The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Forum: Film, Television, Radio and Theatre

The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Forum: Film, Television, Radio and Theatre - Recent Topics http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/forum/film-television-radio-and-theatre Just another bbPress community en-US Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:33:08 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php Nitro on "Mr.Mycroft, is it?" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/mrmycroft-is-it#post-273595 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:28:48 +0000 Nitro 273595@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I know I'm always behind the news on these things, but just read that Mr.Fry will be joining the next Sherlock Holmes movie as Holmes' brother Mycroft. Well done <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif" title=":)" class="bb_smilies" /> But I'm not familiar enough to anwer this question: Was Sherlock's brother that much older than him? I mean, there is a bit of an age gap between Downey and Fry, so I'm assuming Mycroft was maybe a half-brother or just born that much earlier than Sherlock? ( any sherlock exprts up in here? ) Anyone know anything about the Mycroft character, what he's 'like'? I hear Moriarty and Sherlock meet up in the new one. I liked the first one very much. I know some Brits were mad about Downey doing Sherlock but he did Chaplin and really excelled at that. Besides, no one here got mad when Anthony Hopkins played Nixon. <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_lol.gif" title=":lol:" class="bb_smilies" /> jjdavis2 on "Absolute Power on DVD?" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/absolute-power-on-dvd-1#post-280777 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:21:47 +0000 jjdavis2 280777@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Please, please, please, please bribe whoever at the BBC needs bribing and get this fabulous series released for home viewing. What "Yes, Minister" was for the 80s, and "House of Cards" was for the 90s, "Absolute Power" was for the 00s ... but not yet in my home collection. Or, are we waiting for 3-D Blu-Ray? charteredstreets on "Dambusters remake" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/dambusters-remake#post-158785 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:04:07 +0000 charteredstreets 158785@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I can't believe this has generated fuss; if those involved hadn't flagged it up as a tricky point of controversy, and instead just changed it like any sensible person would, there wouldn't have been much noise. Most people who walked into a remake of The Dambusters would NOT know the name of the dog beforehand, and would find the use of the 'N' word completely incongruous. It would sound both offensive and ridiculous. It is unrealistic to think that most people in the audience would just nod and say 'well things were different then.' They'd wonder why it was used in a movie made NOW. And the people who think it should be kept for historical accuracy make my blood boil a little; it's a MOVIE. People who look at it as a factually accurate historical document are clearly too stupid to be entitled to opinions. And people who think that changing it amounts to 'whitewashing' history are living on another planet. pendle on "New R4 Series: "On the Phone"" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/new-r4-series-on-the-phone#post-278579 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:49:07 +0000 pendle 278579@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I am looking forward to this, but I did not like your trailer which stated "twenty years ago the mobile phone was an executive toy". This is far from the truth. They were valuable tools for surveyors, architects, vets, in fact any profession whose work took them to places where finding a telephone box to call your office was difficult or impossible. On the contrary, I think the mobile phone has degenerated in recent years from a professional tool into an idler's plaything. I have witnessed people on their friend's doorstep telephoning them to let them in because they don't want to press the doorbell; people sitting in restaurants telephoning someone at a nearby table instead of getting off their backside and walking over to them. I have followed people around grocery stores whose entire basket of purchases was being dictated to them, one article at a time, by an unseen caller, who presumably was unable to write something as simple as a shopping list. AVYT on "'Latin! or Tobacco and Boys' Who holds the amateur stage rights?" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/latin-or-tobacco-and-boys-who-holds-the-amateur-stage-rights#post-276296 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:46:00 +0000 AVYT 276296@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Hello fellow Stephen Fry fans, My local theatre group would like to put on a production of Stephen Fry's play 'Latin! or Tobacco and Boys' this Christmas. An extensive search of the internet has proved fruitless, does anyone know where I might be able to get hold of them? thanks! Hannah Boog on "The Hobbit" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/the-hobbit-1#post-276072 Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:24:48 +0000 Boog 276072@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I see Stephen is in the movie ... should be a good one <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif" title=":)" class="bb_smilies" /> zap on "BAFTA 