Here’s something well worth setting your Sky+ for. On Weds 24th of November, UKTV exclusively reunites Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie on television for the first time in 15 years in ‘Fry and Laurie Reunited’, a one-off special programme to celebrate 30 years of Fry & Laurie’s relationship.
Thirty years ago Fry and Laurie met for the first time at Cambridge, introduced by their mutual friend Emma Thompson and comedy history was made.
Stephen is a national treasure and the epitome of a polymath with his staggering output ranging from acting (Wilde, Kingdom, Blackadder, Bones) to directing (Bright Young Things) to writing (The Liar, Making History) to voicing (the Harry Potter books) to presenting (Stephen Fry in America, Qi, Sorry I haven’t a Clue) and he is now of course Twitterer supreme. Hugh Laurie stars as Gregory House in the global hit TV series House, as well as finding time to fit in Hollywood movies, voiceovers for major cartoons, comedy, music and to write best selling novel The Gun Seller.
Stephen Fry says: “I am delighted to be given the opportunity to retread the 30 years Hugh and I have known each other and worked together. It was a great joy reminiscing about our times together and I hope GOLD viewers enjoy watching us grow older and older…”
Throughout the programme, Stephen and Hugh open up, revealing fascinating insights into their friendship and their careers, and take a look back at their sketches, interspersed with hilarious clips from their work.
Filming revealed some funny insights into the pair; Fry and Laurie have different versions of how they met although they both concede they were introduced by Emma Thompson.
The pair are great friends and their careers have intertwined frequently over the years from Jeeves and Wooster to Blackadder to their joint comedy showcase, A Bit of Fry and Laurie which ran on BBC1 and BBC2 for four series between 1989 and 1995. They started working together as students in Cambridge at Footlights, and their Footlights May Week Revue – The Cellar Tapes, won the first ever Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981. The show was subsequently recorded and transmitted by the BBC in 1982. From there they worked on a number of shows together including Saturday Live and Blackadder and of course A Bit of Fry and Laurie which ran for four series from 1989 – 1995.
The ‘Fry and Laurie Reunited’ one-off special will air on GOLD – November 24th, 9pm.
Find GOLD Sky channel 110, Virgin TV channel 126, and Top-Up TV channel 17.