In case you are blissfully unaware, QI is an abbreviation of “Quite Interesting”. This now very popular quiz show on BBC1 is somewhat unusual in contrast to typical quiz show models, as the contestants can be awarded points for incorrect answers. These points are only awarded if the answer given is deemed to be “interesting”. Obvious answers are penalised with the reduction of points. How peculiar you might ask? Well actually yes. This unique aspect to the show keeps it spontaneous and provides viewers with a flurry of quirky facts and clever quips. Who else could host such a show so perfectly but Stephen Fry?

The Crystal Cube was a mockumentary television pilot first broadcast on 7th July 1983, providing a humorous version of other television programmes such as Tomorrow’s World. Written by, and starring Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie, the show was based around topical discussions of science, with the pilot focussing on genetics. The mad scientists played by the duo were “Dr. Adrian Cowlacey“, and “Max Belhaven“, with Fry playing the former role. During the episode, the two scientists speak of a genetically engineered human that will glady perform menial tasks without complaint. Unfortunately, the BBC decided not to broadcast the series, but they did return a few years later in their own series “A bit of Fry and Laurie” in 1987.

The cast of Gosford Park reads like a who’s who of British actors, including, Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Clive Owen, and of course Stephen Fry. In-case you have not had the pleasure of viewing this film, it is set on a shooting weekend at an English country house in the early nineteen-thirties. Suddenly a murder occurs during the middle of the night, and the rest of the film focuses upon finding the killer. On the whole it does a great job of presenting tensions and difficulties in the class system, and was actually received pretty well by critics.

Stephen Fry in America is a six part BBC television series (and book) in which Stephen Fry travels across America to reveal a country in which he was almost born. Just before Fry was born, his father was offered a job at Princeton University, in New Jersey, but chose to turn it down in favour of Hampstead. In the six-part series he travels, mostly in a London cab, through all 50 U.S. states discovering unique places and people that have been neglected from the public spotlight.

Stephen Fry appeared in three of the four Blackadder series. Melchet, or “Melchy”, as the Queen fondly referred to his character as, was Lord Chamberlain, and chief rival to Blackadder for Queen Elizabeth’s affection. Highlights of Melchett’s character in the second series include challenging Blackadder to a deadly voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, and a drinking competition which proved to get him totally plastered. Melchett returned in “Blackadder goes fourth” as a pompous General, who was much like the popular caricatures of Generals such as Field Marshal Douglas Haig. A clip of this series can be seen below………

Wilde is based upon part of the life of Oscar Wilde, and is of course played by no other than Stephen Fry, his greatest fanatic. The film opens with Oscar Wilde's 1882 visit to Leadville, Colorado during his lecture tour of the United States. Despite his flamboyant personality and urbane wit, he proves to be a success with the local silver miners as he regales them with tales of Renaissance silversmith Benvenuto Cellini. Fry’s portrayal of Wilde can be described as nothing short of sublime.

The Liar takes the reader from the protagonist’s public school days to his life as an adult. Adrian is "the liar" spoken of in the title: an intelligent and irreverent young man, he has carefully groomed for himself the image of a witty, highly extroverted boy; however, despite his image, and despite regarding sex as his "public pride", he finds himself unable to express his love for the beautiful Hugo Cartwright. Adrian suffers this through his school days, not to mention a tedious job working with potatoes and darker experiences of unrequited love. It is during his University years, though, that the story of his life takes a more extraordinary turn. This is where he meets the slightly eccentric Professor Donald Trefusis, and becomes involved in international espionage!

Stephen Fry appears in this quintessentially British comedy-drama with Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Tony Slattery, all who had previously attended the “Cambridge Footlights”, an amateur theatrical club, whilst studying at the rather well known nearby university. On the whole the film confronts the audience with issues over friendship, marriage, fidelity, materialism, and coping with death. Some have criticised that Fry’s participation in the film was beneath him, as the quality of narrative was somewhat weak and predictable. This one is for you to decide…….

