A Bit of Fry and Laurie
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| A Bit of Fry and Laurie | |
|---|---|
 Title screen from A Bit of Fry and Laurie |
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| Genre | Sketch comedy |
| Creator(s) | Stephen Fry Hugh Laurie |
| Starring | Stephen Fry Hugh Laurie |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 26 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC2 |
| Original run | January 13, 1989 – April 2, 1995 |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
- This article is about the television series. For the comedy double act, see Fry and Laurie.
A Bit of Fry and Laurie is a British television series starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast by the BBC between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series, and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987. Despite its popularity at the time, the show has rarely been repeated on terrestrial television. Both Fry and Laurie have expressed great interest in working together again, but this has not yet taken place, due to both men's busy schedules (Fry hosts the popular comedy quiz QI; Laurie stars as the main character in the hit US series House).
The programme was a sketch show cast in a rather eccentric and at times high-brow mold. Elaborate wordplay and innuendo formed a large cornerstone of its charm — some sketches deliberately threatened to cross the line into vulgarity, but always finished just before reaching that point.
It was a progressive show, playing with the audience's expectations. For example, it frequently broke the fourth wall; characters would revert into their real-life actors mid-sketch, or the camera would often pan off set into the studio. In addition, the show was punctuated with non-sequitur vox-pops in a similar style to those of Monty Python's Flying Circus, often making irrelevant statements, heavily based on wordplay. Laurie was also seen playing piano and a wide variety of other instruments, and singing comical numbers.
Contents |
[edit] Pilot
The 36-minute pilot was broadcast on BBC2 on Boxing Day 1987, although it was later edited down to 29 minutes for repeat transmissions (including broadcasts on the Paramount Comedy Channel). The full version is intact on the Series 1 DVD.
The first three series were screened on BBC2, the traditional home for the BBC's comedy sketch shows, while the fourth switched to BBC1, the mainstream entertainment channel. Some believe this last series to be the weakest, for a number of reasons: BBC1 was not the best place to showcase Fry and Laurie's arch humour; it featured celebrity guests in every episode but one, an addition that neither Fry nor Laurie approved of; and it was shown not long after Stephen Fry's nervous breakdown in 1995, which cast a shadow over the series. One reviewer says that, perhaps owing to this, Fry got more of the laughs, while Laurie was increasingly relegated to the "straight man" role. [1]
[edit] "Soupy twist"
The catchphrase "soupy twist" was uttered by Fry at the end of each episode of series 3 and 4, and is believed to be a phrase from the language Strom, likely meaning 'cheers', invented by Fry and first used on his BBC Radio 4 series Saturday Night Fry. Strom comprises nonsensical single-syllable words often meaning different things in the same sentence, even shorter words that can only be expressed over a full sentence in English and vulgar faux amis.
[edit] Recurring characters
Though the programme was mostly made up of one-time situations and sketches, a few characters appeared over several episodes and series.
[edit] Alan
Alan (Laurie) is hired as a secret agent by a mysterious organisation known only as 'The Department', before which he was a gun-runner, supply teacher and Home Secretary. The character is a parody of several television shows of the 1970s, most prominently The Professionals.
[edit] The Bishop and the Warlord
The Bishop (Fry) and the Warlord (Laurie) first appear in series 1. They are the world's leading light-metal band (as opposed to heavy-metal). The Warlord (guitarist) is dressed as a typical rocker, whereas the Bishop (vocalist) is dressed in his normal vestments, and one black fingerless glove. He sings (or rather speaks) his songs from a pulpit.
[edit] Control and Tony
Control (Fry) and Tony Murchison (Laurie) are two excessively nice secret agents who first appear in series 1 of the show. Control is head of SIS, the British secret service. Tony Murchison is Subsection Chief of the East Germany and Related Satellites Desk, who brings Control his morning coffee. The characters seem reluctant to discuss issues of national security, and when they do the topic is covered with almost childish simplicity. Much of the humour in these sketches arises from the stilted, amateurish and inappropriate performance style. They parody the gloomy, oppressive Cold War television dramas such "Callan", "Secret Service", and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".
[edit] Gelliant Gutfright
Gelliant (Fry) is the host of short-horror program The Seventh Dimension, who presents stories such as "Flowers for Wendy" and "The Red Hat of Patferrick". He is depicted as an older gentleman who takes great joy in using elaborate wordplay and double negatives whilst seated in his improbably large gold-buttoned leather chair. The stories told were often in the style of The Twilight Zone.
[edit] John and Peter
John (Fry) and Peter (Laurie) are hard-driving, hard-drinking executives, with a different business in each episode, ranging from a health club to the Diocese of Uttoxeter (John as Bishop, Peter as Executive Vice-Bishop). The characters are a parody of high-powered American businessmen of the time, with their loud catchphrase 'Damn!' or 'Dammit John!'. Their plans are usually derailed by the casual interference of the diabolical Marjorie, John's ex-wife. The sketch also drew inspiration from boardroom soap operas such as The Power Game, Man at the Top, and Howards' Way.
[edit] Mr Dalliard
Mr Dalliard is a non-appearing character in various sketches, all taking place in a shop environment. Though Dalliard never appears, and is inferred to be a creation of Fry's character's imagination, he is referred and spoken to several times in every sketch.
[edit] Tony Inchpractice
Tony (Laurie) first appears in series 2. He is the host of several talk shows, each one having an odd theme. The different shows are: Trying to Borrow a Fiver Off, Introducing My Grandfather To, Photocopying My Genitals With, Realising I've Given the Wrong Directions To and Flying a Light Aeroplane Without Having Had Any Formal Instruction With...
[edit] Episode guide
- Pilot : 26 December 1987 (36 minutes)
- Series One : 13 January 1989 – 17 February 1989 (six episodes)
- Series Two : 9 March 1990 – 13 April 1990 (six episodes)
- Series Three : 9 January 1992 – 13 February 1992 (six episodes)
- Series Four : 12 February 1995 – 2 April 1995 (seven episodes)
Two compilations were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on August 11, 1994.
[edit] DVD releases
After much fan-driven petition, the first series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, plus the pilot, was released on DVD on 3 April 2006 in Region 2. Series two was released on June 12, with as a bonus feature a 45-minute Cambridge Footlights Revue (1982) in which Fry and Laurie appear with Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Penny Dwyer and Paul Shearer.
The third series followed in October 2006. Amazon UK released a complete box set (all 4 series) on 30 October 2006, along with series 4 itself.
Series 1 was released on 6 July in Region 4. Region 1 versions of the first two series were released in the United States on 22 August 2006.
There is a copyright-related music edit on the Series 1 DVD during the final sketch of Episode 6 ("Tony of Plymouth (Sword Fight)"). In the broadcast version, the music was from the soundtrack of "The Sea Hawk" but instead a new piece of music has been used, unfortunately drowning out most of the dialogue in the process. Incidentally, in Series 2 Saint-Saens isn't credited for the end music until the second half of the series.
[edit] Music
Hugh Laurie is an accomplished musician, but he did not write the closing theme. It is, in fact, "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" by Professor Longhair.
[edit] Publications
Four collections of A Bit of Fry and Laurie scripts have been published.
- A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1990)
- A Bit More Fry & Laurie (1991)
- 3 Bits of Fry & Laurie (1992)
- Fry & Laurie Bit No. 4 (1995)
[edit] External links
