“House” actor Hugh Laurie got into an online argument with a journalist, then apologized later for calling her out, saying he was under the influence of alcohol at the time.
“I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet,” the 66-year-old actor wrote in his apology shared on Monday, saying it was “not at all the plan” of his initial response to her criticism of the show.
“I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you,” Laurie wrote in an X post. “If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I’m a thin-skinned twat, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin.”
He went on to say he reacted in anger because he was defending the show’s writers.
The drama started on Saturday when British journalist Janet Murray shared some of her criticisms of “House,” a popular medical drama series that aired for eight seasons beginning in 2004.
“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,” Murray wrote in the original post.
She 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?”
Laurie wrote back in his original response, “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 (sic) happy. Then we tried some where 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??”
He added, “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!”
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 some where House never gets it right and…
— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) June 7, 2026
Murray went on to publish an article in UnHerd about the interaction and the fallout on social media. It was titled, “What I learnt from my online fight with Hugh Laurie.”
“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),” Murray wrote in an X post sharing the article on Monday.
“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,” she wrote, comparing it to her paltry audience of just 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).”
She concluded, “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.”
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