I watched the last 3 series the 1st time round, but have no idea what the ratings/reviews were like as I was 12 by the last series!
A particularly funny Fry and Laurie sketch Page 3
easily the best sketch show of all time IMO!
its worth buying the box set just for the Major Donaldson sketch alone - its a work of art 
one of my favourite lines is:-
John: Am I right in thinking that you have a daughter?
Peter: Yup. Henrietta.
John: Did he? Did he really? That must have hurt. Hurt like hell on a jetski.
I like the sketch where Stephen Fry explains about his grandfather, on his parents' side, who had a cigarette case which he kept in the breast pocket of his battle blouse. When his grandfather went to Flanders for the second time (first time he went on holiday), he was shot clean through the temple and that if he had worn his cigarette case on the side of his head then he wouldn't have died and therefore Stephen Fry would have been alive today.
I don't know if there is a YouTube vid of this entirety including the second half.
I like quite a few of their sketches and I reckon that their pilot show was a very strong one and probably better than the pilot show for most comedy shows.
Quote: Bill Jaguar @ June 4 2011, 10:40 PM BSTI like the sketch where Stephen Fry explains about his grandfather, on his parents' side, who had a cigarette case which he kept in the breast pocket of his battle blouse. When his grandfather went to Flanders for the second time (first time he went on holiday), he was shot clean through the temple and that if he had worn his cigarette case on the side of his head then he wouldn't have died and therefore Stephen Fry would have been alive today.
I don't know if there is a YouTube vid of this entirety including the second half.
Ah! Thanks for that. I didn't bother looking for it because I have the DVD boxset. 
Well, BBC 4 have been repeating the first series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie (starting with the pilot and finishing with Ep. 6), and I have really tried to like them, but simply find most of it a load of self-indulgent twaddle. Like the curate's egg and inconsistent.
Shame, as they are clearly funny people (in Blackadder both excellent), so there's no point in me burning them to DVD from my digi-box HD as I would never watch them again.
There was a severe dip in the third series. Never caught the fourth.
Stephen Fry gets smugger, more irritating and more clever-little-me by the day. Or maybe I've just changed my taste. I never thought a voice could be punchable until I sat through the Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy movie. Never again. That's ninety minutes of my life I'm never getting back.