Soupy Twists Again!
Published: Friday 28th March 2025
Author Jem Roberts outlines the return of his officially authorised Fry & Laurie celebration - plus, an Audible giveaway!
"Never go back, ladies and gentlemen, never go back", a wise Stephen Fry once said - but with this April's relaunch of my official Fry & Laurie book, Soupy Twists, I aim to prove the great man and fresh knight hopelessly misguided.
There's a pleasing symmetry to the fact that the story of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie's friendship - and all the daft, sick and twisted comedy that came from it - originally launched to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of A Bit Of Fry & Laurie (arguably the greatest sketch show of all time, should you feel argumentative), and now has finally materialised in both paperback and audiobook form to mark the 30th anniversary of the sad and precipitate end of that wonderful series.
Back in 2017, I met up with the then honour-poor Stephen Fry over a knickerbocker glory at the Ritz (he does know how to live), and besides submitting to long interviews, and getting his colleague Hugh to do the same, Stephen was kind enough to gift me the entire comedy contents of his hard-drive, scores of sketches that never made it into ABOF&L, some finished, some not. Nearly all effortlessly superior to the most celebrated sketches of any subsequent double act. Much of the cream of what he shared with me ended up being released in the original hardback, published in 2018 by the now-ex-publisher Unbound, with a truly horrible monochrome cover which I begged the Unbounders to reconsider, to absolutely sod-all avail.
There was a lot of fun at the original launch - we performed two whole shows packed with these un-performed sketches, I got to chat with Arthur Smith about my love for Fry & Laurie, in an interview which is still somehow up on BBC Sounds, and we even got nominated for a Chortle Book Award, and got to spend the night of the awards show taking the piss out of the proceedings with the harshly missed Tony Slattery. But for all that, I was never happy with the hardback, and looked forward to getting it right with the paperback - I always wanted Soupy Twists to look like the next in the line of classic Fry & Laurie books, all white and gold, colourful and fun... therefore, Unbound's assurance that they couldn't be arsed to put out a paperback came as quite a blow, but their return of the rights to me only meant one thing - I had my work cut out.
Anyway, to skip over many years and months of hows, and whys, and d'you-mind-if-I-don'ts, after much hard work, finally the paperback version, fully updated to include words like 'Sir', 'Jeopardy' and 'axed Armando Iannucci sitcom', is now available for fans to buy online, packed with even more unseen sketches, and looking absolutely as it was always intended to. Fry & Laurie were always one of our greatest comedy double acts, and now they have the lasting celebration of their comedy that they deserve, in paperback and ebook.
However, this isn't closure enough, and very soon, the audiobook version will also be available on Audible, as performed by me in Fry mode, abetted by m'colleague Kris Dyer (not just producer of all my audiobooks but also, like me, an ex-double-act member), as my ersatz Hugh. Obviously, performing a book filled with duologue solo was going to be a ridiculous task, so I'm hoping the fun audio masterwork we have stitched together is sonically pleasing to fans of Stephen & Hugh the whole world over. This double release finally completes my existing full comedy history library in audio form, and we'll be launching the paperback and audiobook at the Bath Comedy Festival with an all-new hour of unperformed Fry & Laurie sketches! Getting to tell the extraordinary story of Stephen & Hugh's comedy careers in a new format has been a huge pleasure...
Soupy Twists! - The Full, Official Story Of The Sophisticated Silliness Of Fry & Laurie is out on 1st April.
'Soupy Twists - Fry & Laurie Live!' is at Bath Comedy Festival on Saturday 5th April at 5:45pm. Info & tickets
And now it's one you can get stuck into, for free! Simply answer this offensively simple question to be in with the chance of winning a free download code for the Soupy Twists audiobook, as soon as it goes live in mid-April!
Which comedy great earned an early screen credit on ABOF&L as a man dying from not having his bottom fondled?
A) Bob Mortimer
B) Tony Hawks
C) Paul Whitehouse
D) Dylan Moran
Simply send your entry to jem@jemroberts.com before April 11th, and one winner will receive a free download code in reply!
You've been patient, you've been glossy, you've been surprisingly supple. I've enjoyed being fabulous with you. SOUPY TWISTS!
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Love comedy? Find out moreSoupy Twists! - The Full, Official Story Of The Sophisticated Silliness Of Fry & Laurie
Fry & Laurie are one of the most beloved double acts in comedy history. This brand new edition of their 100% officially authorised joint biography takes us on their somewhat bumbling journey, from insecure Footlighters to international comedy heroes. It is a tale of a true friendship - a deep affection held by two very funny and tall men, which has long been reflected back by an adoring public.
Jem Roberts, official biographer of Douglas Adams and acclaimed chronicler of I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, Blackadder and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, covers everything from the excitement of being the first ever winners of the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, to the terrors of performing on Saturday Live, the collaborative warfare of Blackadder, the creation of four series of superior sketch comedy with A Bit Of Fry & Laurie, the admirable promotion of Tidyman's Carpets, heaps of cream and lawnmowers, and the ultimate depiction of PG Wodehouse's most inimitable characters, in Jeeves & Wooster.
Beyond this, the sundry how-d'you-do's and how-d'you-don'ts of their remarkable subsequent separate career paths, from QI to House, are thoroughly explored.
Launching 30 years after the end of their legendary BBC series, this brand new, much-anticipated edition of the 2019 original brings their stories right up to date. The new edition boasts not just terribly exclusive interviews with both colleagues, plus friends, foes and lovers - including Emma Thompson, Richard Curtis, John Lloyd and many more - but also a freshly expanded selection of rare Fry & Laurie sketches, direct from the ABOF&L secret archives, never before seen by fans.
First published: Tuesday 1st April 2025
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