Saturday Live was an innovative television comedy and music show broadcast in the UK by Channel 4 from 1985 to 1987. Heavily influenced by the American show Saturday Night Live (in particular its use of guest hosts), it was produced by Paul Jackson and made stars of Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and featured appearances (in some cases first television appearances) by Patrick Marber, Morwenna Banks, Chris Barrie, Emo Philips, Craig Ferguson and many others. The show notoriously featured comic duo Adrian Edmondsonand Rik Mayall in their act The Dangerous Brothers.

The Discovery of Heaven was film directed by Jeroen Krabbe, based upon a 1992 Dutch novel by author Harry Mulisch of exactly the same title. Mulisch only agreed to let Krabbe go ahead with the making of the film on the one condition that he would get Fry to play the role of Onno Quist. To Krabbe’s credit, he managed it, and also kept the film pretty damn close to the plotline in the book, except a few longer pieces, which would have made the film drag on for an unnecessary amount of time.

Bright Young Things was both the screen-writing and directorial debut of Stephen Fry. Released in 2003, it is based upon the 1930 novel “Vile Bodies” by Londoner Evelyn Waugh. The film provides a satirical and somewhat humorous look at the lives of young aristocrats in London during the 1920s and 30s. The Chicago Sun-Times commented in a review that Stephen Fry “has a feel for it; to spend a little time talking with him is to hear inherited echoes from characters just like those in the story. He supplies a roll-call of supporting actors who turn up just long enough to convince us entire movies could be made about their characters".

Published recently back in October 2009, Stephen Fry explains the importance of Oscar Wilde, and why his stories mean so much to him. The timeless classics that Wilde produced are presented with thought provoking introductions by his greatest ever fanatic. Definitely worth checking out, and will probably make a great Christmas present this year if you are not sure what to get someone!

In this film, Stephen Fry provides the narration for what becomes a fantastic journey across space. One memorable quote by Fry is that “dolphins, the second most-intelligent creatures on Earth, attempted to warn mankind about the planet's impending destruction, but humans interpreted the dolphins' communications as tricks. The dolphins left the planet, leaving their final message to humans as "So long, and thanks for all the fish." The movie was nominated for seven different awards and won one of them, the Golden Trailer Award under the category Most Original.

The main character of this book, Edward (Ned) Maddstone, is a seventeen year old schoolboy who appears to be the sort of person for whom everything goes right. He is captain of school, talented at sports and following in the footsteps of his father towards Oxford University, then a career in politics. He is happy and has fallen in love with a girl called Portia. But a few bizarre twists and turns of fate ensure that his life is turned upside down. As mentioned above, the plot is extremely similar to the story of The Count of Monte Cristo.

This is a great book on writing poetry. Fry's starting point can be summed up by the quotation with which he heads Chapter One: 'Poetry is metrical writing. If it isn't that I don't know what it is.' (J. V. Cunningham.) In a 'rant' near the end of the book he states: 'I think that much poetry today suffers from anaemia. There is no iron in its blood, no energy, no drive.' The same cannot be said of Fry's own writing which is instructive, humorous and provocative.

The "hippo" of the title (occasionally referred to as "the happy hippo" and given to wallowing in long baths) is Edward (Ted/Tedward) Lennox Wallace, an aging, lecherous, one-time hell-raising poet, reduced by diminishing poetic talent to working as a theatre critic. The story opens with the aftermath of Ted being fired from his job on a newspaper. At the suggestion of a sick goddaughter, Jane (suffering from leukemia), he goes to stay at the Norfolk country house of old schoolfriend and Army colleague from National Service, Lord Michael Logan and his wife Lady Anne, to investigate unspecified mysterious goings-on.

The story is told in first person by Michael "Puppy" Young, a young history student at Cambridge University on the verge of completing his doctoral thesis on the early life of Adolf Hitler and his mother. He meets Professor Leo Zuckerman, a physicist who has a strong personal interest in Hitler, the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. Michael assumes this is due to his Jewish heritage. However, it is later revealed that Leo was born Axel Bauer, the son of Dietrich Bauer, a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz. Leo has developed a machine that enables the past to be viewed—but it is of no practical use as the image is not resolvable into details.