A bit of A Bit of Fry and Laurie

A bit of A Bit of Fry and Laurie: Tricky Linguistics

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie

For no other reason than because I feel like it and because people seemed to like the old Big Train feature, today marks the start of a new regular feature of the blog: ‘a bit of A Bit of Fry and Laurie‘. For those who don’t know, A Bit of Fry and Laurie was a sketch show that ran between 1989 and 1995 in the UK. It starred the now very famous Stephen Fry and the globally famous star of House, Hugh Laurie. And it was very, very funny.

And between now and probably 2020, I’ll be sticking up one sketch a week from the show to prove it. This week, we’re going to start with a sketch about language that clearly shows that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were at Cambridge.

Question of the week: what’s your favourite part of TV Christmas?

Christmas on TV is a decidedly different affair from normal. The Christmas/Holiday special is the most obvious example.

However, there are differences on either side of the Atlantic as to how TV celebrates Christmas. Largely, around now, the regular US TV shows start winding down, to be replaced by movies, light entertainment shows and Christmas specials, usually ones that have been show every year since the dawn of TV time.

Meanwhile, in the UK, as well as a whole bunch of movies that have been shown since the dawn of TV film time…

…the tradition for most shows to continue up until nearly Christmas and for other shows to return with all-new, one-off, sometimes feature-length episodes.

So this week’s question is a two-parter:

Which approach do you think is better? And what’s your favourite Christmas show ever?

Answers below or on your own blog, please.

Wednesday’s “call off Christmas” news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

Sitting Tennant

Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant (week 44, 2011)

Hebbie's Sitting Tennant

I know I’ve accused Sister Chastity of stalking before now, but Hebbie’s crossed a line here, I think. She stills gets 10 points though.

I guess you’ll all be going round her place tonight?

  1. Hebbie: 345
  2. Sister Chastity: 325
  3. Erin C: 150
  4. Rullsenberg: 55
  5. Janice: 20
  6. esgaril: 10
  7. theriverlady, Toby: 5

Well, it was a head-to-head between Rullsenberg and Electric Dragon last week, and since this week’s caption competition is being judged by Clive Anderson, it turns out he found it impossible to decide and gave them both maximum points. Good luck this week everyone!

Should I be thinking about Sitting Tennadvent, by the way?

  1. Rullsenberg: 255
  2. SK: 200
  3. Marie: 195
  4. Toby: 180
  5. Electric Dragon: 125
  6. Lisa G, Jane Henry: 55
  7. theriverlady: 35
  8. Virpi: 30
  9. Janice: 25
  10. Hebbie: 20
  11. Joe B: 15
  12. whoficwriter, Jeri: 10
  13. kallan: 5

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable and doesn’t obviously infringe copyright, it will appear in the Sitting Tennant gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.

The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Tuesday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.