Stephen Fry

Victoria Wood directs this loosely autobiographical story about a Lancashire girl whose dismal Christmas is transformed upon visiting a merry neighbour. Hers is the first of a dozen bite-sized films written by and starring the cream of British comedy - Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand - shown in double bills. Next up tonight is Chris O'Dowd's impish tale about the time he ambushed that white-bearded, milk- and mince pie-pinching trickster in red. Nine-year-old Chris is as lippy a rapscallion as you might expect, while O'Dowd takes the role of disgruntled supermarket Santa and Sharon Horgan is terrific as harassed Mum.

The cream of the British comedy crop come together for this series of brand new comedy shorts for Sky1 HD. Following a season of dramatic 10 Minute Tales last Christmas, this December it's Comedy's turn to shine in an anthology of short films, written by and featuring 12 of the nation's biggest and most loved comic stars. With the likes of Stephen Fry, Catherine Tate, Julia Davis and Bill Bailey flexing their creative muscles they're the perfect bite-sized morsel of entertainment for you and your family this Christmas. Tonight it's the turn of Victoria Wood and Chris O'Dowd who get the season underway.

A nightly season of short autobiographical films featuring some of Britain's best comic talent opens tonight with stories by Victoria Wood and Chris O'Dowd. Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Kathy Burke, Jo Brand and Catherine Tate are among those writing, narrating and starring in these seasonal dramatisations of their lives, often with stories recalled from their childhood. It's a bit hit-and-miss. Wood's is on first, though hers is the only story not to feature a younger version of herself. The IT Crowd's O'Dowd follows with an amusing story of why as a boy he thought Santa was a "big weirdo".

Whether you're sick of the sight of Stephen Fry or think his national treasure status is as strong as ever, there's no denying the consistency of QI, which even in its eighth series still has no rival as the quiz show for the discerning viewer. Joining Alan Davies this week are Jimmy Carr, Dara O'Briain (the host of The Apprentice: You're Fired! Wednesdays) and BBC sports presenter Clare Balding.

A modest moment of TV history took place in Fry and Laurie Reunited, in which the beloved comedy duo appeared on screen following a gap of 15 years.

Interviewing each other informally in an English country manor, their mutual affection was palpable. Although it was charming seeing them in tandem again, it was disappointing that their cheerfully anecdotal conversation offered scant insight into their working process. Sadly, it wasn't that kind of show.

Instead, this was - as Fry might say - a moist, fluffy tribute to one of Britain's most exceptional double acts: a reminder that Laurie is one of the most naturally gifted clowns of his generation, and that Fry was once so much more than a cosy national treasure.

Despite their closeness, it was interesting to note their different temperaments. Now one of the world's biggest TV stars thanks to House, Laurie disguised himself behind a torrent of unsentimental quips, while Fry guffawed adoringly and spoke emotionally of their relationship.

It's tempting to draw parallels with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: the troubled, resolutely English wit and the ivory-tinkling clown turned unlikely superstar sex symbol. But there isn't a hint of jealousy or spite between them.

As torrid as it got was when Laurie questioned Fry's memories of their first meeting and expressed concern that he was spreading himself too thin, while Fry dug heavily at the likes of Little Britain for lazily regurgitating sketches, which Fry and Laurie rarely did.

Notwithstanding a glimpse of their obscure comedy pilot from 1983, this reunion was over-reliant on familiar clips and padding. If not a squandered opportunity exactly, then not quite the summit I'd hoped for.

Fry and Laurie Reunited, G.O.L.D., review

Michael Deacon reviews Fry and Laurie Reunited, G.O.L.D.'s documentary about Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie's comedy partnership.

Fry & Laurie - Reunited | TV Review

GOLD couldn't have gone far wrong with this well-judged and timely reunion, with public affection for Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie - once one of comedy's biggest double acts - sky high at the moment.

'Fortunately, I never fancied him... it would have been embarrassing,' confided Stephen Fry on Fry And Laurie Reunited, happily putting to bed a question that had thankfully never occurred to me, as it might have put an altogether different spin on all those Blackadder slapping scenes. No, Hugh and Stephen are just frightfully good chums.

Though it did at times descend into the showbiz love-in suggested by the title, this Reunited still amounted to a rather superior slice of nostalgia.

It's 15 years since the duo, who met at Cambridge University's Footlights (aka the BBC's in-house comedy training scheme), last appeared together. So getting them together for a chinwag was something of a coup for Gold, a channel eager to escape the twin yoke of Spandau Ballet and Nescafé.

For a while, they could easily have settled for chewing up and spitting out A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, their rather good sketch show that was here turned by hagiographic showbiz fawners into a missing chapter of The Bible. However, they took a tilt at different careers and it paid off. As Dr Gregory House, Laurie has become the world's most watched TV star (no idea how they work that out), while Fry tweets on everything from darts to ecological destruction ('I do wish he wouldn't put himself about so much,' said Hugh - but not to his face).

You can't begrudge them their careers but their obvious on-screen chemistry did make you wonder about all the comedy sketches we've missed because they didn't stick together. Though it didn't always work - and Reunited had the decency to recall the long-forgotten Alfresco from 1983, a show beaten into a pulp by The Young Ones - Fry and Laurie set a standard for the comedy sketch duo that has rarely been matched since.

And though they had a jolly time taking the mickey out of their shared past, the chances of a fully fledged on-screen reunion, usually the hook for this kind of TV encounter, thankfully seemed like a total non-starter. Fry and Laurie are no fools: they know there's no going back.

In the back of a cab on his way to meeting his best friend Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry muses: "When you know someone really, really well you never actually talk about things." Both Fry and Laurie put that right in a hugely enjoyable, clip-strewn chat, their first television appearance together in 15 years. It's a loose, freewheeling, vastly funny get-together with Laurie, confident and no longer the self-effacing adjunct to Fry (that's what being the biggest TV star in the world does for you), leading things brilliantly. "I think I made a girl laugh in a bar," says Laurie of his Cambridge comedy years. "So many stories start that way " Fry giggles helplessly as the pair reminisce in what Laurie describes as "a beautifully prepared conversation pit" in lovely Eltham Palace, south-east London. They look back at old A Bit of Fry and Laurie sketches, talk of their love for one another, and Laurie offers a word of caution to the unwary about his techno-fan friend: "If Stephen asks you to look at something on his computer screen, run for your f*****g life."