Old, essentially drunk and very short as Hoskins? (5)
I believe the answer is:
outre
'as hoskins?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'old essentially drunk and very' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'essentially' means to look at the middle letters.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'very' becomes 'tre' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The middle letter of 'drunk' is 'u'.
'o'+'u'+'tre'='OUTRE'
'short' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for outre that I've seen before include "Extravagant; bizarre" , "Eccentric or unseemly kind of route" , "Outrageous" , "Exotic" , "Bizarre or eccentric in France" .)