Stephen Fry on Soho and Individuality

In this episode of Super Connected Conversations: The Soho Series, Tim Arnold is joined by Stephen Fry to reflect on Soho as a place of ideas, eccentricity, gender fluidity and individuality. Drawing on Fry’s lifelong engagement with literature, performance, and British cultural life, the conversation explores Soho’s historic tolerance for difference and wit — and what it means to lose spaces where intelligence, humour, and dissent could once coexist so freely.

Super Connected Conversations: The Soho Series

This special six-episode Soho series of Super Connected Conversations brings together artists, thinkers, and cultural figures in conversation with multi-disciplinary artist Tim Arnold, reflecting on Soho’s historic role at the heart of British and international creative life.

Recorded originally for the feature-length documentary Soho Is…, directed by Tim Arnold and Kevin Godley, these audio conversations explore Soho as a crucible for music, film, art, performance, and counterculture — and examine how gentrification, commercialisation, and modern redevelopment have reshaped its spirit.

Each episode considers Soho not merely as a location, but as a living cultural ecosystem: a place where communities formed, ideas collided, and creative risk was historically possible. The discussions address what has been gained, what has been lost, and what remains worth protecting in an era where cultural spaces are increasingly fragile.

The Soho Is… film emerged from Tim Arnold’s 2015 Save Soho campaign — a coalition of artists, residents, and cultural workers advocating for the preservation of Soho’s creative identity. While the film itself remains unreleased, these audio-only conversations offer a rare, intimate window into that ongoing dialogue.

This series forms part of Tim Arnold’s wider artistic practice as a songwriter, performer, filmmaker, and cultural commentator, and reflects his sustained engagement with the intersections of creativity, place, and community.

For more about Tim Arnold, please visit: https://timarnold.co.uk/

For more about the Super Connected project, please visit: http://superconnected.technology/

Intro and outro music written and performed by Tim Arnold. Taken from the album 'The Soho Hobo' © TA Music 2015-2026.