Ricky Gervais Opens Up About His Drinking Habits

The third and final season of After Life dropped on Netflix last Friday (14 January), revisiting many of the themes explored the previous two series.

In it, writer and director Ricky Gervais plays Tony, a reporter at a free paper trying to find a purpose in life following the loss of his wife.

As he battles with grief and loneliness, he regularly leans on alcohol as a source of solace, and some viewers speculated that this drinking habit could be based on his real-life fondness for libations.

Speaking to JOE about his drinking, the 60-year-old said: "I do this joke, right, I go out and I go, 'I just want to say I've been sober for 18 years.'

"And they all clap and I go, 'It was the first 18 years, I've been p****d ever since.'

"The papers reported that like it was real - Gervais admits..."

He continued: "No, I've got a watershed, I have a glass of wine at six o'clock. I mean, I'm looking at the clock at five to six.

"I just think I enjoy doing it. I think that if it started ruining your life, or affecting your life, or you can't get up the next day, then it's probably not a great idea.

"In fact, it's probably not a great idea to drink full stop."

The comic then went on to argue that he doesn't glorify drinking in After Life.

He said: "He [Tony] says at one point, 'When when I was with Lisa [his late wife], we used to drink because we didn't want the night to end, now I drink because I want the night to end, I don't want to feel anything.'

"So he does use it. I also come down on the side that it doesn't work, you know. So I think that's important.

"It's not like he gets drunk and he has a great time and he feels great. The next day, he gets drunk, he feels worse or indifferent."

He continued: "So, again, I don't think it's like, it's not me saying, 'Kids, if you drink, that's a really good thing to do.'

"I think it was important that I didn't make it like it was a cool thing to do. It wasn't like a 50s cigarette advert, like 'Smoking is good for you, it makes you look cool.'

"I showed the downside of it, and I showed that he couldn't help it, and I showed it was a crutch that didn't work.

"No one's ever said, 'My life was going bad until I started getting drunk every day, and then that just sorted everything out.'"