Stephen Fry

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Oh god don't even mention QI. If ever there was a reason to be thankful for geting rid of the tv, that's it...

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:40 (nineteen years ago) link

When I saw Spiderman 2 I thought Alfred Molina kinda looked like a more fat-headed, bug eyed version of him. I think the only films of his I've seen are Wilde and Gosford Park. I didn't know he was a writer, pretty decent actor though. I'll have to check his books out.

oh and after checking IMDb, I've also seen IQ and Spice World years ago but don't remember him in those. He also narrates the Harry Potter films apparently.

AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:48 (nineteen years ago) link

'Blackadder' and 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' are easily his best work.

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:50 (nineteen years ago) link

He also seems to have been in A Fish Called Wanda, but I don't remember him there either.

AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Alfred Molina is a much better actor than Fry though Fry is a much better comic.

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:52 (nineteen years ago) link

And he reads the audio book versions of Harry Potter too.

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:52 (nineteen years ago) link

some time in jail for absconding with credit cards on the eve of his exams i seem to recall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry

he also had the third apple mac in england (douglas adams had the first two)

koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The only other place I'd remembered seeing Molina was Raiders of the Lost Ark. I know he was in some PT Anderson stuff but again, can't place him there.

AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:04 (nineteen years ago) link

I've read the hippopotamus. It establishes the link between wanking and poetry very effectively IMO.

de, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Alfred Molina also plays the nerdy dude who fucks up everything in Species by banging the alien chick.

Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I love QI! Except for the contributions of Rich Hall, and some others

de, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:12 (nineteen years ago) link

See, Rich Hall saves QI for me. Hmmmm.

If you are reading any of Fry's books, don't bother with The Star's Tennis Balls. It's basically the Count of Monte Cristo rewritten by Stephen Fry. Pointless then. The rest are well worth a read.

As Archel recommended upthread, Paperweight is the essential guide to Fry's work though. I seem to have three copies of it (and I know I lent another to someone and never got it back) - my mum keeps thinking I don't have it and keeps buying it for me at car boot sales.

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Star's = Stars', by the way.

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link


i've linked this before but:

http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/

the complete online FRY + LAURIE scripts.

like *where* is the dvd?!!!

"reader..i *married* him...now if that isn't balls,
kindly fax me a definition of what is."

piscesboy, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, lord, he's my big gay secret boyfriend. Love the novels, love what TV I've seen, love the movies. He did a talk at the Seattle Intl. Film Festival after premiere of "Bright Young Things" - very funny, smart, etc.

Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 17:29 (nineteen years ago) link

His Radio 4 series from 1988, "Saturday Night Fry", with appearances from Laurie, Thompson, Broadbent and others is absolutely the best thing he has ever been involved with. All six of them should be floating around on slsk - seek, find, fall about.

You can tell that Chris Morris was listening too.

Venga, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Fry's signature gag: "I stooped to pick a buttercup. Why anyone would leave buttocks lying around I'll never know"

Catchphrase: "Man-on-man Action"

Bumfluff, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I love him. "Paperweight" is just superb - I even bought another copy off eBay after giving mine to someone who I thought needed to read it. He's not a great novelist, sadly, though "Making History" works pretty well - and "Moab is my Washpot" is a brilliant autobiography. I hope there's a follow-up in the works. He's a wonderful essayist/journalist, and one of the best commentators we've got.

I'm slightly surprised this thread is so positive. Surprised and delighted.

Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 09:55 (nineteen years ago) link

One of my favourites, definitely. A Bit of Fry and Laurie was exceptional, and demands a DVD release forthwith.

Which Describes How You're Feeling All the Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:05 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah 'moab...' is ace, ditto 'the liar'.
he did a *fantastic* speech once at the start
of a lighthouse charity 'hysteria' gig which was
one of the best things i ever did hear.
i must check out 'saturday night fry'!

piscesboy, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link

i actually liked peters friends, when i saw it, which was 3 am on the tube, well written, chaotic, sad and tragic in that sort of common way, fry was v. good in it.

anthony, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link

does anyone know anything about the adaptation of tom browns school days btw ?

anthony, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Emma Thompson used to test Fry's homosexuality/celibacy at university by only spending time in his company if she was naked. Those crazy Oxbridge kids.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:08 (nineteen years ago) link

The Spies sketches were classic.

He absconded to, of all places, Bruges. I wonder which shops he visited while he was there... ;-)

He's also the best guest there has been to date on Room 101 - Laura and I watched it when it first went out (2000?) and we ended up fervently cheering, applauding and agreeing with just about everything he said.

Also his contributions to the Viv Stanshall doc that was on BBC2 last Friday night were absolutely OTM.

Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:10 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

It is Stephen Fry's 50th birthday this weekend, so this weekend sees a Stephen Fry theme on BBC4. Documentary about him, some Fry and Laurie, an episode of Blackadder, Wilde, some programmes he chose himself.

ailsa, Friday, 17 August 2007 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link

Fry's documentary about borderline personality disorder is outstanding

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 17 August 2007 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link

I wish I had BBC4. I love Stephen Fry.

accentmonkey, Friday, 17 August 2007 20:08 (sixteen years ago) link

Mostly thus far amazing for Emma Thompson's top diva outfit and seeing Hugh Laurie not being Greg House. Am flicking between this and BB.

