The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (George Newnes, 1905); audiobook read by Stephen Fry (ABC, 2017)
Stephen Fry takes seriously the task of voicing Conan Doyle’s stories, yet with faint echoes of his own comedic characters seeping through (in contrast sufficient to add further gravitas to the great detective). Sherlock Holmes resumes practice post-Reichenbach, as superior as ever.
Stephen Fry In His Own Words
(AudioGo, 2013)
A procession of interviews in which Stephen Fry, articulate as ever, talks about himself and his work. The selection draws heavily on appearances promoting his autobiographies, which, unless Fry is putting on an accent, have tended then rather to supersede the interviews…
Saturday Night Fry, Series 1
by Stephen Fry (BBC Radio 4, 1988)
This radio precursor to A Bit of Fry & Laurie saw Stephen Fry and guests forge ground in the comedic art of playing against expectations. It is fast, clever (if not always funny), and suavely innovative in its manipulation of the medium.
Stephen Fry does The Knowledge
(BBC, 2011)
Stephen Fry is at his most engaging in this Radio 4 exploration of knowledge: what it is; how it changes; in what forms we value it; and where it is (or isn’t) useful. Fry’s lucid discourse is underscored by numerous archival recordings.
Stephen Fry Live at the Sydney Opera House
(ABC, 2010)
Even while speaking more or less off the cuff, Stephen Fry remains engaging; yet precious few of the stories told at this performance won’t already be familiar to those who have read his three autobiographies (of which only one postdates the DVD).
Fry’s English Delight, Series 3
by Stephen Fry (BBC Radio 4, 2010)
The English language has few champions like Stephen Fry – not merely one who uses with relish, but one who advocates. Fry’s English Delight Series 3 puts Qwerty on trial, explores gender differences, fails to naysay the negative, and ponders evolutions to come.
A Bear Called Paddington
by Michael Bond (Houghton Mifflin, 1958)
audiobook read by Stephen Fry (Harper, 2005)
Paddington Bear seems destined to remain a perennial children’s favourite, his surroundings now dated somewhat but his mishap-inducing unfamiliarity with them never growing old. Stephen Fry, who was conceived at much the same time as Paddington, gives perfect voice to the stories.
Absolute Power, Series Two
(BBC, 2005)
Stephen Fry continues to wreak merry havoc as Charles Prentiss, the blithely amoral anti-hero of public relations spin-doctoring, embracing in this series such unbecoming PR challenges as making the British people love America, and selling British Airways to Osama bin Laden’s cousin.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams (Macmillan Digital Audio, 2007)
[first published by Pan, 1979] {Read by Stephen Fry}
In embellishing the riotous and extemporised cerebral peregrinations of the Hitchhiker’s radio series, Douglas Adams crafted one of the funniest (and most-quoted-from) novels of any genre. Stephen Fry’s range of narrative inflections subsequently affords the audiobook status as a distinct dramatic production.
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.