2012" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/bafta-2012#post-276298 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:58:51 +0000 zap 276298@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Congratulations to Stephen, on returning to hosting the BAFTA awards. A return to normality, and, dare I say, the gravitas that the ceremony deserves. Well played. laidbacklady on "Planet Word" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/planet-word#post-244833 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:55:08 +0000 laidbacklady 244833@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ As someone who finds language and etymology fascinating I'm really looking forward to this series. I shall be particularly interested in what Stephen says about American English - at least, I'm hoping he's going to comment on this. I recently returned to England after living for several years in the Caribbean. Although the island had been alternately British and French during its colonial history and the official language was English, I was disappointed to see how very Americanised it was becoming. Considering the shameful way that Britian treated the sugar producing Commonwealth countries when we joined the EEC, they don't owe us any loyalty but it was still sad to see how firmly this little country is now oriented towards America. I was a long way from friends and family and my sense of isolation was increased by the use of American, rather than English spelling. I assume that American spelling is an attempt to simplify the language. It may well do this, but in the process an enormous amount has been lost. 'English' English is a rich and beautiful language in which the different cultures that have contributed to it can be clearly seen. It is also possible, with much of our language, for anyone with a smattering of Latin or Greek to make a good guess at the meaning of an unfamiliar word. The Americans have chosen to remove all traces of linguistic heritage, getting rid of diphthongs, replacing 'c' with 'k' and replacing 're' at the end of a word with 'er' in a way that makes me feel that they are deliberately stamping out any evidence of etymology. This feels almost sacrilegious - and certainly makes life harder for the cultured reader. For example the English 'paediatrics' is obviously to do with children. The American 'pediatrics' could just as easily be to do with feet! What is going on here and why do they feel it necessary to do this? America is a different country, widely separated from England and it is natural for its language to evolve separately. I don't have a problem with that. But that language is NOT English and I get very cross when Americans insist that it is! America is not a cultural desert; it has produced some wonderful artists, writers and musicians. I don't understand, therefore, why they have chosen to descrate our language in the way that they have, and hope Stephen will be including some commentary on this. fryfan20 on "the catholic church debate" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/the-catholic-church-debate#post-202625 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:16:48 +0000 fryfan20 202625@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I saw on youtube Stephen Fry debate against the motion that the catholic church is a force for good in this world, he didn't do this alone but his arguments where brilliant cause there where simple truths where the other party just couldn't get out of. of course Stephen didn't have to do much for me because I was already on his side and tbh I would have felt very unconformable if he was to argue for the other side. love to hear what others thought of this Aunt Ada Doom on "Jeeves & Wooster" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/jeeves-wooster#post-45661 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:35:30 +0000 Aunt Ada Doom 45661@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Thanks for all the links to Fry (& Laurie) videos on the net. I have a geek's question about one of the episodes of "Jeeves & Wooster." Roughly equivalent to Comic Book Guy quizzing the makers of "Itchy and Scratchy" at a comic-con, but here goes: In the episode in which J&W are in NYC and covering for their friend Rockmatella (the one who loves living in seclusion on Long Island) , there's something very odd about the dialog from the actress who portrays Rockmatella's aunt. It's almost as though she overdubbed every line in a studio, because when she speaks, the background sound is vastly different from when the rest deliver their lines. Anybody have any trivia-type information about why this is so? aSyd on "Planet Word: Literature: Ulysses!" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/planet-word-literature-ulysses#post-278225 Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:28:07 +0000 aSyd 278225@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ This is my first time here... Hi everyone! I was moved to seek out some way to communicate with Stephen because of his love of Ulysses, his comments on and delightful evocation of Joyce's wonderful novel. I wanted to share with him how moving I found Molly's soliloquy, coming as it does after the completed day we have spent with Leo and the young Stephen Dedalus, a tenderising process that pummels the meat of the mind with Joyce's mellifluous little hammers of phrase and chat and rumination until our humanity is thoroughly prepared for the full immersion in Molly's mind. I was surprised as I put the novel down at the finish to find that tears were starting in my eyes, and a rare glow of completion and fulfilment was rising gently through my