Can you get that BBC iPlayer thing, Trish? You might get to see it on that?

ailsa, Friday, 17 August 2007 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link

I wish I had a way to see that docu! It ain't on Netflix.

I think Mr. Fry should be House's new doctor underling next season and they can just sit around one upping each other, but in American accents.

Abbott, Friday, 17 August 2007 20:55 (sixteen years ago) link

The doc on BBC4 is not the manic depression thing, it is just people talking about what a top chap he is, though the depression documentary (one of the best things I have ever seen on TV) has been talked about. It's actually a kind of tossy "woah, Stephen Fry is teh grebt" luvvie-fest which I'm very bored with. Though he totally deserves it, as the nearest thing I can think of to a national treasure.

Woah, the depression doc is being repeated on Wednesday and Thursday. Anyone who hasn't seen it, cannot recommend it highly enough.

ailsa, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Kenneth Branagh looks like Charlie Brooker these days

Dom Passantino, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link

They do not show this awesome docu of my beloved Fry + my personal condition here in the states. *sad*

Abbott, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link

have you tried ukn0v4? (degoogleproofed, obv?)

ailsa, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:10 (sixteen years ago) link

Can you get that BBC iPlayer thing, Trish? You might get to see it on that?

Good thinking, Batman.

accentmonkey, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link

Bad thinking, BBC. It only works on Windows machines. Sadface.

accentmonkey, Friday, 17 August 2007 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link

I got the docu in question off ukn0v4 back when it was first aired, so there's definitely video files floating around somewhere. Guess I'll be the dissenting voice here and admit that I found it rather uninteresting on the whole.
Fry is great - I particularly liked his appearances on Just A Minute. His raps on Whose Line Is It Anyway were always classic as well (the rap on A Bit of Fry & Laurie on the other hand, "Motherlover", was just as atrocious as every other rap-parody of the time)
Tried to read the Hippopotamus once, but had to give up. Am curious about the poetry for idjits book though.

Anyhoo, I hadn't heard of Room 101, but in case anyone's curious, the Fry episode is on youtube. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLks-r4Mno8
You'll find parts 2 & 3 in the sidebar.

Øystein, Friday, 17 August 2007 22:53 (sixteen years ago) link

a paticularly good ROOM 101 that.

pisces, Saturday, 18 August 2007 17:15 (sixteen years ago) link

Is the BPD documentary different from "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive"?

eater, Saturday, 18 August 2007 18:03 (sixteen years ago) link

No, same thing.

ailsa, Saturday, 18 August 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link

this is hopkins's story to post really -- he put it on FT already -- but lol the woman he got talkin to outside a pubbe who said:

"you know the last person to go to jail for buggery? ORSON WELLES, that's who -- it was reading gaol, and when he came out he wrote a book about it and made a million"

mark s, Saturday, 18 August 2007 18:36 (sixteen years ago) link

This is marvelous: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 18 August 2007 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link

the '50 NOT OUT' doc from the weekend is on you tube in full here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=++Stephen+Fry+-+50+Not+Out+

pisces, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

SF's blog is the third result when I just searched for "blog".

This is real, Jack (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 13 January 2009 09:10 (fifteen years ago) link

where does it rank when you search for "tweedy old fart"?

snoball, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 11:38 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_VNWru5y6U

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:13 (thirteen years ago) link

labhairt as gaeilge mind you

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:14 (thirteen years ago) link

Did he ask them if they liked Mumford & Sons?

a murder rap to keep ya dancin, with a crime record like Keith Chegwin (snoball), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link

mumford agus mhics to you

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link

fucking hell

I see what this is (Local Garda), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link

get out of our language fry

I see what this is (Local Garda), Thursday, 3 March 2011 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link

I'd post it to her fb but I fear unappreciation

local eire man (darraghmac), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link

I did some link hopping and now I realize that Cameron Diaz and Nicole Richie are now sisters-in-law

today has contained unexpected delights

the farakhan of gg (DJP), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:36 (nine years ago) link

how LA is that guy

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link

an ex gf who (braggin but just sayin) looked like Cameron left me for a guy that looked a lot like that.

I had those trainers 15 years ago too

we are such unappreciated trendsetters

club mate martyr (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:43 (nine years ago) link

an ex gf who (braggin but just sayin) looked like Cameron left me for a guy that looked a lot like that.

was being inattentive and thought you meant d cameron rather than cameron d and lol'd q hard.

Fizzles, Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:43 (nine years ago) link

pls

local eire man (darraghmac), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:46 (nine years ago) link

sexy d cameron obv

Fizzles, Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:47 (nine years ago) link

Best ever humblebrag

Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:59 (nine years ago) link

no way, i had an ex who looked just like kate humble who left me for a guy that looked a lot like melvyn bragg

Ottbot jr (NickB), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 22:04 (nine years ago) link

gonna go pop the collar on my denim vest made out of leather, brb

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 22:07 (nine years ago) link

Wait why are we talking about cameron diaz in a Stephen Fry thread.

