A Bit of Fry & Laurie

The BBC TV Soundtracks

By: Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie

Narrated by: Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

In this classic TV soundtrack, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie explore a seemingly inexhaustible list of subjects with a delicious turn of phrase and elaborate wordplay. 

The hilarity includes regular acts such as not so super spy Tony Mercheson and his boss Control, yuppies, John and Peter and the critics.

With four brilliant series of great satire, comic genius and hilarious use of language, the show cemented Fry & Laurie as a double act and paved the way for their future stardom.

A Bit Of Fry & Laurie was originally broadcast on BBC 1 and BBC 2 between 1987 and 1995.

Please note that this audio originated as TV soundtracks and contains occasional visual jokes.

Minor edits have been made to the original broadcast for ease of listening.

Contains strong language.

©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

it is what it is (a recording of a TV show)

same as with some other BBC recordings that were made available recently (e.g. Blackadder), this is simply the audio track of one of their TV series.

as such, you have the obvious limitations of only being able to only to listen, but not see, the gags. while A Bit of Fry and Laurie didn't rely on physical comedy and slapstick too much, it obviously does take away from the experience.

as it is, they even had to cut some gags out entirely, it appears, as those depended too much on you being able to see what the actors are doing to get the jokes

it's hard to recommend as such, and would really only work for fans of the series who already have access to the actual series itself in video form and would like to re-listen to some of the gags while you're out for a run or something.

I'm not going to give it no stars, as many of the gags and jokes still work quite well even without the visual component, and the Laurie and Fry's delivery was spot on.

otherwise, I would definitely recommend you seek out the TV series itself as this recording doesn't really do it justice

Nearly 12 hours well produced radio sketches

If you like the humor of Fry and Laurie-
This is a great deal.

It is about 11 hours of short (3-7 min sketches) most of the sketches are isolated, and self contained no overarching story.

Just a good audiobook to have on in the background as a background noise while you are focused on work or a drive.

If you like this try John Finnemore’s souvenir program.

Soupytwistastic

You just need to listen and imagine the images, the writing is a bit of a wonderful thing. These guys are on point for humour and maybe a little bit pythony...

Endlessly entertaining!!

I have listened to this over and over! I love it! it is my new comfort listen!

The funniest thing I’ve ever listened to

These guys are the best. I laughed out loud repeatedly while walking down the street listening. Fry and Laurie have no peers. Two brilliant writers and performers who work together perfectly.

No Vox

The vox populi scenes were removed from the content. Also, not the same without video.

laugh out loud Laurie and fry

you will never look or watch House, M.D. the same way again. and I did not care for the show before I even knew Laurie was a musician or a comic before he was House.

and then the both of them were in the cast if Bkacadder, along side Rowan Atkinson.

you will laugh out loud.

be warned british humor has a lot .ore sexual humor than American comedy.

audio of the show

a most delightful recording of the sketches Hue and Stephen did in their younger years.

So funny!

Only a few of the jokes don't work as they're visual ones, but the rest is still as amazing in audio form :)

Rather disappointing in audio

I have fond memories of this but it's another BBC production that has been simply 'dumped' into audio with no work added to ensure that it works.
Far too often something is going on that you can't see and the physically comic performance of Fry and Laurie is missing in audio too so a lot of the humour is lost.
Then, because you are experiencing all the sketches together you realise how many of them are based on someone entering a room saying 'good morning' and then having a whacky sort of interview where one of them says something like 'please fondle my buttocks'. It starts to jar after a time and ceases to be funny.
Some things should just be remembered and this is one of them in my opinion.

Fantastic timeless comedy

Fry and Laurie's use of subtle inflections, character creation and manipulation of the English language is almost second to none in the modern era

Love it

Two legends being very funny. Odd visual joke doesn’t work but 99% is fine in audio format.

Amazing

this is a fantastic piece to listen to, only makes me wish there was more of it on telly

Classic BBC subversive comedy.

Welcome back to late 80s/early 90s comedy. This is all 4 seasons of the TV series, littered with wordplay & subversive humour. They wouldn't get away with broadcasting a lot of this in the 2020s, but comedy has developed over the decades and this is a product of it's time and was pushing boundaries.

Sloopy twist!

I grew up watching Fry and Laurie and it is wonderful to have these soundtracks available. Still funny after all these years and they work very well as audio. Great to have one sketch per track, but the naming goes wrong about half way through. A must have for people of a certain age!

Refreshingly different to listen to a t night when

Excellent banter makes you smile before going to sleep quick wit and lively humour that flows