quiet mind... Joyce had not merely written a clever tour de force of modernism, but a true work of artistic and humanistic genius, after all! A Real Novel, rewarding to the heart, not just to the mind! To be honest, I had not expected that reward... I had been reading for the pleasure of language, but after Molly's crowning section, the true majesty of Joyce's vision was revealed to me as a blossoming of the heart... Bloom! The clue was there all along as to what he was attempting! Joyce had meant for this to happen, and the entire thing was crafted with that blossoming of our humanity in mind... My gratitude was quietly, thoughtfully, gently lifted from my inner self with no effort at all... Mr Joyce, a treasure, I salute the man. Probably I should end there, but... I do also love the language! Stephen's ride in the buggy with the Irish scholar of Joyce who so beautifully enunciated the words of the sea that appear in section 3... I also want to mention that I first picked up this book when I was a young would-be author, 16 years old and given to "experimental" writing (Kerouac was still in my future, but my instinct meshed well with what I found when I discovered him a couple of years later). I was reading it a page at a time each evening as I went to bed, while studying at a college to do 'O' levels (in 1970, having just returned to Britain after spending 12 years in Canada and Vermont in the USA). Like so many others (so I've heard), life was too busy for me to continue and I simply stopped reading after a few weeks, as I spent more time with a particular girl... anyway, my abiding memory from that time was always of the sound of the language Joyce employed to express the shingly beach upon which Dedalus was walking... this was not the dramatic phoneticisms of the sea's speech, but simply the way the words he used to describe the sound of the footsteps struggling along the strand actually evoked that sound! And it was a sound I recognised from walking on the beach near where I was living in Margate at the time! I had always remembered that remarkable achievement of poetry in prose, and it was that which brought me back to the novel some 30 years later, when I finally got back around to reading Ulysses. And found the true genius of the novel much greater than the intellectually clever and linguistically pungent feast I had expected. If I may, I'd humbly like to proffer to Stephen a short list of exquisite books that I suspect he will love as much as I have, given his love of expression and humanist instincts, and our shared pleasure in Joyce's masterpiece: (I was working as a bookseller in the local Waterstone's here in Swansea for nearly 13 years before I was made redundant two and a half years ago, and the first of these mini reviews is a blurb I wrote to put on the shelf to recommend this first book.) THE LAST WITCHFINDER by James Morrow I wish there were some way of causing everyone in the world to understand the heart of this profoundly important novel. With the growth of fundamentalism in the world today, James Morrow's novel could not be more relevant! Brilliant, well-informed, humane, and a gripping read: a well-told tale of character and adventure, it is also a defence of the Enlightenment ideals underpinning our modern Western culture. I love this book! SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts An astonishing and beautifully written novel based on the author's real life experiences in Bombay in the early 80s. The second chapter contains a 20 page evocation of the sensual experience of arriving in India for the first time and being hit with its overwhelming presence and chaotic aliveness! A gripping adventure in subcultural diversity and intense personal growth, it's a uniquely alive book which you feel you could live in for the rest of your life... too short at 800 pages! QUICKSILVER by Neal Stephenson The first novel in a historical trilogy dealing with the origins of the modern world and of the Royal Society around the turn of the 17th Century, with well-evoked characters such as Newton and Boyle playing out their dramas with living dialogue wittily turned out by the erudite author. This work is play, a delight to read and ride along with the author's cheeky and fresh-minded imagination, grounded so well in the deeply evocative fruits of his thoroughly understood research. The forerunner of this trilogy was set partially during the years prior to the Second World War, in which he imagines a friendship between the young Alan Turing and two fictional mathematicians... Stephenson is the only author I can imagine pulling off an entertainingly amusing comic setpiece in the form of a three way conversation among mathematicians discussing maths! Simply a wonderful writer! And finally, not to out stay my welcome, I really have to recommend a wonderful novel in "free verse" which is a werewolf story set in modern California... no don't run away! It's much more original and rewarding than Twilight clones which have infested bookshops in recent years! Seriously! This is a really successful experiment in form and matter, being a cross-species love story and a character study of several outsider flawed characters of different ilks... and being in free verse, it has the immediacy of a comic book, sensually and economically evoking scenes and situations with perfectly chosen words that swiftly immerse you in the actions and feelings and thoughts of the characters... a rereadable and rewarding and truly unusual, beautiful piece of literature. It's called SHARP TEETH by Toby Barlow. I'd be delighted to hear from anyone who has read any of these books... and if you read them