''Saturday Night Fry'' is a six-part comedy series on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
that was first broadcast between 30 April and 4 June 1988. Episode One had previously been broadcast as a pilot on 19 December 1987, under the title ''Fry on Saturday''.
A different show of the same name aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, again hosted by Fry. This was a series of serious 45-minute debates interspersed with the occasional sketches and pieces of music.
Format
Hosted by
Stephen Fry—accompanied each week by a selection of guests including
Jim Broadbent
James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film '' Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for ...
,
Emma Thompson
Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...
,
Phyllida Law,
Robert Bathurst,
Julia Hills
Julia Hills (born 3 April 1957) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Rona in all eight series of the BBC sitcom ''2point4 Children''. She also portrayed various roles in Channel 4's first late night satirical sketch show ''Who ...
,
Alison Steadman and long-time collaborator
Hugh Laurie—the show took the form of a round table discussion and sketches which veered tangentially from the sublime to the ridiculous. Parodies of television and radio formats were common ('Fat Man on a Bicycle', and so on).
Snippets of
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
were used to mark breaks between items, usually succeeded by Fry's voice saying, "And as the strains of the
ame of piecefade away, we turn to..." On one occasion, in line with a running joke throughout the episode, the last of these in the show was said as " And as the strains of Julia being slapped fades away..."
Certain editions were constructed in complex knots: one edition saw the cast rearranging the script as a
practical joke
A practical joke, or prank, is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. ...
whilst Fry has gone to the toilet, ending up in him reading the part where they do that and so finding them red-handed, whilst the first edition fell in and out of dream sequences caused by a devilish potion.
Although slightly different in format the series could be seen as a direct precursor to ''
A Bit of Fry and Laurie'', the 1989 television series (piloted in 1987), which employed a very similar style of humour and wordplay: it included the fictional language "Strom", and the phrase "Mr. Music, will you play?".
The signature tune opening each episode was "
Saturday Night Fish Fry" by
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...
. This would always be preceded by a rather convoluted introduction from Fry.
Release
In 2009, the series was released on a triple compact disc set by
BBC Audio in June and reaired the following month on
BBC Radio 7.
References
External links
Some of the Corpses Are Amusing— A comprehensive article.
BBC Radio comedy programmes
1988 radio programme debuts
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