Stephen Fry

Dan Schreiber: The idiot elf arrives at the Fringe

Dan Schreiber is one of the QI elves to which Stephen Fry often refers on the popular BBC panel show, helping dig up the trivia and misconceptions that form the heart of the show. But you might now that already if you're a QI fan, because Schreiber is also one of the regulars on the show's spin-off podcast that launched earlier this year, No Such Thing As Fish. Schreiber also works with QI creator John Lloyd on the radio show The Museum Of Curiosity, a programme he helped conceive and co-produces.

Stephen Fry: Monty Python broke all the comedy rules

Speaking at Monty Python's premiere, actor Stephen Fry said the group were his comic heroes, praising them for breaking "every rule going about comedy".

Stephen Fry is bookies favourite for Danger Mouse role

Stephen Fry is bookies favourite to replace David Jason in the new Danger Mouse animated series.

Letter: Rik Mayall's courage in Cell Mates

I acted with Rik Mayall just once, in 1995, in the ill-fated production of Simon Gray's Cell Mates, directed by Simon himself. After Stephen Fry went Awol, we were all shattered, but no one more than Rik, because the play was virtually a two-hander, with the other three actors, of whom I was one, playing small parts to help tell the story of George Blake and Sean Bourke.

Stephen Fry: the letter that saved my life - video

Stephen Fry explains how a few short words turned his life around as a troubled teenager, and imagines the fantasy letter he would send to Oscar Wilde to rescue him from the shame and despair that blighted his final years. The interview was filmed at Letters Live at the Southbank on World Book Night, in aid of The Reading Agency.

Highlights include a mickey take of The Office and a brilliantly-observed version of The Killing that mixes the dark thriller with children's television character Pingu.

Harry and Paul don't shy away from the controversial parts of the BBC's history, with a version of Call My Bluff in which the chosen word is paedophile. And after a picture of a BBC chief called Bert John is flashed up that bears more than a passing resemblance to ex-director general John Birt, fictional head of drama Jonathan Oxford-Cambridge (played by Whitehouse) refers to Bert John as, "a total c..." before he is cut off.

Enfield plays main narrator, the historian Simon Schama, plus Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry and Ian Hislop, while Whitehouse's characters include Paul Merton, Mary Berry and BBC creative director Alan Yentob - who he plays as a mixture of Gollum and Yoda.

Yentob showed he could take the joke though. Most of the show was filmed around the old BBC Television Centre in west London which is being redeveloped. Originally Harry and Paul were denied access but Yentob sorted it out for them. Harry said at a screening of the show: "Yentob made it happen. I think he might live to regret it don't you?"

Stephen Fry is the new President of Hay Festival

Stephen Fry has succeeded the late Eric Hobsbawm as the President of the Hay Festival.

Stephen Fry wins first Tony nomination

Stephen Fry has notched up his first Tony nomination for his Broadway debut in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Stephen Fry leads boycott against Dorchester Hotel

The Dorchester Hotel is facing a boycott by fashion and screen stars in a row over a law, passed by its owner in Brunei, which could lead to gay people being stoned to death. Stephen Fry, US comedian Ellen DeGeneres and leading designers have all vowed not to stay in any of the hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei in protest over the legislation.

Fry's "In the Psychiatrist's Chair" to be repeated

The classic series of in-depth celebrity interviews by Dr Anthony Clare will get its first airing for 15 years. A run of 11 episodes begins later this month with a 1997 session focusing on Stephen Fry, in which the comedian, actor and presenter talks about his success, sexuality, parents and the battles with bipolar disorder that saw him contemplating suicide after walking out of a West End show in which he was performing.