At the height of the Gulf War, Oliver Reed appeared on an edition discussing militarism, masculine stereotypes and violence to women: "Both the topic and Reed's invitation were timely...the British Army were deploying women to the frontline for the very first time; also, that same week, Oliver Reed had won a libel case against "The Sun", which had called him a wife beater". As "The Daily Telegraph" wrote in 2021, "Reed's contributions to "After Dark" - and to British television history, thanks to much repeated clips - were indeed valuable: inappropriate comedy gold. Belligerent, disruptive, sloshed on half pints of wine...(Reed) freestyled about the dynamic between men and women". After one hour Reed returned from the toilet and, getting more to drink, rolled on top of the noted feminist author Kate Millett, who then complained (though she later asked for a tape of the show to entertain her friends). A member of the production team later wrote that Reed "got famously sloshed but perhaps not quite as much as viewers may have thought (or as other guests had been – the drinking record was held by philosopher A. J. Ayer)". Another guest on the programme, author Neil Lyndon, wrote an article in "The Independent" about the experience.