Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry named charity president

Stephen Fry has been named the new president of a mental health charity.

Stephen Fry meets his own tattoo portrait

Stephen Fry came face to face with an unusual portrait of himself.

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry, based on the best-selling books by Terry Deary, has been making youngsters (and a few adults) chuckle for three series quietly on the CBBC channel. Having been the surprise winner of Best Sketch Show in the British Comedy Awards - which, not to put it down, was in part to do with lack of competition - it has been awarded the dubious honour of a promotion to BBC1, with its best bits repackaged with spurious links from Stephen Fry.

The sketches are still good fun, including the ones you might have seen on YouTube already where King Charles II raps and the Vikings do a soft rock number, but the point of Fry is lost on me: he's in a studio half-heartedly decorated with random historical objects basically repeating what the sketches have already told us more amusingly ("No one really knows how much of the story of Troy is true and how much is myth," he intones: well, thanks for that Stephen, otherwise I obviously would have assumed that Menelaus really did greet Helen with "you is well fit, innit?").

It's a bit like those 'adult' editions of the Harry Potter books with different covers for people who didn't want to look as if they were reading a children's book, even though they were.

Stephen Fry leads cast for Borrowers adaptation

Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Robert Sheehan and Sharon Horgan have been cast in a BBC adaptation of The Borrowers, due to air this Christmas.

Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood to star in The Borrowers

BBC's new 90-minute adaptation of Mary Norton's novels will broadcast over the festive season.

Horrible Histories' talking puppet rat, Rattus Rattus, moves aside to allow Stephen Fry to take the helm as presenter for this new prime-time version of the children's factual show. It's not a new series per se, more a collection of sketches from the first two series. Highlights include a dandy Charles II rapping about the Restoration - "I'm the king who brought back part-y-ing"; an episode of Historical Mastermind with Shakespeare, whose specialist subject is "phrases what I made up"; and a Viking rock group. Despite its frivolous premise there are serious messages, and the show always takes care to ridicule bullies and violence.

Stephen Fry changes "Dam Busters" dog name to 'Digger'

The Dam Busters dog will be renamed for a new version of the classic war movie, it has emerged. Stephen Fry, who is writing the film's screenplay, said there was "no question in America that you could ever have a dog called the N-word".

I have to admit this is the first time I have watched Horrible Histories, which is strange because I loved the books when I was a kid. Having watched the first episode in the new series it is clear that this is something I've grown out of, as sadly this show is not for me.

It is such a shame because it is clearly popular with both its target audience of children, with some adults, and with the people who decided to give it the British Comedy Award for "Best Sketch Comedy". However, for me much of it was just annoying. For example, one episode featured a Roman general trying to kill 5,000 people in battle so that he could get a parade, but the enemy surrendered after 4,999 deaths, so the general kills a Roman bureaucrat to reach the total. That is all right as an idea for a sketch, but then the general did this annoying beat-boxing at the end to celebrate reaching 5,000.

It wasn't the only thing annoying thing about the show. There was also a parody of the Adam and the Ants song "Stand and Deliver" telling the story of Dick Turpin, which just got on my nerves; all the way through the show little signs kept popping up saying things like, "This really happened!", which wound me up; and there was a sketch about a French prankster - although to be fair the character was deliberately meant to be annoying.

Also, this show also had quite a lot of jokes involving and seeing faeces. To be fair however, at least the sketch was teaching children about gong farmers (people paid to remove human waste) and tanners (people who used poo to make leather), whereas in Lead Balloon it just came out in one sudden unpleasant burst.

I suppose the way to conclude this review is that if you like it, good for you, because there is more to come. There is already a spin-off called Gory Games which features Dave Lamb as a co-host - interesting to see that he is willing to entertain children face-to-face but not adults. I'm guessing children are much easier to please.

Horrible Histories is also being re-worked for a primetime audience, with Stephen Fry acting as a host. However, I don't think even he is going to make me watch it. For me, this is a children's sketch show that the children can keep for themselves.

Stephen Fry cast in 'Borrowers' remake

Stephen Fry has joined the cast of a new adaptation of children's classic The Borrowers.

Audio: Stephen Fry on his Hobbit film role

Actor, writer and broadcaster, Stephen Fry, is to play Mayor of Laketown in The Lord of the Rings prequel Peter Jackson is currently shooting in New Zealand.

"It doesn't involve putting hair on my feet. At least, as far as I know," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

He told the BBC's Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo that he plays a corrupt, pompous official.

Fry described the character as being "somewhere between Mayor Quimby in The Simpsons...and Adam West in Family Guy."