Stephen Fry

Radio Times review

Sue Perkins appears to be taking this edition incredibly seriously, frowning as she unpicks the brainteasers and listening intently to Stephen Fry's elucidations as if she was the classroom swot thirsty for every drop of knowledge. That is until he poses the question how did Chicago get screwed up, to which she flippantly replies: "They put Catherine Zeta-Jones in it."

The lavatorial round may send you running towards the smallest room because the explanation is so nauseating even the panellists shriek in horror. But stick around for the quantum levitation demonstration. It's childishly and joyously brilliant. Josh Widdicombe's right when he says: "That would be the best Christmas present in the world!"

Radio Times review

In honour of guest Victoria Coren Mitchell, QI goes off-grid and includes an Only Connect round. The most shocking thing to emerge from this dramatic deviation from the norm is that Alan Davies has never managed to sit through an entire episode of the BBC Two brainiac quiz.

It will surprise no one to learn that Jack Whitehall takes over the proceedings completely for his usual Whitehall farce, though you can't dislike him for it. He's funny, particularly when discussing his dad's disapproval of his son's bromance with host Stephen Fry.

Elsewhere, we learn the connection between PG Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes - and did you know that a quarter of the people who claim to have read 1984 are lying?

Radio Times review

Considering he's possibly the world's most charming man, Stephen Fry is never too far away from controversy. The publication of the third volume of his memoirs, More Fool Me, was accompanied by a racket as some readers and commentators demanded he be retrospectively prosecuted for his acknowledged cocaine use in the 1980s.

But Fry was determined to tell what he's described as the "ugly truth" about his drug-taking past that even saw him snorting cocaine during a reception at Buckingham Palace. "I was an imbecile, an idiot, I got caught up in a ridiculous dependency," he told Huw Edwards recently.

Another man who's had his own monumental battles with addiction, Robert Downey Jr, joins Fry and Oscar-winning Robert Duvall on the Norton sofa.

Book review: More Fool Me by Stephen Fry

This is, of course, a well-written book. But it is also a very big book, which it didn't need to be. The opening eighty pages or so are a recap of his life so far, while a hefty chunk at the end is Palin-style diary entries with intermittent added footnotes. But the thing about Fry is that he is a larger-than-life figure, making huge sums of money, dining with the Great and the Good, hoovering up marathon lines of marching powder back in the day. He could hardly deliver a piddly paperback could he?

Stephen Fry: I wish the selfie had never been invented

Stephen Fry talks tech with Fred McConnell, telling us everything from who we should be following on Twitter, but probably aren't; what his life would have been like if he had grown up with an iPhone; and what concerns he has for the future of technology.

Radio Times review

Usually the QI panelists scrabble about improvising madly as they try to answer Stephen Fry's abstruse questions. Yet both Johnny Vegas and Jason Manford come up with a correct answer (and in Manford's case an impressively comprehensive one) almost immediately. Are the guests getting smarter or the questions easier? Aisling Bea and regular Alan Davies can't compete with such esoteric knowledge. In fact she almost gives up after hearing about a strange northern pursuit involving larded-up legs. "The more I get to know you, the more I think you men are mad," she states. Oh, and you'll never think of the word "sufficient" in the same way after Vegas's revelation.

Stephen Fry can't stand "ghastly snobbery" of Downton

The QI host has strong words about the ITV period drama in his new memoir, More Fool Me.

Hugh Laurie joins Stephen Fry on LittleBigPlanet 3 game

It seems as though LittleBigPlanet 3 is turning into a sort of Blackadder reunion, as Hugh Laurie joins fellow actor and comedian Stephen Fry in the game's voice cast.

We've reached "L". Lordy. That's some longevity, right there. However, to make things a little less lumbering, question maestro Stephen Fry is concentrating only on the animal kingdom tonight: from lonely whales to larval locomotives. And possibly lolloping lorikeets, lecherous lions and lesser mouse lemurs. Guests Sarah Millican, Ross Noble and Colin Lane join resident fixture Alan Davies.

Radio Times review

It's certainly a big night for comedy panel shows with Have I Got News for You joining Would I Lie to You? on BBC1 and, testing our knowledge of the baffling and the obscure, the wonderful QI on BBC Two.

We're on to the letter L - although that hardly matters - and it takes less than five minutes for it to get lewd despite the headmasterly efforts of Stephen Fry. He asks an innocent question about the sound a lonely whale makes and the ensuing banter suddenly spirals off into filth. Hilarious filth, mind you. Fry, whose obsession with gadgetry matches his love of language, also gets to demonstrate how a fish can drive a tank.

Joining QI regulars Ross Noble and Sarah Millican is the quick-witted Australian comic Colin Lane, but even he is no match for Alan Davies who, for once, isn't there simply to play the fool. "What has 32 brains and sucks," the panel is asked. "The front row" is his speedy response.