Stephen fry who is

Television as the nation's fireplace, the hearth and the heart of the country, the focus of our communal cultural identity, that television is surely dead. It seems unlikely ever to return. Instead of being the nation's fireplace, TV is closer to being the nation's central heating. It's conveniently on in every room, it's less discernible, less of a focus, more of an ambient atmosphere.

I love television in this country. I love the range and richness of the programming. I love its ambition, its scope, its innovation. I love the tradition, the technological innovation, the gossip, the corporate drama on the inside, the reach and influence on the outside. I admire the talent and the commitment of so many working in the field.

I love everything about what television has been, what it still is and what it might yet be. If I criticise anything about it, I hope you will be able to see that I do so as with nationhood, from the point of view of love not enmity. To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.

I'm maddened by this institution yet I prize it above all others. There is as far as I know no profession in this country that likes to talk about itself more than broadcasting. I love Britain, like most Britons I get desperately upset at her failings: when it goes wrong, when it gets it totally totally wrong, when it's shoddy, when it's inefficient, incompetent, rude, vulgar, embarrassing, when it slips into national torpor or boils into bouts of embarrassing national fever.

I can moan about health and safety gone mad and leaves on the line, rail networks and crap service and crap weather and crap sporting achievements and crap politicians and crap newspapers and crap attitude.

I can do all that. In fact it's the defining signature quality of my Britishness to talk like that, to complain and to self-castigate but does it mean that I don't love this damned country? Does it mean that I don't get weepy when I think of its history, its people, its countryside, its richness, its plurality, the cultural and artistic energy, the good humour, tolerance, the ability to evolve for good, achingly slow as that ability might be?

Does it mean that I don't as it were stand to attention when I think of the sacrifice of our military, the selfless good of so many working in hospitals and schools and rescue services and the million acts of unremembered kindness, decency and good fellowship practised every day by unsung heroes and heroines in every walk of life? Of course it doesn't mean that I don't love and respect that.

One carps and one criticises because one loves. The only drama the BBC will boast about are Merlin and Doctor Who , which are fine, but they're children's programmes. They're not for adults. And they're very good children's programmes, don't get me wrong, they're wonderfully written They are like a chicken nugget. Every now and again we all like it. Every now and again. If you are an adult you want something surprising, savoury, sharp, unusual, cosmopolitan, alien, challenging, complex, ambiguous, possibly even slightly disturbing and wrong.

You want to try those things, because that's what being adult means. I don't pretend to be a businessman. Spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations make me want to scream, gouge out my eyes and stab my ears. I have never been able to read a profit and loss account or a balance sheet, and I go swimmy and feel sick if I have to read a legal document because on the whole I'd rather watch television.

I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want. Of course, a lot of women will deny this and say, "Oh no, but I love sex, I love it! To repatriate a power takes treaties, rows, enmities, alliances and betrayals.

To repatriate a collection of stolen marbles take good will, moral courage and a decisive belief that right can be done. How can we British be proud until we sit down with Greek politicians and arrange for the return of their treasure? It's time we lost our marbles. Inevitable George Entwistle would fall on his sword.

Damned for stopping a Newsnight , damned for allowing one. A kind, wise man. Heigh ho. I can't stop speaking, I'm incredible, I go on shopping sprees Fortunately one of the common signs of mania, or hyper-mania as it is known, is sexual exhibitionism. I don't have that as one of my brands, but others do. The fact that I am lucky enough not to have it [mental illness] so seriously doesn't mean that I won't one day kill myself, I may well. I would go as far as to tell you that I attempted it last year, so I'm not always happy - this is the first time I've said this in public, but I might as well.

I'm president of Mind, and the whole point in my role, as I see it, is not to be shy and forthcoming about the morbidity and genuine nature of the likelihood of death amongst people with certain mood disorders. It was a close run thing. I took a huge number of pills and a huge [amount] of vodka and the mixture of them made my body convulse so much that I broke four ribs, but I was still unconscious.

And, fortunately, the producer I was filming with at the time came into the hotel room and I was found in a sort of unconscious state and taken back to England and looked after. There is no 'why', it's not the right question. There's no reason. If there were a reason for it, you could reason someone out of it, and you could tell them why they shouldn't take their own life. How much of Stephen Fry's work have you seen? Out and Proud Part Two Brit please!

See more awards ». Known For. Gosford Park Inspector Thompson. V for Vendetta Deitrich. Wilde Oscar Wilde. Show all Hide all Show by Hide Show Actor credits. I am Khama! The Inventor pre-production Leonardo da Vinci voice. This Is the Night Mail post-production Pruitt voice. Ian Gibbons. Show all 6 episodes.

Show all 11 episodes. Arthur Garrison. Patrick Mills. Marcello Marvello voice. NSQC Quizmaster. Cavendish - Top of the Steve John Michael Heaton voice. Cavendish voice. Colonel K voice. Colonel K. Show all 89 episodes. Winston Churchill voice. Waddleton Crutchley voice. Grordbort's Invaders Video Game Dr. Onion's Dad voice. Headmaster voice. Show all 13 episodes. Nikolai Genidze. Uncle Duke voice. Lord Stag voice. Gordon Wyatt - The Steal in the Wheels Gordon Wyatt.

Cuddly Dick. Prime Minister Alastair Davies. Show all 8 episodes. Bevelspepp - Intelligent Hair The European. Peter Kingdom. Show all 18 episodes. Narrator voice. Show all 61 episodes. Discover… 1 days ago. We publish a Literature Newsletter when we have news and features on UK and international literature, plus opportunities for the industry to share.

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Stephen Fry. Born: London. Publishers: Penguin Group UK. He has won many prizes for his performances as an audiobook narrator — of his own works and most notably as the voice of J.

His book on poetic form The Ode Less Travelled is widely used in schools and colleges as a guide to prosody. The most recent works are Mythos , Heroes and Troy, a trilogy retelling the Greeks myths from the Creation to the aftermath of the Trojan War.