Press clippings Page 32
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?
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 17th October 2014Book 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?
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 13th October 2014Stephen 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.
Fred McConnell, The Guardian, 13th October 2014Radio 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.
Jane Rackham, Radio Times, 10th October 2014Stephen 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.
Huw Fullerton, Radio Times, 9th October 2014Hugh 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.
Polygon, 7th October 2014We'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.
Ali Catterall, The Guardian, 3rd October 2014Radio 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.
Jane Rackham, Radio Times, 3rd October 2014Book review: More Fool Me by Stephen Fry
More Fool Me isn't Fry at his gossipy, witty, powerful best - but it's a largely jaunty skip through a hard-partying celebrity life. Like the diary page of a mid-market newspaper, but seen from the inside.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 2nd October 2014Stephen Fry, Festival Hall - comedy review
A warm and lively testament to Fry's unique charm.
Guy Pewsey, Evening Standard, 2nd October 2014