"It would be lovely to turn into a teddy bear for the young, as it were, a kind of amiable eccentric."
Welcome to my Stephen Fry fan site.
According to the sleeve notes of his autobiography, Moab is my Washpot, most of Stephen's present life is spent trying to be good. He rarely succeeds, yet he still tries. He no longer steals, cheats or lies nearly as much as he used to. He still talks too much, and he still has an annoying flop of schoolboy hair that seventeen of London's most expensive and absurd hairdressers have been able to do nothing about.
Heinous crimes indeed. However, two things that Stephen definitely cannot be accused of being are bland or predictable and perhaps that's why I am such a dedicated and long-standing admirer of his work. He truely is a man of many talents: actor, novelist, humourist, reviewer, philosopher, parodist, screen writer, autobiographer, academic, drama queen, clown and, as often as not, a gigantic mixture of all these and more and you get the impression that he really does strive to excel himself in everything that he does.
News and Mutterings:
6th October 2004
Hoorah! QI returns to BBC2 on Friday 8th October at 10pm for a run of 12 episodes. Joining Stephen in the studio are the quite interesting Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Sean Lock and Bill Bailey :)
28th September 2004
If classical music is your thing (or even if it's not), "Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music" was published on 17th September and it looks like an excellent read. Check out amazon for details.
Still on the theme of classical music, here's a nice piece from The Guardian.
Check out the official web site for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
9th September 2004
Well apparently it's coming up for British Food Fortnight and if you want to learn how to bake Honey Buns, Stephen Fry style, click here!
The Advocate has quite a nice interview with Stephen, in which he talks mainly about Bright Young Things.
There's a nice piece from The Observer in which Stephen says nice things about a new biography of PG Wodehouse.
Bright Young Things will be part of the line-up of films being shown at the Boston Film Festival this month.
Finally, after a very long wait it seems, Bright Young Things went on limited general release in American theatres in August and box office takings are pretty healthy. There's a good review from The Chicago Tribune here.
16th July 2004
Here's Stephen giving away lots of juicy secrets about the next Harry Potter instalment, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Actually, Stephen is only worried about one thing, and that's how long the book is going to be!
11th June 2004
It's been very quiet on the SJF news front of late.
The Newport International Film Festival kicked off this week (8th June), with an opening-night screening of Bright Young Things.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last month (Stephen plays Maurice Woodruff, Sellers' famous personal clairvoyant). The film has received mixed reviews.
1st May 2004
Some more information has surfaced regarding the new ITV1 adaptation of Tom Brown's School Days, which is likely to be screened in the UK in the winter. Stephen, as we know, is taking on the role of Dr Arnold, and his co-stars will include Jemma Redgrave as Arnold's wife Mary, newcomer Alex Pettyfer as Tom and Joseph Beattie is merciless bully Flashman.
It's been adapted for TV by Ashley Pharoah creator of Where the Heart Is, Down to Earth, Hustle and Silent Witness and it's being made by Company Pictures on location at Rugby School, the Isle of Man and London.
There's also an article about it here, which focuses on Rugby Public School.
Monday 26th April 2004
There was an article in yesterday's Sunday Mirror (UK) under the headline "Fry Finds Harry So Horribilis"; The article reads:
Stephen Fry has bowed out of plans to record Harry Potter audio books in Latin - because he can't get to grips with the ancient language. Author JK Rowling wanted the comedy actor, who narrated her audio books in English, to help children learn Latin through her stories about the schoolboy wizard.
Her agent Christopher Little is urgently seeking another celeb with a classical education after the comedy actor decided his grasp of the language of ancient Rome wasn't up to scratch. An insider said: "Stephen couldn't get the pronunciation right so dropped out. But how many other big-name stars speak Latin? If Stephen Fry can't do it, who can?"
Public school-educated Fry, 46, who studied English at Cambridge, found a new generation of fans as the narrator of the four Harry Potter talking books, which became the first literary series to sell more than a million audio tapes and CDs in Britain.
Monday 19th April 2004
There was no BAFTA Television Award for Stephen last night, although he was on stage to present the Academy Fellowship to documentary maker, Roger Graef, who Stephen calls, "a simply remarkable man". On the bright side, UK folks, don't forget Bright Young Things is released on dvd today. As if owning the film itself wasn't treat enough, there are some nice extras as an added bonus; a commentary by Stephen himself, a behind the scenes featurette and a short documentary on Stephen.
Bright Young Things will be showing at Filmfest DC, Washington's celebration of the best in world cinema, on 22nd April at 6:30 pm at the Avalon Theatre.
And finally, UK folks, magic fan Stephen will be guesting on psychological illusionist, Derren Brown's, new series on Friday 23rd April at 10:10pm on Channel 4.