience and increased organised crime with crime rates rising.

The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. It stars Steve Buscemi as Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson, a corrupt Atlantic City treasurer who doubles as a politician and gangster.