Stephen Fry

Blackadder on Netflix: why you should re-watch it

In among the huge swaths of original content on Netflix, there are also plenty of beloved old favourites primed to be revisited. One such timeless classic is the incomparable Blackadder.

Stephen Fry recovering from prostate cancer surgery

Stephen Fry is recovering from surgery for prostate cancer and said "it all seemed to go pretty well". The broadcaster, who had his operation in early January, said on his website: "They took the prostate out," adding: "So far as we know it's all been got."

Stephen Fry rules 2017 audio chart

Though specific download figures are not available, all signs point to a growing audio download market--and it's one dominated by the vocals of Stephen Fry....

Stephen Fry steps down as Bafta Film Awards host

Stephen Fry is to step down as host of the Bafta Film Awards.

Longevity, banging on and on, is the key component of national treasuredom. In his slick Sale of the Century years it was hard to imagine Nicholas Parsons might ever achieve the status, but now, aged 94, and having presented 975 episodes of Radio 4's Just a Minute/c], without deviation but with plenty of repetition, the mantle maybe fits. The BBC celebrated his half century with a tribute, Just a Minute: 50 Years in 28 Minutes, which had living panellists compete with departed wits; a ouija board parlour game. Paul Merton interrupted Peter Cook's 60 seconds on the Loch Ness monster, Jenny Eclair was superseded by Patrick Moore on foolishness. By the time Stephen Fry cut in on Kenneth Williams and Barbara Castle on the subject of Gregorian chants, it was tricky to work out who was in the studio and who wasn't. "I don't think we can have psychic challenges," a youthful Parsons reminded his departed guests; we can now.

Book review: Mythos, by Stephen Fry

Often when a celebrity - and Fry is unquestionably that - appears as the author of a book on a well-worn or popular subject, you may look for something bland or perfunctory, even suspect the hand of a ghost. This book is different.

The QI boxsets: a second pedantic look

In May 2017, I wrote a piece for On The Box about the first two QI boxsets, covering the first seven series. As I had heard from the show's researchers, the QI elves, that I was mentioned in these boxsets for my pedantry, I decided to cover them in a pedantic way. I have now done the same with the two most recent collections, covering Series H-J and Series K-M respectively.

Blackadder's greatest episodes

With an ensemble cast that no other sitcom can ever hope to match, the show gave us plenty of memorable episodes, but we've tried to narrow them down to just a select few.

Has comedy become too PC?

They say that much of the right-wing backlash being observed in the political mainstream across the world stems from how overly PC society has become. And if that's true, comedy may have a lot to answer for.

Bruce Dessau on 30 years attending the Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe is 70 years old this year. Veteran comedy critic Bruce Dessau remembers 3/7ths of it. At least, he remembers the really odd stuff.