Saturday Night Fry
A Bit of Fry and Laurie | |
Hosted by | Stephen Fry |
---|---|
Starring | Jim Broadbent Emma Thompson Phyllida Law Robert Bathurst Julia Hills Alison Steadman Barry Cryer Hugh Laurie |
Recording studio | Broadcasting House, London |
Original release | 19 December 1987 4 June 1988 | –
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Opening theme | "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five) |
Saturday Night Fry is a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 4 that was broadcast between 30 April and 4 June 1988. The first episode had previously been broadcast as a pilot on 19 December 1987.[1]
A different show of the same name aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, again hosted by Fry. This was a series of serious 45-minute debates interspersed with occasional sketches and pieces of music.
Format
Hosted by Stephen Fry—accompanied each week by a selection of guests including Jim Broadbent, Emma Thompson, Phyllida Law, Robert Bathurst, Julia Hills, Alison Steadman and long-time collaborator Hugh Laurie—the show took the form of a round table discussion and sketches which veered tangentially from the sublime to the ridiculous. Parodies of television and radio formats were common ('Fat Man on a Bicycle', and so on).
Snippets of
Certain editions were constructed in complex knots: one edition saw the cast rearranging the script as a practical joke whilst Fry has gone to the toilet, ending up in him reading the part where they do that and so finding them red-handed, whilst the first edition fell in and out of dream sequences caused by a devilish potion.
Although slightly different in format the series could be seen as a direct precursor to
The signature tune opening each episode was "Saturday Night Fish Fry" by Louis Jordan. This would always be preceded by a rather convoluted introduction from Fry.
Release
In 2009, the series was released on a triple compact disc set by
References
- ^ "SOTCAA".
- ^ "Comedy preview: Saturday Night Fry, audio". The Guardian. 30 May 2009.
- BBC Radio 7.
External links
- Some of the Corpses Are Amusing — A comprehensive article.