It’s my pleasure to announce my first podcast entitled Stephen Fry’s PODGRAMS, a new series with the first twenty-five minute Podgram (podcast) disclosing the stories behind my working life of the past two years and journeying through the trials and tribulations of breaking my arm whilst filming on the Amazon river in January.
Created by me and the team behind the official website The Adventures of Stephen Fry, Stephen Fry’s PODGRAMS launches with the first episode BROKEN ARM on Wednesday 20th February.
In this podgram I discuss the
Loved the podcast- it’s probably the first one that i’ve actually felt like subscribing to! And unlike this surprising amount of mac-less Fryophiles, I could readily listen to your rambling, which made me very happy indeed.
I’m sorry to hear how bad your arm really was. From just the x-rays it looked really horrible. I can barely sleep from a bad sunburn sometimes so i can’t even imagine how much that break must’ve hurt!
I hope you recover well, I broke my ankle (not very badly) once, and the recovery was more an emotional one than a physical one most of the time, so just keep yourself busy and surround yourself with things that you love doing. Once you are all better, you can do whatever you like (to an extent of course) which is a really great feeling.
thanks again for the podcast.
Sincerely,
A happy 15 year old in Oxford
Thanks for the touching podgram. Don’t play down the pain or drama of your broken arm, it sounds like you had a really rough time of it. The Amazon is lovely but when I visited Manaus I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere so it must have been daunting to have had an accident so far from medical help. Best of luck with the healing process.
[COD PYSCHOLOGY ALERT]
I think a lot of people have been struck by your reluctance to slow down and give yourself time to heal. What do you think would happen if you stopped or slowed down for a bit? Would you have too much time to think? I am on maternity leave at the moment for the second time and both times I have found it a bit galling that my job carries on perfectly well without me and that both times I have slotted back into my role as if I hadn’t been away. However, my perspective is changing as I now recognise that I don’t really owe them anything and they will manage perfectly well whether or not I am there so that gives the scope to choose what I do without feeling obliged to anyone (currently my choice is to go back to my job). You always have a choice and it is a valid choice to carry on doing what you are doing but you are not obliged to do so.
Take care and best of luck and I loved the slightly unstructured style of the podcast it was very friendly.
I hope this brings a smile to your face, since you speak German, Mr Fry – and yes I know it´s rubbish, but “The Ode Less Travelled” is still patiently sitting on my “To Read” pile
)
Stephen stand am Flussesrand
Als er sich plötzlich wieder fand
im freien Fall, ganz ohne Halt
hinab es ging doch dergestalt,
dass Stephen auf dem Arme landet
was dieser ihm mit Splittern ahndet.
Doch lange dauert´s bis man´s weiß
wie ernst die Lage – was für Sch***.
Er beißt die Zähne tapfer z´sammen
als sie dann hinein ihm rammen
Eisenplatten und 10 Nägel,
und schaurig ist der Schmerzenspegel,
just auch die Beweglichkeit
ist nicht mehr ganz so befreit,
doch lässt er sich nicht unterkriegen
und streicht faules Im-Bette-Liegen
sofort von seinem Tagesplan
denn so was geht nun mal nicht an,
Ruhepausen sind ihm z´wida *
Und deshalb arbeit´ er wieder
so gut es geht und lässt nicht locker
Die Beharrlichkeit schmeißt uns vom Hocker,
doch meinen wir es auch ganz lieb,
wenn wir ihm sagen: Stephen gib
doch auf Dich acht ein bissl mehr
ist das denn wirklich gar so schwer?
Wie wohl er weiß, dass es zuträglich
versagt beim Ruhen er gar kläglich.
So ist´s an uns ihm dies zu wünschen:
Take care! Speedy recovery and all the best for the upcoming op !!
* z´wida = zuwider
Awww, Stephen! Let me extend my motherly arms right across the English channel, pull you to my bosom and give you a big, fat bear hug! You poor thing! Just the thought that you could’ve lost your right arm! How could those world-renowned professionals in Miami miss that ? Dabblers!
