‘No, Mr Bond, I expect you to drink’
‘The dram’s Macallan, 50 year old Macallan…’ Daniel Craig takes a shot in Skyfall
From James Bond to, er, Ron Burgundy, film and TV is awash with whisky-swilling heroes. But what does the choice of dram say about the man or the woman? Neil Armstrong sifts the on-screen evidence for clues…
There’s a brilliant scene in the latest season of Apple TV’s smash hit spy show Slow Horses. The head of MI5, Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo), knocks on the door of the office of her deputy and rival, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). Tearney comes bearing a bottle of whisky and two glasses. ‘You gave me this as a present when I was made First Desk,’ she says to Taverner. ‘Eighteen-year-old Macallan. It’s my favourite. The most generous gift by some margin.’
It certainly is a generous gift to give the boss. Depending on the expression, you won’t get much change, if any, out of £300 for a Macallan 18 year old.
Tearney pours a glass for each of them (they’re drinking it neat) and then the conversation turns combative. There’s no love lost between them. As they’re exchanging verbal daggers, away from the office a deadly battle to the death is being fought between two heavily-armed factions, one effectively representing Tearney, the other Taverner. The symbolism of the whisky is clear — this is a drink for grown-ups, serious people grappling with weighty issues. It’s difficult to think of another alcoholic drink that would work in the same way.
When a named single malt — as opposed to an unspecified Scotch — is featured on screen, its appearance is generally freighted with meaning. We see, for example, Daniel Craig’s James Bond drink Macallan in Spectre and it also features in Skyfall (here it’s a 50 year old bottle, a nod to the fact that Skyfall was released 50 years after the first Bond movie, Dr. No).
‘A particular favourite of yours I understand,’ says the baddie, Silva, played by Javier Bardem, handing Bond a glass. It seems the Macallan is the preferred tipple of master-spies, although back in the Pierce Brosnan era, Bond drank Talisker — history does not relate whether Irishman Brosnan agitated to have 007 drink an Irish whiskey — perhaps Talisker, from Skye, on the Hibernian side of Scotland, was a compromise.
When Silva wastes a glass of this precious stuff in Skyfall, it simply underlines what a wrong-‘un he is. Well, you know, that and the fact that (spoiler alert) it was wasted because he balanced a glass on the head of his female hostage and then shot her.
‘The symbolism of the whisky is clear — this is a drink for grown-ups, serious people grappling with weighty issues’
Sometimes a fine whisky can be deployed to show us that those on the wrong side of law and order have depth. Hitman John Wick played by Keanu Reeves is a Glenlivet man (although Keanu Reeves, who plays him, is a brand ambassador for the Japanese whisky maker Suntory), as is everybody’s favourite anti-hero Tony Soprano. It might not be the most complex Scotch in the world but whaddyagonnado? Certainly no-one would dare tell the boss of New Jersey that he might care to extend his repertoire.
‘Extra cheese with your whisky, sir?’ I’ll have what Ron’s having…
In Anchorman, Will Ferrell’s noted Scotch drinker and newsreader Ron Burgundy orders for dinner in a restaurant ‘three fingers of Glenlivet with a little bit of pepper and some cheese’. Burgundy is a very strange fellow but he has classic taste and so does another legendary TV anchorman. In the romcom Morning Glory, Mike Pomeroy, played by Harrison Ford is a gruff, curmudgeonly, old-school news guy who tends to hit the bottle when forced to do something he doesn’t want to do — and not just any old bottle. We see him tucking into a very rare 40 year old Bruichladdich. ‘I only drink this when I’m practically suicidal,’ he says.
Not suicidal but facing imminent death are the three scientists at a research station in Scotland in the climate change disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow. Their generator is running out of fuel and they’re going to be flash-frozen by a superstorm. Simon, played by Adrian Lester, produces a bottle of Balvenie and suggests that it might keep the generator going a little longer. ‘Are you mad?’ asks a horrified Terry (Ian Holm). ‘That’s a 12 year old Scotch!’ Here the whisky — quite rightly — represents a pinnacle of human art and ingenuity. It’s as if Simon has suggested chucking a Rembrandt in the burner. The trio choose to go out in style, enjoying a wee dram.
Will Ferrell’s newsreader Ron Burgundy orders for dinner in a restaurant ‘three fingers of Glenlivet with a little bit of pepper and some cheese’
Zombie apocalypse movie 28 Days Later uses whisky in a similar way, as a symbol of civilisation and culture. Four survivors find an unlooted supermarket and gather supplies. Cillian Murphy’s Jim picks up a cheap, blended whisky but Frank (Brendan Gleeson) admonishes him for taking ‘crap’ and selects a bottle of Lagavulin 16 year old instead. Four bottles in fact. Yes, he might be living through the end times but, dammit, that’s no reason to let standards slip.
Harrison Ford: What a Laddie
Matt Denny, a film and TV studies teaching fellow at the University of Warwick, explains the significance of the scene.
‘Demonstrating a preference not just for whisky, but for a particular type of whisky can have several connotations,’ he says. ‘It can be an opportunity to set up a character as a connoisseur, to lend them authority and wisdom. We see this when Frank makes an informed choice as he explains the benefits of the malt’s full flavour and describes it as warm rather than aggressive. Moreover, his role in educating and shaping Jim’s tastes reinforces Frank’s role as a sort of surrogate father – acting as a role model for the mantle that Jim will take up by the end of the film.’
Lagavulin wins even higher praise in the beloved sitcom Parks and Recreation. ‘There is actually one place in Europe that is worth seeing,’ says the government-hating, America-loving, libertarian Ron Swanson as he wanders around Islay, ‘home of God’s chosen elixirs’. After a visit to the Lagavulin distillery, the normally granite-faced Swanson is overcome with emotion as he reads aloud Burns’s ‘O were my love yon Lilac fair’.
‘In the fantasy film Highlander, the title character orders a double Glenmorangie — a Highland whisky — in a bar. He’s been around for 500 years so he knows what he likes’
‘Any aged single malt would have worked to reinforce Ron’s old-fashioned rugged masculinity, but the choice of Islay malt over say a Speyside or Highland variety adds nuance here,’ says Denny. ‘The abundance of peat and smoke mark Islay whisky as an acquired taste, perhaps more brash and abrasive than less peaty malts. What does this say about Ron? I think it speaks to the complexities of his character and in particular the type of masculinity he represents.’
Double shot: Piers Brosnan’s Bond was a Talisker man
(Swanson’s love of Lagavulin has led to a long-lasting real-life commercial relationship between the whisky and Offerman, who is also a fan of it. Check out his ‘My tales of whisky’ videos on Youtube.
Once you start looking out for whisky references, you see them all over the place.
In the fantasy film Highlander, the title character orders a double Glenmorangie, a Highland whisky, in a bar. He’s been around for 500 years so he knows what he likes. And it’s reassuring to know that connoisseurs are still drinking decent Scotch hundreds of years in the future. In Star Trek Beyond, Chris Pine’s Kirk and McCoy (Karl Urban) enjoy a bottle of Glenfiddich 30 year old that McCoy has liberated from Chekov’s locker. ‘I always assumed he’d be a vodka guy,’ says McCoy. ‘Oh lordy,’ he sighs appreciatively after the first sip.
Oh, and that long scene from Slow Horses? When the conversation ends, Tearney, outwitted, stalks out of Taverner’s office … but not before picking up the bottle. Even if you know your reign is over — especially if you know your reign is over — you’re not going to leave a bottle of Macallan behind.
Neil Armstrong is a journalist and writer
