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...

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...

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...

Deep in the British Library tucked into the slipcover of a book on the history of Blenheim Palace a packet of extraordinary letters has been discovered. "Dear Marengo brackets Napoleon's horse close brackets, I've never written a letter like this before...." Thus begins the first passionate letter from Copenhagen, the Duke of Wellington's horse, to...

Two horses divided by war, united by love. Comedy starring Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby. Episode 1 charts the early days of a romance and the early days of the Napoleonic Wars. As their love blossoms the shadow of impending combat looms over our two heroes.

Two horses divided by war, united by love. Comedy starring Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby. Episode 2 sees Copenhagen becoming a warhorse, and Marengo setting out into the vast Russian Steppe as he carries Napoleon at the head of his vast army towards Moscow.

Two horses divided by war, united by love. Comedy starring Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby. Episode 3 sees our heroes' fortunes fluctuate as the Napoleonic Wars get bloodier and colder making it much harder to send valentines cards.

Two horses divided by war, united by love. Comedy starring Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby. Episode 4 sees the wars rage on as Copenhagen lives it up in Paris and Marengo tries to enjoy a quiet retirement.

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy. He lives with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley, who make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. Then Harry starts receiving mysterious letters and his life is changed for ever. He is whisked away by a beetle-eyed giant of a man and enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry....

Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The three friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are soon immersed in the daily round of Potions, Herbology, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Quidditch. Then mysterious and scary things start happening. First Harry hears strange voices, and then Ro...

Harry Potter, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, is about to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry can't wait to get back to school after the summer holidays (who wouldn't if they lived with the horrible Dursleys?). But when Harry gets to Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass murd...

The summer holidays seem never-ending and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school term. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there are spells to learn and (unluckily) Potions and Divination lessons to attend. But Harry needs to be on his guard at all times - his worst enemy is preparing a horrifying f...

Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is desperate to find out why his friends, Ron and Hermione, have been secretive all summer. But before he even gets to school, Harry survives a terrifying encounter with two Dementors, attends a court hearing at the Ministry of Magic and is escorted on a n...

It is Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As Voldemort's sinister forces amass and a spirit of gloom and fear sweeps the land, it becomes clear to Harry that he will soon have no choice but to confront his destiny. Can Harry succeed in the death-defying tasks ahead?

Harry Potter is preparing to leave the Dursleys and Privet Drive for the last time. But the future that awaits him is full of danger, not only for him, but for anyone close to him - and Harry has already lost so much. Only by destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes can Harry free himself and overcome the Dark Lord's forces of evil. In a final pe...

"A bear on Paddington Station?" said Mrs Brown in amazement. "Don't be silly - there can't be." The original story of Paddington, the classic bear from Darkest Peru, read by Stephen Fry. The Browns first meet Paddington on a railway station - Paddington station, in fact. He has travelled all the way from Darkest Peru with only a jar of marmalade, a...

"Bears like Paddington are very rare," says Mrs Bird, "and a good thing too, or it would cost us a small fortune in marmalade." Classic adventures of the bear from Darkest Peru. As Paddington says himself, "Things happen to me - I'm that sort of bear." With his attempts at home decorating, detective work and photography, the Brown family soon find...

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...

'A bear? On Paddington station?' Mrs Brown looked at her husband in amazement.'Don't be silly, Henry. There can't be!' Fifty years ago, Paddington Bear had travelled all the way from Darkest Peru when the Brown family first met him on Paddington station. Since then their lives have never been quite the same ...

Rescued from his beloved Macintosh, The Salmon of Doubt provides us with the opportunity to linger and frolic one last time in the uniquely entertaining and richly informative mind of Douglas Adams. For the millions of readers who expressed their grief and shock at his untimely death, this is a treasure; his final book and our last chance to see ne...

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...