as a result of my encouragement, I hope you will drop back in here to let us know what you thought! Happy reading! Love to all <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_wink.gif" title=":wink:" class="bb_smilies" /> <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_exclaim.gif" title=":!:" class="bb_smilies" /> echo_just on "Planet Word - English & French observation" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/planet-word-english-french-observation#post-278007 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:46:52 +0000 echo_just 278007@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I've just watched the third episode. I really love this programme. I like that English is such a progressive language and that it adapts to new words and phrases created by social popularity. There is so much of this lacking in the French language which I found difficult when I moved here a few years ago. Being English we can create our own logic to a sentence and people generally know what we mean i.e. 'where do these cups live?' when tidying up the kitchen. Whereas in French if I say 'Ils habitant où ces tasses?' I'm immediately corrected for it is not an acceptable sentence. There is not as much creativity which I find restricting. Although, maybe it would be acceptable for a native French person to say this but as I am clearly not native, maybe, it is felt that I must be corrected to using the correct 'C'est où on range les tasses?' What do you think? Any bilingual English/French speakers that can clear this up for me? Is French really as adaptable as English? John Kirriemuir on "Planet Word: saving libraries" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/planet-word-saving-libraries#post-277333 Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:22:42 +0000 John Kirriemuir 277333@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ After tonight's episode, those who also want to support libraries may consider the UK government e-petition, started by the WI, as a quick thing to sign. It's currently ranked 20th out of the many thousands of petitions on there in terms of signatures. It needs to get to 100,000 signatures by the 5th of February next year in order to at least be considered for parliamentary debate; all publicity helps. You can find it here: <a href="//epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1269"">http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1269</a> Three other online resources that may be of interest: <ul> <li> The horrific <a href="//libraries.fromconcentrate.net/"">map of UK public libraries</a> either recently closed, or under a threat of closure. </li> <li> Lauren Smith's <a href="//laurensmith.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/what-do-public-librarians-and-library-staff-do/"">long list of things that librarians do</a>. </li> <li> Much information on libraries provided by <a href="//www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/"">Voices for the Library</a>, a volunteer group of librarian advocates and activists. </li> </ul> carrowt on "Planet Word - Ros na Rún" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/planet-word-ros-na-run#post-254965 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:41:30 +0000 carrowt 254965@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Stephen will be appearing in the Irish TV show, Ros na Rún, as part of his new series and I for one cannot wait to see it! <a href="http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&aid=73&rid=4283503&tpl=archnews&only=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&aid=73&am.....amp;only=1</a> It will be weird but brilliant to hear him speaking as Gaeilge. Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat Stephen! (Good luck) <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_biggrin.gif" title=":D" class="bb_smilies" /> Reginald Winky on "Fry Conjures Potter" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/fry-conjures-potter#post-276356 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:18:14 +0000 Reginald Winky 276356@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Can Harry Potter be improved upon? Can a set of books that has captured the imaginations and the hearts of people the world over be made even better? Even Chris Columbus's (<= love him!) magic, combined with Hollyweird's money, could not improve upon the Harry Potter books. (And I dare say the films left much wanting, as films do.) Then came Fry. One man, reading innumerable parts, brings childlike whimsy, dark horror, and adult truths to life. Fry brings more magic to Potter than all the phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs, and dragon heartstrings in Hogwarts could conjure up. No, even Dumbledore himself--great man, Dumbledore--would be hard pressed to out-magic Fry in his reading of all seven Harry Potter books. If you're an adult and Potter mania makes you roll your eyes, tut-tut, and move quickly away from the children's books section, at least give the first book, "Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone" ("...Sorcerer's Stone" in the US), read by Stephen Fry, a listen. Yes, I fully understand I'm playing the junkie's dealer, luring you all into becoming hopelessly hooked on Fry reading Potter. I'm aware you'll be caught one fine day. I'm aware you'll blush and need to explain, "But it's FRY reading it!" I'm aware you'll be endlessly teased. But we all have a little evil streak, haven't we? Besides, you will have the last laugh as you turn up the volume, settle back and get comfy, and allow Fry to completely ensorcel you. Well done, Stephen! *stands and applauds*