Did I hear a hint of the old depression lurking around the corner there or was that just the sleeping pills? Okay, I know what you need right now: Here’s a virtual hot chocolate with lots of sugar, peppered with just a hint of chili and a whole big mountain of whipped cream! That’ll make you feel better. I’m sorry about my Linux rant yesterday, I swear I’ll never complain about any of your podcasts again. Oh, and by the way: a follow-up to “Last Chance To See”?!?! How delightful! It’s one of my favourite books by Douglas. Are you going to visit the Baiji, too? And the rhinos? Will you be standing on termite hills while looking for rhinos, too? 
What about those inept-at-mating kakapos? Did they survive? I’m a so looking forward to this documentary! Btw everybody: [url=http://www.savetherhino.org/etargetsrinm/site/1/default.aspx]SAVE THE RHINO![/url]
ArmKrautchen im looking forward to the documentary’s too! Cant Wait to see The Gorgeous Mr Fry On Telly Again Rather Than My DVD’s!
Save The Whales Too!
cx5 ! Just Read Your Post And Am So Happy To Find Someone Around My Age (Im 14) Who Shares My Interests In Stephen Fry! Tis A Hard Thing To Find In My Area
Hi
New to this site, have been loving reading all the blessays, and the podcast, which I just had to get straight away, was superb.
Stephen, hope you feel 100% again soon, and I enjoyed your podcast during my evening walk homeward bound across Kensington Gardens. Podcast took me from office to station with perfect timing! So thanks for that, looking forward to more blessays and podgrams forthwith!
Only two comments re fauna. Did this aspect of the ‘cast wend into the ether against arms and PC angst?
Woof, meouw, chirp, bleat, moo, neigh
Six animal responses of appreciation re the manatee. Later today when I swim, I will attempt to assume a manatee pose in the water and consider what it may be like (tho I doubt I will look as graceful)
Hi
Tried to post a short while ago but it didn’t ‘take’. Perhaps I was waxing too lyrical about the excellent podcast, how I’d listened to it while walking through Kensington Gardens, (perfect for that office to station journey!) and how I was looking forward to more blessays and podgrams and wishing Stephen a speedy recovery.
Catherine
Gertrude Susanne: what an awesome poem! I agree that he needs to take some rest… hey, with the podcasting game finally afoot, he can make radio shows while recuperating!
GirdYourLoins:
Are you in england as well? I’m surprised so few people this age don’t appreciate him.
he is amazing. I’ve grown up watching A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster and QI.
hi again stephen (& co above) – first, may i as an american apologize for the inanity of what you had to go thru getting to & in miami . . . “security”-wise & medically, business as usual here, i’m afraid, & i’m so sorry you had to be subjected to it. that said . . . what a horror story the fracture is . . . if this were the 20’s & 30’s you could have dined out on it for a year or more . . . i’m trying very hard not to give in to my maternal instincts, but . . . do try to take it just a bit easier, even tho you’re not reducing your workload.
i love the podcast – it is really wonderful to hear your unscripted thoughts & stories & voice. i very much enjoyed the casual, postcard-to-a-friend feel of it; no need to fret over form & format in the future too much.
i hope the visit to the specialist went well & he/she ok’ed your continued adventures. after all, you have to keep working or who knows what mischief you’ll get up to . . .
west_haven.. On Kevin Robert’s blog (CEO of Saatchi) there is a current list of ‘wishes’ and one of them is that the airport at Miami will be run better! (I am paraphrasing).
On the medical issues it just struck me how important a second opinion is. Interesting really that the first hospital people recommended (from what I gather) what the final specialist did.
There is a tiny typo on the link to the podcast for iTunes:
It should be itpc://www.stephenfry.com/podcasts/rss.xml instead of itpc://www.stephenfry.com/podcasts.rss.xml
Now I’ll go listen to it in iTunes. Cheers!
