Saturday Night Fry
Encyclopedia
Saturday Night Fry was a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 4
, first broadcast between the 30th of April and the 4th of June 1988. Episode One had previously been broadcast as a pilot on 19 December 1987, under the title 'Fry on Saturday'.
Hosted by Stephen Fry
— accompanied each week by a selection of guests including Jim Broadbent
, Emma Thompson
, Phyllida Law
, Robert Bathurst
, Julia Hills
, Alison Steadman
and long-time collaborator Hugh Laurie
— the show took the form of a round table discussion and sketches which veered tangentially from the sublime to the ridiculous. Parodies of television and radio formats were common ('Fat Man On A Bicycle', and so on). Controversial satirist Chris Morris
has praised the show on many occasions, in particular for its observations on the media. Many say its influence can be felt in On The Hour
and other such programmes.
Snippets of classical music were used to mark breaks between items, usually succeeded by Fry's voice saying, "And as the strains of the
This is most likely a reference to the long running BBC show Just A Minute
, which begins each show with "And as the Minute Waltz fades away..."
Although slightly different in format the series could be seen as a direct precursor to A Bit of Fry and Laurie
, the 1989 television series (piloted in 1987), which employed a very similar style of humour and wordplay (indeed, it invented the language Strom, which gave birth to the farewell phrase "Soupy twist", and also gave rise to the phrase "Mr. Music, will you play?"). Certain editions were constructed in complex knots: one edition saw the cast rearranging the script as a practical joke
whilst Fry has gone to the toilet, ending up in him reading the part where they do that and so finding them red-handed, whilst the first edition fell in and out of dream sequences caused by a devilish potion.
The signature tune opening each episode was "Saturday Night Fish Fry
" by Louis Jordan
. This would always be preceded by a rather convoluted introduction from Fry.
The series was released on a triple compact disc set by BBC Audio in June 2009.
There was also a show of the same name running on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, again hosted by Fry. This was a completely different show, however, being a series of 45-minute serious debates interspersed with the occasional sketch or piece of music.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, first broadcast between the 30th of April and the 4th of June 1988. Episode One had previously been broadcast as a pilot on 19 December 1987, under the title 'Fry on Saturday'.
Hosted by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
— accompanied each week by a selection of guests including Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
, Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
, Phyllida Law
Phyllida Law
-Personal life:Law was born in Glasgow, the daughter of William and Megsie Law, who divorced after World War II. She was married to Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their two children Emma and Sophie Thompson are both actresses...
, Robert Bathurst
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...
, Julia Hills
Julia Hills
Julia Hills is a British actress, known for being a member of the cast of the Channel 4 late-night comedy sketch show Who Dares Wins in the 1980s. She also played the character of Rona, the man-hungry neighbour, in eight series of the BBC hit sitcom 2point4 children...
, Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
and long-time collaborator Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
— the show took the form of a round table discussion and sketches which veered tangentially from the sublime to the ridiculous. Parodies of television and radio formats were common ('Fat Man On A Bicycle', and so on). Controversial satirist Chris Morris
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
has praised the show on many occasions, in particular for its observations on the media. Many say its influence can be felt in On The Hour
On the Hour
On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
and other such programmes.
Snippets of classical music were used to mark breaks between items, usually succeeded by Fry's voice saying, "And as the strains of the
This is most likely a reference to the long running BBC show Just A Minute
Just a Minute
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
, which begins each show with "And as the Minute Waltz fades away..."
Although slightly different in format the series could be seen as a direct precursor to A Bit of Fry and Laurie
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
A Bit of Fry & Laurie is a British sketch comedy television series starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987.As in The...
, the 1989 television series (piloted in 1987), which employed a very similar style of humour and wordplay (indeed, it invented the language Strom, which gave birth to the farewell phrase "Soupy twist", and also gave rise to the phrase "Mr. Music, will you play?"). Certain editions were constructed in complex knots: one edition saw the cast rearranging the script as a practical joke
Practical joke
A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, typically causing the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on the joke, rather than being fooled into handing over money or...
whilst Fry has gone to the toilet, ending up in him reading the part where they do that and so finding them red-handed, whilst the first edition fell in and out of dream sequences caused by a devilish potion.
The signature tune opening each episode was "Saturday Night Fish Fry
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Saturday Night Fish Fry is a popular song, written by Louis Jordan and Ellis Lawrence Walsh , best known through the version recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five....
" by Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
. This would always be preceded by a rather convoluted introduction from Fry.
The series was released on a triple compact disc set by BBC Audio in June 2009.
There was also a show of the same name running on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, again hosted by Fry. This was a completely different show, however, being a series of 45-minute serious debates interspersed with the occasional sketch or piece of music.
External links
- ChilledCream.org — Features a detailed discussion, as well as a comprehensive article.