Matthew Perry calls Peter Hitchens a ‘complete tool’ as he discusses 2013 Newsnight appearance

Matthew Perry has branded conservative broadcaster Peter Hitchens a “complete tool” after the pair debated drug reform on Newsnight in 2013.

The Friends star discusses the topic in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, in which he writes frankly about his struggles with drug addiction over the years.

Perry used his platform to advocate for the introduction of drug courts, which aim to decriminalise non-violent addicts and offer them treatment instead of a prison sentence.

In 2013, Perry was asked to debate the topic on the BBC programme Newsnight, which he recalled being moderated by “a cranky guy called Jeremy Paxman who was famous for being rude to guests”.

The other panellists were Baroness Meacher, an advocate for drug policy reform, and “a complete tool called Peter Hitchens”.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a sibling whom everyone adores when you’re the idiot brother everyone loathes, but I think Peter could well be able to weigh in on what that feels like,” Perry writes of the Mail on Sunday columnist.

“The loss of Peter’s wonderful brother, the great [author] Christopher Hitchens, still reverberates – an unmatched raconteur, writer, arguer, and bon vivant, and the world mourns Christopher still, more than a decade after his brutal death from cancer.”

The 53-year-old continues: “Sadly, his younger brother, Peter, is still pontificating on things he has no idea about, mixing right-wing ideology with a kind of paternalism and moral tutting.”

Perry describes Hitchens explaining his “bizarre view” that addiction was “a case of weak morals” and “wasn’t even a real thing”. He also says that the journalist sounded “like some insane great-aunt who’d had one too many glasses of sherry”.

“I like to think that both the Baroness and I ran rings around him – but frankly, that wasn’t hard,” he writes. “He didn’t like that much, and eventually the interview ended with Paxman and Baroness Meacher simply laughing out loud at how stupid and cruel Hitchens sounded.”

Perry says that Hitchens proved “that he knew nothing about either me, or the subject on which he pontificated”, while Perry made him look “like the fool he is”.

Writing about his addiction in his memoir, Perry says that, at his worst moment, he would take 55 strong painkillers a day to get through filming Friends.

The actor also claims fans of the show can tell whether he was drinking alcohol or taking drugs “from season to season” by “gauging” his weight and tracking his facial hair.

“When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills; when I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills,” he writes. However, Perry insists he was “never” high or drunk during filming.

You can read more of the biggest talking points from Perry’s autobiography here.

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing is out now.