I checked Snoops , and it is for real (Trayce), Thursday, 8 January 2015 00:48 (nine years ago) link

she married some guy from KFC ads

bob seger's silver bullet gland (sic), Thursday, 8 January 2015 01:01 (nine years ago) link

why do ppl keep marrying benji madden wtf

i still like stephen fry, love QI lots and lots. is there a reason for him falling out of favor?

difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:21 (nine years ago) link

mainly extreme overexposure

bob seger's silver bullet gland (sic), Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:32 (nine years ago) link

partly his ubiquity, VG. (as a friend of mine said, when we were watching the cricket and got a close up of his Holiness - 'Fucking Stephen Fry! Again! Fuck off!')

Much bruited 'National Treasure' status doesn't help anyone - your mundane pronouncements. He didn't ask for that status of course, but perhaps he could pronounce a little less.

also there's a bit of bien pensant right-on-ness that can look smug, and I wonder whether that with the periodic bouts of very public frailty is a bad look for some people.

finally, for me, i find that whole QI comedy circuit totally fucking awful, and the general chumminess that's exuded to be nauseating.

1 and 4 for me anyway, but as I say, I think 2 and 3 may play a part.

Fizzles, Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:35 (nine years ago) link

er, 'your mundane pronouncements won't usually live up to that title, causing people to question it'

Fizzles, Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:36 (nine years ago) link

gotcha. i can understand that!

difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:37 (nine years ago) link

Read and enjoyed The Liar probably back in high school, he's great as Jeeves, and I thought the documentary on his bipolar diagnosis was quite touching. Haven't really followed recent activities which is probably for the best, I still have generally positive feelings toward him.

JoeStork, Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:51 (nine years ago) link

QI is fucking horrible, fizzles otm

There's a wiki page "list of common misconceptions" or something you can spend 10 minutes reading that & it will spare you these awful, awful men guffawing their way through "Alan says the obvious answer and then a noise happens" for 1000 series

bife claro (wins), Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:53 (nine years ago) link

Also fry has said some horrible ignorant shit about women

I like him more than I did a few years ago prob cause I ignore him more successfully

bife claro (wins), Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:55 (nine years ago) link

He had Sue Perkins on QI as a panelist and called her Mel. And then wanted to crawl under the desk and die. The sort of thing he'd have really slated someone for doing..

Awwwww

Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 07:59 (nine years ago) link

Always feel that QI is where the BBC mission to 'educate, inform and entertain' (or whatever shape those Reithian ideals took) goes seriously off the rails although I suppose that was always wacky - ideally there shouldn't be any joins you can see.

When you watch a programme you shouldn't be aware you are necessarily being educated or entertained.

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 January 2015 11:07 (nine years ago) link

really? Not Entertained?

Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 11:19 (nine years ago) link

Yes - we'll always look to something similar in future. It closes out any other possibilities of what entertainment could mean.

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 January 2015 11:24 (nine years ago) link

I barely know who Fry is, but this Benji Madden person is just fiction, right?

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 January 2015 12:45 (nine years ago) link

Don't think he's is much good as Jeeves actually. The interpretation of the Jeeves and Wooster characters and relationship is totally off in their version. Fry's Jeeves is supercilious and smug and Jeeves is not like that.

everything, Thursday, 8 January 2015 18:29 (nine years ago) link

jeeves is described as smug and supercilious all the time

jello my future biafriend (roxymuzak), Thursday, 8 January 2015 18:59 (nine years ago) link

by bertie tho - so he prob isnt actually like that tbh. i dont really see fry's interp as supercilious tho. i feel like hes subtle when he acts above bertie, but thats how the character is written too - those caustic "indeed sir"s

jello my future biafriend (roxymuzak), Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:08 (nine years ago) link

i think he's good as jeeves but when i read the books i usually imagine a slightly older, graver, less twinkly jeeves. laurie's wooster is definitive imo, almost to an annoying extent (hard for me not to hear his voice when i read wodehouse).

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:32 (nine years ago) link

Jeeves is not described as smug or supercilious - by Bertie or anyone else.

everything, Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:33 (nine years ago) link

Alarmed that somebody early in the thread thinks Rich Hall ruins QI whenever he appears. But he's usually the funniest person in whatever show he's in.

I do get a bit tired of some aspects of QI but I think it has less annoyances than a lot of the other panel shows. It's pretty good for whenever I'm feeling too shit or lazy to do anything else, I never go out of my way to watch it but I usually enjoy it.

I liked Fry's programmes on language, homophobia and bi-polar condition. The homophobia one (2 episodes) had some really uncomfortable moments and I thought he was very gutsy and admirable in it.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:44 (nine years ago) link

to each his own age gap, but his spouse should at least get an adult haircut.

http://www.towleroad.com/2015/01/stephen-frys-marriage-to-partner-draws-conservative-backlash-1.html

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 January 2015 18:20 (nine years ago) link

truth

difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 21 January 2015 00:59 (nine years ago) link


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