As he approaches the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, Stephen Fry talks to Mark Lawson about his childhood, his struggles with depression throughout his life and the many stages in his celebrated career as comedian, director, actor, novelist and all-round entertainer.
Like every single person on the planet, I like Stephen Fry. There is something about this bubbly intellectual that is non-threatening, enticing that draws me in. I maybe don't like or appreciate everything he has done or will do but in a way he is a bit like watching a really good Shakespeare play where you come out wanting to speak like the actors because, in context, it seems incredibly cool. So of course I have been watching many of the programmes that were made for Stephen Fry night when it was first run on BBC4 to mark his birthday.
This interview series perhaps suits Fry because Lawson is not exactly Parkinson when it comes to interview and his style is rather intellectual. Mostly this does produce a rather interesting interview as long as you are not put off by the rather intellectual tone that everything has whether it is a subject or discussion that requires or benefits from it. What I mean by this is that at times I did find the "waffling" to be a bit offputting at times. When he is being charming and discussing his career, it works well, however when it gets down to personal issues there are times where his use of asides and anecdotes just seems like more of a defensive technique. However this is not really a criticism I suppose because it is a part of the man and interesting to see him talking for 60 minutes because, unlike shorter celebrity interviews, it is hard to keep an veneer up with Lawson while appearing to be open and I didn't feel like Fry was doing it.
Overall then an interesting interview for Fry fans even if at times it is a bit of an intellectual overload.
Like every single person on the planet, I like Stephen Fry. There is something about this bubbly intellectual that is non-threatening, enticing that draws me in. I maybe don't like or appreciate everything he has done or will do but in a way he is a bit like watching a really good Shakespeare play where you come out wanting to speak like the actors because, in context, it seems incredibly cool. So of course I have been watching many of the programmes that were made for Stephen Fry night when it was first run on BBC4 to mark his birthday.
This interview series perhaps suits Fry because Lawson is not exactly Parkinson when it comes to interview and his style is rather intellectual. Mostly this does produce a rather interesting interview as long as you are not put off by the rather intellectual tone that everything has whether it is a subject or discussion that requires or benefits from it. What I mean by this is that at times I did find the "waffling" to be a bit offputting at times. When he is being charming and discussing his career, it works well, however when it gets down to personal issues there are times where his use of asides and anecdotes just seems like more of a defensive technique. However this is not really a criticism I suppose because it is a part of the man and interesting to see him talking for 60 minutes because, unlike shorter celebrity interviews, it is hard to keep an veneer up with Lawson while appearing to be open and I didn't feel like Fry was doing it.
Overall then an interesting interview for Fry fans even if at times it is a bit of an intellectual overload.