Nice one, Gerti.
I’d like to add something I already posted on the forum: This podcast was a lovely sip of aural champagne just because of its being non-edited, a little unstructured, meandering, unforeseeable and ergo narratively adventurous. Fry unplugged. Please don’t obliterate this intimate oral touch!
I agree with ‘Real Icon Canzonett’, and his/her (?) statement about the loveliness of wandering meanderings. It really does suit a podcast well. Although, I can see how bloggery might not adapt to that sort of rendition.
Susan P mentioned the lack of responses about the wildlife. Could it be that we are waiting for our dear Mr. Fry’s televisual delivery on that count? I used to go scuba diving and diving with manatees was something that I would have loved to have done, yet I felt that it was ethically wrong to disturb these great creatures and have them become used to humans who might not always have their best interests at heart. It may be exciting for tourists to see these creatures close up, by a boat bringing them to areas where manatees are likely to inhabit, but it can hardly be good for them, particularly if they have young to look after.
There are clips of manatees on YouTube if anyone wanted to see what one looks like. They are very lovely creatures.
Please also consider the endangered Dugong which is in the same ‘family’ I believe as the manatee.
I am pleased to report, however, that it downloads and plays fine on the N95.
Susan, absolutely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong
Of the species family Sirenia More pictures from Aussie site: http://australian-animals.net/dugong.htm
Thanks Stephen for going to the effort of making a podcast, you do sound some what groggy on the audio. As a Uni student there really is very little for me to do other than watch Countdown and drink myself into oblivion so please keep them coming. If only for the sake of my Liver.
Dear Stephen Fry,
I can’t listen to a message ending this way without trying my best to tell you, that there is nothing you could do, and nothing you could not do, that would dissappoint me; Believe me, there’s a standing forest of people who love you and always will, and no illness or injury or slip or misstep or outcry of self-reproach or change in course will undo this…And if I who’ve never met you feel this way, how many hundred times more do those close to you think it? so many that there may be no need for me to say it. I hope that your surgery reveals good news. Sorry if this note feels wild or out of bounds, I’ve been reading Walt Whitman all week and at every other paragraph I want to write on paper and wad into a ball and throw to you.
p.s. i think i meant to delete the “at” in that last sentence.
Thanks rademisto..aren’t they lovely things. So gentle.
By the way to all, is there some symbology in Stephen being represented as fruit and veg? Or is it purely artistic?
There is a group here called “Tropical Fruits” but I doubt the association.
[...] you haven’t come across Stephen Fry’s blog, your really should pay it a visit. Yes, that’s he of Jeeves & Wooster and QI fame, [...]
Just driven back from cinema after seeing There Will Be Blood, stunning performance from Daniel Day Lewis by the way. Took time out to listen to Stephen’s first podcast and enjoyed it thoroughly. Well perhaps enjoyed is the wrong word, as it certainly wasn’t easy listening whilst Stephen was talking through the ordeal of breaking his arm, and the aftermath of trying to get it sorted. I know you neither asked for or expect sympathy, but I’m going to give it anyway. Hope everything is sorted soon! The podcast itself felt like a conversation (albeit a one sided one) so for me, I loved the fact is was unedited and unpolished. Looking forward to the next.
Lee
yay! great, i love that you’re doing this for us
i am so so thrilled you’re doing this and i can’t wait for the others to come
I’m an ex-miner from Barnsley and even I wanted to give you a cuddle.
Get well soon cock.
Love badbob XXXX
Stephen, it’s an absolute joy to hear your podcast even though the breakage was a bit horrific in the telling (and I’m sure, in the happening as well). Hope everything gets sorted out and you can visit the US again soon. If you wind up in northwest Arkansas, we’d love to have you stop by. I look forward to the next podgram (much better word) and blog entry, as I have you in my “Must See” on Google Reader.
