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Treading carefully

James Delingpole

Wednesday, 15th October 2008

Stephen Fry in America (BBC1); Harry & Paul (BBC2, Monday); The Story of the Guitar (BBC1, Sunday); Meebox (BBC4)

How is it going to affect TV programming, I wonder? Actually, I don’t wonder, I know. It will just be a more extreme version of what we have already, no factual series commissioned unless it’s fronted by Jamie, Hugh, Stephen, Griff or Tony Robinson; no drama unless it has David Jason or someone from Spooks in it. No one will take any risks any more. Everything will be terrible. Perhaps it would be better if we all killed ourselves now.

Not, you understand, that I have anything against Stephen Fry. I love Stephen Fry. Everyone loves Stephen Fry, from New York mafiosi to black, gay Republican baptist theology professors at Harvard to grizzled hunters rank with the smell of deer poo who don’t mind one bit when Stephen says, ‘Actually, do you mind awfully if we justshoot the deer with a camera rather than a rifle. Otherwise I might cry.’ If you or I had tried that, we would have been tied to a tree, ordered to squeal like a pig, and summarily raped. Steve gets away with it because he’s just so damned nice you couldn’t wish him harm.

Mind you, Harry Enfield did do a pretty wicked spoof of cosy Fryworld when he parodied Kingdom — ‘Sunday night on British television. Let’s sit back and pretend England’s all lovely and wibbly’ — on Harry & Paul (BBC2, Monday). Why hasn’t more praise been heaped on their marvellous series? Sure some of their stuff does go on a bit — I always fast forward through the insufferable, self-regarding surgeons and the ageing DJs — but such is the way with broken-sketch comedy. But when it works it’s genius.

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David Short

October 17th, 2008 9:23am

Not everyone 'loves Stephen Fry'. I can't stand him and his fake posh guise, and I can't stand Griff, who always assumes a working class accent if he is playing someone who is meant to stupid, and I can't stand Tony Robinson, who still makes a living from his Baldrick accent voicing over ads for totally unnecessary, pollutant cleaning products.

David Short

October 17th, 2008 9:27am

The boiled beetroot soup sketch is so very true. In an unguarded moment, the potty-mouthed Graham Ramsay on one of his progs once said to a staff member 'it's just water, broccoli and salt', referring to his broccoli soup.

Think about that when you next go to one of his 'outlets' and wonder why you are not as rich as he is.....

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If you don’t mind — yeah, like you’ve any choice in the matter — what I thought I’d do for this New Year column is to do just enough TV for the editor not to want to sack me, then move swiftly on to the stuff my hardcore fans prefer, namely the rambling and shameless solipsism.