Hugh Laurie

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Our first instalment of this series covered over three decades, when the Edinburgh Fringe was almost without comedians at all. Now in Part Two, we find one year alone - 1981 - influences comedy more than all the previous Fringes put together.

When Blackadder turned election farce into comedy

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20 facts for Jonathan Creek's 20th anniversary

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the first time that David Renwick's ingenious creation first hit our screens. To celebrate, here's a look at 20 things you may not know about everyone's favourite tousle-haired, windmill-dwelling amateur sleuth.

Hugh Laurie receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hugh Laurie is to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Why comics tend to make bad baddies

One-time Blackadder buffoon Hugh Laurie was on devilish form in The Night Manager but it's a rare comedian who plays a convincing screen villain.

On BBC2 they were celebrating a very British icon as Bafta presented a look back over Stephen Fry's multi-faceted career. This sort of thing tends to get a bit smug and certainly there was little fresh ground covered as the likes of Hugh Laurie, Michael Sheen and the producer John Lloyd paid tribute.

Yet Fry, like Beckham, is oddly appealing and this tribute worked best when he spoke for himself, talking illuminatingly about his early life - "I was incredibly disruptive and a bad influence on others" - honestly about his breakdown post-Cell Mates and movingly about his experience making the 1997 Oscar Wilde biopic, Wilde.

In recent years Fry has been so swept up in hosting quiz shows and award shows and chattering on Twitter that it's easy to forget that he is also an actor of great charm and skill. This film went some way to reminding viewers of that. Despite the backslapping, job done.

"You can't live your life without Stephen Fry," we're told, but I'd disagree. Nonetheless, those who find Stephen Fry pompous these days might actually like this documentary as it reminds you of the days when he appeared in brilliant comedies like Blackadder and The Young Ones. He wasn't always a luvvie BAFTA host or a dabbling TV presenter. This tribute takes us back to his great days, but also tells his difficult personal story, which is far more interesting than anything he's done on screen.

The story starts in Hampstead in 1957, but his family soon moved to Norfolk and he says it was "agony to be so remote" as the cool London kids were going to cinemas and milk bars and he was stuck in flat old Yokeltown.

There followed some youthful brushes with the law but education brought him back into civilisation, and it was at Cambridge in the 1970s where he met his first comedy partner, Hugh Laurie.

There is lots of luvvie emotion and glowing contributions from Laurie, Michael Sheen, Alan Davies and John Lloyd but Fry's discussions about his battles with bipolar disorder offset all of that frilly nonsense.

Radio Times review

Stephen Fry has been the face of the Bafta Film Awards for many years now and the British Academy is behind this glowing tribute to the writer, raconteur, actor and wit. There will be contributions from Fry's friends and colleagues Michael Sheen, Hugh Laurie, Alan Davies and John Lloyd. But in the main, Fry himself waxes lyrical on his love of meeting film stars at the awards, his early passion for drama and comedy and the bathroom encounter with Alan Bennett that prompted him to play Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film.

This may be a little luvvieish for some tastes, but the goo will have a dose of savoury in the form of his reflections on his various private struggles over the years, including his battle with depression.