This is amazing – to have the spoken Fry musings… and i have to give a massive vote of thanks to Andrew for making these podgrams available to we mere mortals using PCs and so quickly that i didn’t feel i was missing out for too long
Cx5:
Yes im In England Devon Sadly…
Used to Be London!
yes i find it rather upsetting Really that no one around our Age Worships Him As I Do…if i should go so far HeHe…
I didnt Really Grow Up With Him I Kind Of Incorperated Him Into My Life Myself Lol
More expressions of sympathy. Try as you might, it is really quite impossible to relativise. In the far future, when you look at your scar, you will remember that you work efficiently and creatively only because you are free from pain.
I liked hearing you say that you live to work; I concur, and think it’s perhaps because it’s not precisely work when you are passionate about creating whatever you do create. And I am most cheered by seeing how many people enjoy hearing you ramble on without a pre-written script. Why would you waste more time actually editing what, in essence, will remain the same anyhow? That’s my approach to blogging, in any case, though a little fine-tuning usually slips in.
So, thanks for thinking of your audience and filling us in on the gory details. I hope it did you good to recount them and turn them into your own personal narrative.
Mmm….I just wanna give you a damn hug! You are coping with it a lot better than I would, stop downplaying it and apologising for yourself; there is no need.
I really hope you feel better soon, sweetie. Thankyou for the podcast, enjoyed it muchly.
much love from the squalor of Gt Yarmouth, *hug*
Dear Stephen
With all these comments I thought perhaps it was a bit pointless to add my own, but why not? I was, as it happens, doing my own brisk walk, watching Harry the labrador flicker through the woods, as I listened to this first Podgram, and I smiled the whole way. (Except when I was wincing.) Why not let you know that? (If you ever make it this far down the list, that is.)
Just like some small-hours radio programme on the World Service, this splendidly rambly chat had that delightfully personal quality, more like a conversation than a monologue. Thank you for transmuting pain into chuckles, and for expressing that all-too-common sense of ‘What the hell have *I” got to complain about?’
(Curiously, the same thing crops up in slightly different guise on Ricky Gervais’ ‘Desert Island Discs’ podcast: the vague shame of having what you know millions would, well, give their right arm for.)
I always think that when you stub your toe it hurts, however tiny that pain might be compared to the many agonies going on simultaneously in the world. So we just have to let it hurt. And if we can smile about it, even commune a bit about it, well, splendid.
I’ll do my own 23 minutes if I’m not careful.
Thank you, and roll on Podgram 2.
Best wishes
Mike
The latest installment of Stephen Fry Appreciation Monday
http://www.couchslobs.com/2008/02/25/stephen-fry-appreciation-monday-podgram/
Also I’ll be in Norwich next week (yay!) and I did a bit of a research and I found this pub that seems intriguing enough called Adam and Eve so I thought of making it our base for the first evening… if anyone is from the area, any tips would be welcomed
girdyourloins:
I’m in Oxford thank god.. I used to live in Chicago and obviously in america no one knows who Fry is..
There used to be the QI building here but they got rid of it which i’m sad about. My friend saw him outside of it once and my dad’s cousin is Alexander Armstrong and was on QI at least once.
Stephen,
I’ve been a big fan of virtually everything you’ve done for many years now. In particular, your novels have helped inspire me to write the novel that had been rattling around in my head for many years. So thanks. I just listened to your first podcast. Having looked at the X-ray, all I can say is, when you break your arm, you really break your arm! No hairline fracture for you. Here’s hoping your recovery is fast and smooth. If you’re a believer in the restorative powers of positive thoughts from friends, you should be back on your feet (arm?) in no time. Be well, in every respect…
Terry
cx5: I live in Chicago myself, actually, so obviously at least one person in America knows who Fry is. -}
It all sounds rather bleak and depressing, but here`s to a swift recovery and more podcasts to come.
Ahhhh, you do sound a wee bit pitiful but looking at the x-rays and also hearing how you were moved around from continent to continent I would be felling like crap too.
