Concrete Playground

Who hasn't thought about spending an evening with Stephen Fry? Certainly he seems more intelligent than you, dear reader, and me, too. Probably far more charming at least. What would you do that night? Have him discuss how a love of Oscar Wilde helped him attune to this sexuality, or let him tell you about the time he single-handedly saved the only copy of Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility screenplay which would later win her an Oscar? No matter what, I'd be hoping at least for a glass of sherry and a couple of in-jokes about his pal Prince Charles.

One half of Fry and Laurie (guess which), Stephen rose through the Cambridge comedic ranks and has since turned his dapper hand to film, television and print. He appeared as Lord Snot in The Young Ones, toured America in a London cab (even I thought that was a bit much), panels the quiz show QI currently on ABC1 and appears on that show with Angel and Zooey Deschanel's sister. Just two weeks ago, he schooled me via his television show on the fact that I had been pronouncing Evelyn Waugh incorrectly all this time (Eve-a-lyn not Ev-a-lyn) — and he should know, given that he adapted and directed Waugh's Vile Bodies into Bright Young Things in 2003.

If I kept digging through his biography, we'd be here until he promenades onto the stage at the Sydney Opera House on July 27 and 28. That will never do; I must find something to wear.