Hugh Laurie apologises for 'slightly drunk' social media attack at film critic

It would appear Hugh Laurie has woken up feeling rather remorseful.

The actor made headlines earlier this week for his impassioned defence of medical series House – where he starred as Dr Gregory House – after writer and film critic Janet Murray criticised the show on X.

Responding to Murray's comments on Sunday (7 June), in which the film critic questioned the episodes' formulaic nature, The Night Manager actor bluntly stated, 'it wasn't meant for you'.

However, it would appear that Laurie has now had a change of heart, with the actor apologising for his initial response in a follow-up tweet to Murray.

"I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan," she replied to Murray, after she shared an article for Unheard detailing the trolling she'd received in the aftermath.

Laurie then admitted that he was 'slightly drunk' when he replied, adding that he'd also been 'upset about something that had nothing to do with you'.

"If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too," he continued. "I’m a thin-skinned t**t, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin."

The 66-year-old then went on to explain that he was intending to stick up for his colleagues, adding: " I was sticking up for the writers who I adored. Obviously, I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore - asking for trouble - and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12-bar chord structure. I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love."

"Thank you," Murray responded. "‘Having a go’ is probably an understatement, but I appreciate the apology and recognise you may have been sticking up for colleagues.

"For what it’s worth, I like the show - despite the repetition - and I like you in it."

All's well that ends well.

Laurie starred in all eight seasons of House, which premiered in 2004 on Fox.

Pitched as a medical whodunit, House combined a medical setting with a police procedural. Episodes revolved around clashes between Dr House, who had unconventional methods of treating patients, and his colleagues.

The series went on to have a total of eight seasons before ending in 2012.

Timeline of Hugh Laurie's fallout with Janet Murray

On 6 June, Murray tweeted the following: "Late to the party, but I've started watching Season 1 of House. Same narrative every episode: Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies," she wrote in her review.

Muarry continued: "Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again.

"Hugh Laurie has last minute left-field idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn't get fired. Eight seasons of this?"

Responding the following day, Laurie wrote: "Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried somewhere House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.

"One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??

"The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.

"Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!"

Murray then shared a piece she'd written for Unheard the following day, writing: "While it’s all been rather fun, I do hope @hughlaurie takes the time to read my @unherd article (I’m sure he can stretch to a subscription).

"Because while his witty riposte was genuinely amusing, one point I make in the piece is that it was shared with his 1.2 million followers on X. I have around 38,000.

"That creates something of an imbalance - particularly given that the responses to my original post were overwhelmingly warm-hearted and affectionate towards the show.

'The result has been some fairly horrific trolling. It turns out House fans are even more abusive than trans activists (and that’s saying something).

"I have enough experience of the media to take it on the chin, as the saying goes. But someone without my background might have found the experience far more distressing."