Stephen please stop being so giving and look after yourself, we want you around to produce good works for us long into yours and our dotage so pull yourself together buy another gadget and take some time out, please.
Liked the Podgram, nice insight without it being filtered by PR or agents!!!!
Maybe it was wrong to post this in the fora, but i’ll post it here again:
Sadly my english is totally out of practise and i have forgotten so many words, but i still want to express how much i enjoyed this Podcast!
As an avid Podcaster myself i remember just too good how tough my first few podcastepisodes (Episode 24 will be released soon) were and you did a good job.
I’m a big fan of your work. As an actor, author, writer and voice-actor you are one of the finest examples of an multi-talented and socially engaged human being.
Sadly here in Germany i cannot see all of your TV-work, but i have bought your books (in english!) and i enjoy surfing on your website and in the fora. Please continue to make Podcast , so that the people in the “we sadly don’t receive BBC” – countries can still enjoy more of you!
(Sorry for my bad english…)
Greetings from Germany,
Joachim
haha axmxz..
at least someone’s sane.
cx5:
Alexander armstrong…wow thats Cool!
I’ve just Finished PaperWeight… it was good, I Especially Enjoyed Latin Or Tobacco And Boys.
I Impressed A Year 11 Today So Im Kind Of Pleased With Myself…
(I Know Im A dork)
Ive Just Noticed I Use Capitals To Often..
Family Dog Oscar Died Yesterday
The thing I’m currently using is powered by steam and cogs so of to see how far I can exploit the University computers
Am looking foward to downloading this and using all my allocated quota.
Dear Mr. Fry, just in case you do read the comments this far down, I just wanted to say thank you so much for setting up the forum, blog and podcasts and donating your precious free time to give us a bit of entertainment and perhaps a little education too.
Sometimes it seems that once seated, an audience expects more and more without considering the expense of the performer. I mean expense in a general term, not simply monetary. I have really enjoyed the various offerings from your keyboard or vocal cords and would love to hear more, but it is like listening to a beautiful piece of music. At the end of the piece, you wait before applauding because you hope that there might be just a little more, you don’t want it to end. More, more and more you want, but there is no guarantee that having more so readily will reproduce the same pleasure.
Those who clamour for you to write or vocalise more, perhaps have no sense of this unique quality. The fact that the intense enjoyment of one piece may not necessarily mean that more, frequent publishings will recreate that same sense. Moreover, they seem not to realise that you are a person just like the rest of us and that you are entitled to a life after you have finished your busy schedule for the day.
Well, thank you for the time and effort and money that you have most generously given up. Even if you do not publish another blog blessay, blog pod casting, or whatever, those hat you have left, wll certainly continue to entertain me, including all the myriad of comments.
Bless (ay) You, I really hope that your poorly arm mends without sequelae.
Oh no Fair…
Someone told me there images on the Pod Cast … i have an ipod Classic is there some how i can see them?
Hello Stephen,
Can’t say I have ever been unfortunate enough to break any truly significant bones in my body, but I am sure it is a terribly unpleasant ordeal for anyone to have to go through and I wish you all the best in a speedy recovery. Also – loving the podcast, a truly interesting listen and insight into the mind of one of Britain’s greatest – though I am sure you’re sick to death of hearing that.
All the best,
Stewart.
Your podgram is the perfect accompaniment to the torrential summer rain currently lashing my windows. I like watching the rain and I like listening to you so this is the ideal situation for me!
I’ve never broken a bone but I have fractured my wrist in three places, by skipping of all things, so I can empathise with the pain you felt when your arm got moved about. It’s ironic that the people who seem to hurt you most are the doctors and nurses trying to assess your injury. Still, glad you’re on the mend now.
Looking forward to hearing more of your podgrams in the future =]
Just listened to broken arm. This is hardly a reply, but I thought you might be interested.
Waterstones Piccadilly stock The Ode Less Travelled under Travel Literature. I plan to reread for travel tips.