Tag: Stephen Fry

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (George Newnes, 1905); audiobook read by Stephen Fry (ABC, 2017)

Conan Doyle_Return of Sherlock Holmes

Stephen Fry takes seriously the task of voicing Conan Doyle’s stories, yet with faint echoes of his own comedic characters seeping through (in contrast sufficient to add further gravitas to the great detective). Sherlock Holmes resumes practice post-Reichenbach, as superior as ever.

 

 

A Bear Called Paddington

A Bear Called Paddington

by Michael Bond (Houghton Mifflin, 1958)

audiobook read by Stephen Fry (Harper, 2005)

Bond_A Bear Called Paddington

Paddington Bear seems destined to remain a perennial children’s favourite, his surroundings now dated somewhat but his mishap-inducing unfamiliarity with them never growing old. Stephen Fry, who was conceived at much the same time as Paddington, gives perfect voice to the stories.

 

Absolute Power, Series Two

Absolute Power, Series Two

(BBC, 2005)

Absolute Power 2

Stephen Fry continues to wreak merry havoc as Charles Prentiss, the blithely amoral anti-hero of public relations spin-doctoring, embracing in this series such unbecoming PR challenges as making the British people love America, and selling British Airways to Osama bin Laden’s cousin.

 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979/2007)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams (Macmillan Digital Audio, 2007)

[first published by Pan, 1979] {Read by Stephen Fry}

Adams_Hitchhiker's Guide

In embellishing the riotous and extemporised cerebral peregrinations of the Hitchhiker’s radio series, Douglas Adams crafted one of the funniest (and most-quoted-from) novels of any genre. Stephen Fry’s range of narrative inflections subsequently affords the audiobook status as a distinct dramatic production.

 

Wagner & Me

Wagner & Me

by Stephen Fry (BBC, 2010)

Fry_Wagner & Me

Truthfully titled, this documentary is perhaps too much about Fry’s passion for Wagner’s music, too little about the more historically significant equating of Wagner with Nazi Germany, and the extent to which Wagner’s powerfully operatic Gesamtkunstwerks may have informed Hitler’s nightmarish fantasy.

Derelict Space Sheep