Saturday Night Fry Posted Mon Jul 17 11:20:10 BST 2000 by Jon

Well done for doing a feature on this, which I've just noticed. I've got the series on tape somewhere or other.

I remember hearing the first show when it was just a pilot, and it was the most brilliant thing I'd ever heard, actually I think it still is. I thought the full series dragged a bit though, and there was definitely a lot of recycling (eg. the gag about film reviewers on the radio, showing clips with no dialogue, came round a few times). I think it was because they were already working on 'A Bit Of Fry & Laurie', though I don't think much of the radio scripts were re-used on TV in the end. Maybe he just didn't give the other scripts as much time as the first one. But as a deconstruction & demolition of R4 programming, SNF beats most of 'On The Hour' easily, IMHO.

But you neglected to mention the finest moment (about 10 minutes into the first show, after he's introduced co-stars Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and the 'studio audience' Bishop Arnold (HL)), the funniest radio sketch EVER. I'll try to do this from memory:


SF: And now it's time to play 'Spot The Funny Noise'. You've played it before, you know the rules: I play 2 noises, one of them is funny, the other isn't. You have to use your skill and judgement to decide. Here's the 1st one:

[BBC sound effects record, lots of crashes, squeaks, creaks, etc]

SF: And now here's the second one:

[Hugh Laurie saying 'Anti-histamine, anti-histamine', in the tone of an audience-only game-show voiceover]

SF: So which of them was funny? Or were neither? Answers on a postcode only...

[Goes seamlessly into another routine...]




Oh, you had to hear it... I heard it so many times I can still get it all down 12 years later. Pure comedy gold.

---

[ Add Your Comment On This Subject ]
[ Add Your Comment Quoting Message ]