AuthorStephen Fry
NarratorStephen Fry
Duration1h 43m
CategoriesAdult Non-Fiction, British Radio Comedy Shows
Key StageA Level
PublisherBBC
VersionUnabridged
Stephen Fry hosts four programmes on the joys of the English language - as heard on BBC Radio 4. Current Puns Why does our language groan with the weight of puns? What exactly is a pun? And who, or what, is the Thief of Bad Gags? Metaphor The English language is chock-full of maritime metaphors: cock up, taken aback, chip on your shoulder and show a leg. And, with the help of a Greek removals firm, we also find the origin of the word 'metaphor'. Quotation The uses and misuses of quotations are revealed, and there is also a frank confession from a quotation compiler, which we cannot divulge here. Clich‚ Featuring sick parrots and the clich‚ crisis that affected the writing of Flaubert, Joyce and Eliot, and helped shape modern language and culture.
Stephen Fry On the Phone, Shrinking the Handset
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 4
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 8h 28m
Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel, by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic. Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax devi...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 49m
Stephen Fry invites readers to take a glimpse at his life story in the unputdownable More Fool Me. 'Oh dear I am an arse. I expect there'll be what I believe is called an "intervention" soon. I keep picturing it. All my friends bearing down on me and me denying everything until my pockets are emptied. Oh the shame' In his early thirties, Stephen Fr...
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Stephen Fry On the Phone, the Accidentaldiscoveroftext
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 3
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...
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Fry's English Delight: Word Games
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 49m
Is English an innately playful language? Are word games good for you? Do we divide into number and word players? And could Scrabble have been invented in any other language? In this special programme, Stephen examines many word games, and we'll hear some familiar voices playing unfamiliar games-Sheila Dillon from The Food Programme plays Font or Ch...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 52m
For Ned, 1980 seems a blissful year. Handsome, charming, popular and talented, his life is progressing smoothly, effortlessly, happily. And when he meets the lovely Portia Fendeman his personal jigsaw appears complete. But timing is everything in life, and his life is about to change for ever. Things are going to get very bad indeed for innocent yo...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 15h
There are Heroes - and then there are Greek Heroes. Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes. In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, f...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 1m
Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too. Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend...
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Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 11h 33m
a) A fatuous, wasted, degenerate and wholly useless existence captured in delicate, lyrical and exquisitely realised prose. b) Lightly amusing anecdotes and tender reminiscences of the great men and women encountered during a rich, varied and rewarding lifetime, fondly remembered in the tranquil evening of a career of public service. c) The autobio...
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Stephen Fry On the Phone, the Chips That Smartphones Smart
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 5
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. Today, 85% of the silicon chips inside all mobile phones are designed by one Cambridge-based company, ARM. Two computer engineers needed some micro-processors but didn't like what they saw and decided to make their own. Strapped for cash, they designed chips that were small, cheap and exceptiona...
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