The Fry Chronicles (57 page)

Papa.

Mama.

Grandpapa.

Sister Jo, self, brother Roger.

Between Mama and Papa with a rather long-haired Roger on the right.

Tragic hair. Tragic times. Taken some time between school and prison.

The Sugar Puffs addict has moved on to Scott’s Porage Oats. (All author’s collection)

Universally Challenged. (ITV/Rex Features)

Kim in Half Blue scarf. (From the collection of Kim Harris)

The Cherubs. I know we look like wankers, but really we weren’t. Honestly.

Kim Harris. Not unlike a young blond Richard Burton. (From the collection of Kim Harris)

Emma Thompson’s hair is starting to grow back. (Brian Logue/Daily Mail/Rex Features)

Unable to afford an outboard motor, Hugh Laurie and his poor dear friends are having to propel themselves through the water.

Playing the King in
All’s Well That Ends Well
, BATS May Week production 1980, in Queens’ Cloister Court. (Dr Simon Mentha)

Cableknit Pullover, Part 1. (Author’s collection)

The backlit ears of Hugh Laurie, gentleman. (Author’s collection)

Cableknit Pullover, Part 2. (Author’s collection)

Latin!
The most stolen poster of the 1980 Edinburgh Fringe. (Author’s collection)

Solemn but triumphant in the Mummers group photo celebrating our Fringe First Awards. (Cambridge Mummers)

A moment later, responding to Tony Slattery and revealing an unsurprising cigarette. (Cambridge Mummers)

The Snow Queen
, 1980. My first Footlights appearance. (Cambridge Footlights. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library: UA FOOT 2/5/30, UA FOOT 2/8/95)

With Kim outside the Cambridge Senate House, celebrating our Tripos results. I was insanely in love with that Cerruti tie. (Andrew Everard)

In room A2, Queens’. Graduation day: posing with sister Jo. (Author’s collection)

Rowan Atkinson presents Hugh with the Perrier Prize cheque. Edinburgh, 1981. (Perrier)

The Cellar Tapes
closing song. I fear we may have been guilty of embarrassing and sanctimonious ‘satire’ at this point. Hence the joyless expressions. (BBC Photo Library)

Photo call in Richmond Park for BBC version of
The Cellar Tapes
. (BBC Photo Library)

The same: ultimately a git with a pipe stuck in his face. (BBC Photo Library)

Performing the ‘Shakespeare Masterclass’ sketch with Hugh. (BBC Photo Library)

With Emma in ‘My Darling’ – a Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning sketch. (BBC Photo Library)

Hugh in Crete. We rented a villa for the purposes of writing comedy. (Author’s collection)

A cretin in a Cretan setting. (Author’s collection)

Hugh prepares to demolish me at backgammon. The retsina was satisfyingly disgusting. (Author’s collection)

Hugh, Emma, Ben, self, Siobhan and Paul:
There’s Nothing to Worry About
, Granada TV, 1982. Oh, but there was … (ITV/Rex Features)

I host a bed party in my room at the Midland Hotel. We seem happy. I think perhaps we were. (Photo by Robbie Coltrane)

An
Alfresco
sketch that a merciful providence has erased from my memory. (ITV/Rex Features)

The only time in my life I ever wore a donkey jacket.
Alfresco
. (Photo by Robbie Coltrane)

Providence has once again been merciful.
Alfresco
. (ITV/Rex Features)

Alfresco
, series 2: The Pretend Pub. (ITV/Rex Features)

A twat in tweed and cravat: inexcusably slappable.
Alfresco
. (ITV/Rex Features)

‘We cannot be said to have been the prettiest quartet ever to greet a television audience.’
University Challenge
. (BBC Photo Library)

The Young Ones
. Comic heroes. (BBC Photo Library)

David Lander, earnest investigative reporter in a badly behaved blond wig. (Courtesy of Hat Trick Productions, Channel 4 and Screenocean)

The Crystal Cube
, with Emma and Hugh. (Author’s collection)

The Crystal Cube
. The warty look was created using Rice Krispies. True story. (Author’s collection)

The man who put the turd in
Saturday Live
. I cannot recall a single thing about that sketch. Why the rolled-up trouser leg? (ITV/Rex Features)

As Lord Melchett in
Blackadder II
. (BBC Photo Library)

More
Saturday Live
: with Hugh, Harry Enfield and Ben Elton. Why the electric carving knife, if that’s what it is? I remember
nothing
of this moment. (ITV/Rex Features)

The Tatler
celibacy article. (Photo – Tim Platt/Tatler © Condé Nast Publications Ltd. Words – Stephen Fry/Tatler © Condé Nast Publications Ltd)

From
Forty Years On
, Chichester, 1984. Self, Doris Hare, Paul Eddington and John Fortune. (Picture courtesy of the Chichester Observer)

I remember that Paul Smith shirt. My birthday. (Author’s collection)

Emma (Ted Blackbrow/Daily Mail/Rex Features)

First-night party for the
Forty Years On
‘transfer’, Queen’s Theatre, London, 1984. Katie Kelly (back to us, shiny bun), boys from the cast, self, Hugh Laurie, sister Jo.

