Al Pacino

Video: Stephen Fry on missing tea with Al Pacino

Stephen Fry talks to BBC Breakfast about missing afternoon tea with Hollywood actor Al Pacino and his struggle with drink and drugs.

The Trip to Italy was travel porn with smiles. Knowing smirks, occasional laughy guffaws: but good smart tetchy humour throughout, as Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunited to busk off each other's ego - quite how close to those being their alter-egos is uncertain, though I suspect the difference has long been moot - but this time in Italy, eating roisteringly good food in the famous Trattoria della Posta in Langhe (near Barolo, yum, and splendid it looked) and alarming only slightly the lieges with sudden impressions of Ronnie Corbett, Al Pacino or, wonderfully improvised, mumbling Batman characters. Never less than clever, and promises much as the weeks roll on, not least the glorious intercut views of red-boiling kitchens and sweet, warm seas.

Apparently this paper, The Observer, sent both of them there as food/holiday critics. Not true (or is it? Ref! I haven't had a hol for three years). One thing's certain. We did send Kim Philby as a correspondent to Beirut, where he was finally cornered by his friend Elliot. We were founded in 1791; occasional mistakes have been made.

Tonight's frolic down celebrity lane features the stand-up career born of a terrible one-man show about Al Pacino. Omid Djalili recalls how a tobacconist changed his life, and how he literally fell into comedy. Former EastEnder Ashley Kumar plays the 22-year-old Djalili as an aspiring actor trying to break out of overearnest-theatre-group hell. Fun and sweet-natured if sprinkled with cringe.

Tonight's first frolic down celebrity lane features a first-love story in hospital. A 12-year-old Jason Manford (Ellis Hollins) attracts female attention while waiting for what he tells them is a brain op (in fact a circumcision). Manford himself plays the boy's father, surgeon and nurse, inviting comparisons with Peter Kay.

The second features the stand-up career born of a terrible one-man show about Al Pacino. Omid Djalili recalls how a tobacconist changed his life, and how he literally fell into comedy. Former EastEnder Ashley Kumar plays the 22-year-old Djalili as an aspiring actor trying to break out of overearnest-theatre-group hell. Fun and sweet-natured if sprinkled with cringe.

Kevin Bishop does impressions - of Jonathan Ross, Gordon Ramsey, Al Pacino, lots of people. Generally there's a twist. So Al Pacino is auditioning for Superman, on a DVD that comes free with the Daily Mail. And here's Cowell - not Simon though, his (much) less successful brother Brian. They're still impressions, though. And I'm not really seeing anything I haven't seen on Bremner, McGowan, French and Saunders even. Do we need another? Guess how Americans are portrayed. Fat and stupid. That's just lame.