MY LIFE IN DRINKS: Actor Adrian Lukis on thirsty beer nights in Oz and tipples with comedy superstar Lisa Kudrow
- The actor, 67, tells Scarlett Dargan about thirsty beer nights in Oz, tipples with a comedy superstar – and surviving the scariest hooch sold in Hungary
My favourite drink as a child was Fanta.
I was brought up in Australia, because my father was posted there as a Royal Marine. The minute he got leave, he would hire an Austin A40 and we’d drive off into the bush for hundreds of miles. I remember the heat being overwhelming – at least 40C – and my parents would let me drink orange Fanta in the back seat.
My first drink of the day is always Yorkshire Tea.
I make an entire pot with breakfast, then take it back to bed and read the papers. I like coffee, too, but I don’t usually have it first thing – unless I’m a bit hungover or I need to gather my wits especially fast.
My late mother Daphne was raised on a tea estate and would make us cups of fancy lapsang and mae salong.
My daughter [Anna, 34] is also a tea aficionado since she’s not a big drinker. We’ll often meet up for a fancy afternoon tea somewhere like The Ritz.
The first time I got drunk I was about 13.
I was at my friend’s house in Fulham, West London, and another mate, Simon, had stolen some whisky from his father’s study. We were showing off, swigging it straight from the bottle and walking around the neighbourhood causing trouble, and the only way my friend’s mum got us to bed was by threatening to call the police and have us locked up. It put us off whisky for a long time.
My most memorable drinking experiences were as a young man in Australia.
I worked on a building site in Darwin in the heat. When we finished, we’d head to a pub, the Old Vic, and drink three pints of beer just trying to rehydrate. I ended up leaving – not least to save my liver.
Raised in Adelaide, Adrian enjoyed Fanta on hot day trips.
On my first date with my partner Kitty we drank a bottle of rosé.
It was 2020, just before lockdown, and we went to the Brook House pub in Fulham, apparently a favourite of Prince Harry. We had a negroni, then I suggested rosé, which Kitty wasn’t so sure about. But she came around to it and we spent a lot of that summer drinking rosé together.
The worst drink I’ve ever tasted was a spirit I once bought in Budapest.
Lisa Kudrow is the biggest star he’s taken a drink with
I picked it up on a trip about 30 years ago and it sat unopened at home for ages. One night my friend and I got into it as we had nothing else in. The Hungarian man who sold it me warned me it was strong – about 70 per cent – and in half an hour we were insanely drunk and being quite shirty with each other. It was very dangerous and tasted revolting.
The most famous person I’ve ever drunk with is Lisa Kudrow from Friends.
We were husband and wife in Netflix’s Feel Good a few years ago. She was incredibly nice. It’s always hard with very famous people like that because you want to ask them about all their fancy Hollywood stories. You can either try gently to move the conversation, or swallow your pride and ask straight out, ‘So what was it like working with Matt LeBlanc?’
My favourite piece of drinking wisdom is about knowing when you’ve had enough.
You should feel you’re as witty as Oscar Wilde, as smooth as Cary Grant and as sexy as George Clooney. That’s my trick for knowing exactly when I should stop.
At my funeral, I want them to serve my mum’s famous Christmas morning Champagne cocktails.
She would make us two each, with a lump of sugar, a tablespoon each of brandy and Cointreau and the rest Champagne. By the time we were opening presents we could barely see. They’d get everyone nicely merry at my sendoff.
Adrian Lukis is in Being Mr Wickham until 22 June at Jermyn Street Theatre, London W1