Me and My Girl
. Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson. (Alastair Muir/Rex Features)

The French’s acting edition of
Me and My Girl
. (Noel Gay Organisation)

Me and My Girl
. Emma’s dressing-room on the first night. (Ted Blackbrow/Daily Mail/Rex Features)

One hour before
Me and My Girl
’s Broadway opening. Between my cousin Danny and his grandmother, Great-Aunt Dita.

Experimenting with a new pair of glasses in the kitchen of my parents’ house in Norfolk. (Author’s collection)

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to rectify in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

Aaron (Biblical figure),
284

Abrahams, Harold,
147

Adams, Douglas,
121
,
366–72
,
383
,
422

Adams, Jane,
367–8

Adelphi Theatre, London,
357

Alfresco
(TV series): rehearsals,
20
; SF co-writes and performs in,
231
,
249
,
254–5
,
279
,
350
,
364
; broadcast nationally,
238
,
353
; McNiven in,
243
; poor ratings,
246
; filming and taping,
297–8

Allen, Keith,
209
,
406

alternative comedy,
205–10

And So to Ned
(radio programme),
330

Andersen, Hans Christian:
The Snow Queen
,
168
,
175–6

Anderson, Clive,
121
,
205
,
220

Anderson, Lindsay,
147

Anderson, Michael,
60

Andrews, Anthony,
220

Angell Sound (studio), Covent Garden,
292

Annan, Noel, Baron,
307

Arden, Annabelle,
97
,
152
,
155
,
176

Arden, John:
Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance
,
162
,
164

Arden, Mark,
365

Are You Being Served?
(TV programme),
338

Arena
(magazine),
299
,
325

Armitage, Reginald (‘Noel Gay’),
259–61
,
376

Armitage, Richard: signs up Emma Thompson,
175
; signs up SF and Hugh Laurie,
193–4
; and SF at Edinburgh,
197
; and Ben Elton,
229
; offers advances to SF,
234
; entertains at Stebbing Park,
258–9
; and SF’s writing book for
Me and My Girl
,
259–62
,
264–6
,
342
,
349
,
390
; background,
261–2
; arranges SF’s part in
Forty Years On
,
270
,
274
; sends SF to BBC,
295
; and SF’s radio appearances,
331
; and SF’s earnings,
359
; and Elton’s writing
Blackadder
,
373
; influence over BBC,
376
; and
Me and My Girl
on Broadway,
409
,
420–2
,
424
;
see also
Noel Gay Artists

Arnold, Matthew,
71

Ash, Leslie,
266
,
298
,
338
,
343

Atkinson, Rowan: as Oxford man,
71
,
129
; performs at Edinburgh,
126
,
129
; on
Not the Nine O’Clock News
,
180
,
193
,
209
; Armitage sends to watch and report on SF,
193–4
; announces Perrier Award to
The Cellar Tapes
,
198–9
; visits Stebbing Park,
258
; Armitage signs up,
262
; celebrity,
290
; SF collaborates with,
298–9
; motor cars,
369
; and
Blackadder
,
372
,
374
,
376
,
382–3
,
385–7
; character,
385–6
; marriage to Sunetra,
387–8

Attenborough, Richard, Baron,
354

Auden, W.H.,
31

Aukin, David,
266
,
268–9

Australia: SF tours with revue,
203–5
; SF visits for staging of
Me and My Girl
,
391

Ayckbourn, Alan (Sir),
191
,
240

B15
(radio programme),
328

Backs to the Land
(TV sitcom),
138
,
193

Baddiel, David,
121

Baker, Tom,
384–5

Barber (Queens’ College undergraduate),
138–9

Barker, Ronnie,
209

Barrault, Jean-Louis,
127

Barretts of Wimpole Street, The
: parodied,
190

Barton, Anne (
née
Righter),
85

Barton, John,
108
,
190

Bates, Alan,
44
,
338
,
351

Bathurst, Robert,
128

Beale, Simon Russell,
90
,
163
,
190
,
256–8

Beaton, Alistair,
333

Beckett, Samuel,
52

Belushi, John,
60
,
206

Benn, Tony,
54

Bennett, Alan: as Oxford man,
71
,
129
; on snobbery,
105
; SF admires,
270–1
; at SF’s audition,
273–5
; SF introduces parents to,
338
; declines to join cast of
Forty Years On
for spaghetti meal,
344
; takes over Tempest role in
Forty Years On
,
346–7
; writes screenplay of
A Private Function
,
348
; and Russell Harty,
351–2
;
Forty Years On
,
271–3
,
295
,
325
,
335–7
,
342
,
344–6
,
350