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DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: EDINBURGH WINNERS - STEPHEN FRY (320kbs-m4a/97mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 20th August 2023
Stephen Fry is castaway by Kirsty Young.
Comedian, actor, writer, director, presenter and award-ceremony host – Stephen's list of accomplishments is long, varied and impressive.
His younger years were troubled and with a propensity for stealing and lying, he was expelled from two schools and imprisoned for credit card fraud. The turning point came when he knuckled down and won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Cambridge Footlights, becoming lifelong friends with Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.
His career highlights include the fruits of his collaborative work with Laurie – from A Bit of Fry and Laurie to Jeeves and Wooster, he played Lord Melchett in Blackadder and Oscar Wilde on the big screen. He is a best-selling author of fiction and three volumes of autobiography, is the voice of the Harry Potter audio books and presents BBC Two's QI.
Stephen has also spoken of his experience of mental health issues and in 2006 he made a documentary exploring the effects of living with Bipolar - it won an Emmy Award.
BOOK CHOICE: T. S. Eliot Four Quartets
LUXURY CHOICE: Canvasses, easels, brushes, an instruction manual
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Roses - The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2015.
Bach - Partita No. 1 in B flat major
Schubert - Variations 2 & 3 Piano Quintet in A
Beethoven - Presto Quartet Op. 131 in C-Sharp minor
Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Wagner - O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe - Tristan und Isolde
Hugh Laurie - Changes
Ella Fitzgerald - Do I Love You?
Arthur Wood - Barwick Green (The Archers' Theme Tune)
THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 64. STEPHEN FRY (320kbs-m4a/99mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th August 2023
Actor, writer, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Fry first made his name as a comic performer as a Cambridge University undergraduate with the Footlights company. He went on to forge a television partnership with his university friend Hugh Laurie on the sketch show A Bit Of Fry and Laurie and later the comic drama series Jeeves and Wooster, adapted from the PG Wodehouse stories. Among many stage and screen roles, Stephen Fry starred as Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film Wilde, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He received a Tony Award nomination for playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night on Broadway, and was Lord Melchett over several generations of Blackadder. He's written five novels and three volumes of autobiography, and has presented numerous documentaries. A familiar face on British television screens, he has hosted award ceremonies and panel shows including the long-running quiz series QI.
For This Cultural Life, Stephen tells John Wilson about how he first read the Wodehouse story Very Good, Jeeves when he was 10 years old and was spellbound by the comic language. He says that seeing a film adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play The Importance Of Being Earnest led him to read all of Wilde's works, beginning a lifelong obsession with the playwright. He reveals how being an avid fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels led to his expulsion from school. He also chooses E.M. Forster's 1910 novel Howard's End as a huge influence, with its central theme of 'only connect' helping him make sense of his own emotional turbulence and intellectual ambitions. He also talks about spending time in prison on remand for credit card fraud, and being diagnosed as bi-polar after prolonged struggles with his mental health.
Producer: Edwina Pitman