Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: What A Pair

If only drippy arch-sentimentalists Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett had been half as fun as Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson, who play them here during the second season of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, maybe they wouldn't need to be made fun of as much as they are in this.

Anyway, it was on this day in 1846 he spirited her out of her father's house in London's Wimpole Street, thence to St Marylebone Parish Church, and then off to Italy where she lived the bulk of the rest of her life in connubial bliss before dying in June 1861.
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Happy Birthday Stephen Fry

Charming, erudite Stephen Fry is more than a mere Renaissance Man; he's a four-star culture warrior, a modern-day da Vinci, who might single-handedly bring about a much-needed Renaissance, just in time to save Western Civilization from itself...

An über-avuncular actor, writer, and all around mensch, Fry's work employs comedy to take the piss out of the stuffy, fact to deflate mythology, and honesty to overcome stigma. About his criminal past, personal demons, and often precarious mental health he's always been forthright; he's pompous without being stuffy, smart without being condescending, and embodies complexity while remaining accessible.

Plus he matches the drapes, is friends with the Prince of Wales, and also happens to be gay! What's not to love?

Already a major star in Britain, thanks to the Internet, DVDs, BBC America on satellite TV, and the series Bones on Fox, Stephen Fry looks poised to become a household name around the world as well. About bloody time!
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Now Showing: "It's A Soaraway Life" starring Fry & Laurie

It's totally apropo of nothing, but I was arsing around YouTube and happened upon this scrumptious bit of comedy - which you know I will be showing again at Christmas and on Old Rupe's birthday.

Rupert Murdoch (played with great Australianity by Hugh Laurie) gets to see what the world would be like if he'd never been born, accompanied by the angel Clarence (Stephen Fry). Brilliant.
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Now Showing: Stephen Fry on "Shrink Rap"

More Stephen Fry, this time the first of five parts from a show called Shrink Rap hosted by Dr. Pamela Connolly.

Some of you may remember Dr. Pam as Billy Connolly's wife, although I remember her first from the 1980-1 series of Saturday Night Live, when she was Pamela Stephenson.

Yes, I am that old, but not as old as people who first remember her from Not The Nine O'Clock News. They're really old.
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Now Showing - Stephen Fry's "The Secret Life of a Manic-Depressive"

This is the first part of 14 - two one-hour episodes - of a marvellous programme by Stephen Fry.

Highly recommended.
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