Making History
by Stephen Fry (Hutchinson, 1996)
audiobook ready by Stephen Fry and Richard E. Grant (Penguin, 2021)
A cleverly conceived, assiduously researched but poorly paced take on the classic ‘Kill Hitler’ time alteration tale. Fry writes in a conversational style and displays an undoubted gift for off-the-cuff storytelling. As a novelist, however, his expressiveness manifests too often as waffle.
The Great Dictator
dir. Charlie Chaplin (1940)
A political satire that, even at the time, carried a poignance well beyond its surface humour. Chaplin, playing a Jewish barber Hitler lookalike, struck an uneasy but quite brilliant balance between serious filmmaking (Chaplin the writer-director) and comic business (Chaplin the actor).
Red Dwarf, Series XII
by Doug Naylor (Dave, 2017)
In which Red Dwarf becomes a shadow of even the shadow of earlier series. Lister jamming with a reformed Hitler is admittedly a highlight, but for the most part the boys from the dwarf are putting on a fannish tribute to themselves.
Hitler’s Daughter
by Jackie French (HarperCollins, 1999); audiobook read by Caroline Lee (Bolinda, 2014)
The framing narrative of this cleverly structured middle grade book sees three rural Aussie kids sharing a story while waiting for their school bus. The tale of Hitler’s daughter raises the disturbing question: should children be held responsible for their parents’ beliefs.
Wagner & Me
by Stephen Fry (BBC, 2010)
Truthfully titled, this documentary is perhaps too much about Fry’s passion for Wagner’s music, too little about the more historically significant equating of Wagner with Nazi Germany, and the extent to which Wagner’s powerfully operatic Gesamtkunstwerks may have informed Hitler’s nightmarish fantasy.