“National treasure” is a pretty lofty title, but it’s apt for Stephen Fry. The towering British actor has been a staple of U.K. television since 1982 when he starred in The Cellar Tapes alongside future House star Hugh Laurie, performing sketches as part of a comedy troupe.
Fry and Laurie teamed up for the skit series A Bit of Fry and Laurie, followed by the Britcom Jeeves and Wooster (which has already aired on VisionTV in Canada).
Acting in Brit franchise Blackadder, hosting the TV game show QI, appearing in countless films, lending his voice to radio, writing books and dominating the Internet with his podcasts (where he dissects the minutiae of life) and tweets (he has over 1.4 million followers), Fry is truly beloved.
Canadian TV viewers who haven’t already seen him on Fox’s Bones, where he has played psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Wyatt for a handful of episodes, will get another chance in the wonderful Kingdom, debuting on VisionTV tonight. (The show’s three seasons originally aired from 2007 to 2009 on ITV in the U.K.)
Fry plays Peter Kingdom, a small-town lawyer who lends advice, expertise and solves crimes amongst the eccentric folks who live in and around the fictional town of Market Shipborough.
Fry took some time out from putting the finishing touches on his latest book to give us an exclusive on Kingdom, Bones, a reunion with Hugh Laurie and devotion to his iPad.
TVGuide.ca: I understand you’re writing a book. I appreciate you taking the time away from it to speak with me.
Stephen Fry: Well, there’s a little part of me that’s extremely pleased to be pulled away from it.
TVG: Congratulations on Kingdom coming to Canada. It’s wonderful.
SF: Oh, thank you so much.
TVG: The writing, acting and characters draw you in from the get-go. Was that what attracted you to the project in the first place?
SF: I think it is really, yes. I loved the idea of doing something that was gentle, rural England but has that edge of eccentricity and peculiarity that one finds in rural communities. I’m sure it’s much the same in Canada; the areas that people think of as a rural idyll come with characters that are odd and strange.
I also liked the idea of playing a family solicitor. In an age when people no longer trust priests. (Laughs.) There hasn’t been a time when that’s been truer. And the doctor has changed too. Those characters don’t exist, but a good local lawyer is someone who has a role similar to those two in that he sees different levels of society and how they connect up.
TVG: Did creators Simon Wheeler and Alan Whiting come up with the character of Peter Kingdom with you in mind?
SF: Yes, we all created him together. I was there from the very beginning. In fact, I was the one that suggested the town we shot it in; it’s near where I grew up. I actually suggested the area merely as an example of the kind of town I was thinking of, and then without telling me, they went off to visit it and came back and said that’s where we’d shoot it. That was very pleasing to me.
TVG: The area serves very much as another member of the cast.
SF: Absolutely. It’s one of the characters; that’s very well-put. It’s a different part of England, the east coast. Big skies and wonderful coastline, and it’s not very much filmed. East Anglia is where many of our artists come from, but because it kind of sticks out in the east, no one drives through there to get anywhere. It’s a forgotten protuberance of England that has therefore been allowed to grow a little more eccentric than other parts. |
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are old chums |
TVG: Kingdom aired for three seasons in England. When you look back on that time, what are you most proud of?
SF: I’m really proud of what it did for the area. Tourism shot up. The taxi drivers still have ‘Welcome to Kingdom country’ stickers that they put in their back windows. We had a very happy family filming. It was a marvellous experience. And I’m thrilled to have played a part that was very different from most roles I’ve played.
TVG: How do you feel about reinventing yourself for North American audiences? Most people here only know you from a handful of Bones episodes.
SF: It’s a very good point. It is interesting. One has gotten used to being part of the furniture in England, and to a lesser extent in Canada and Australia and other places that have a bigger link with Britain. So in America, they’re more likely to have known me from V for Vendetta or Bones or Gosford Park. It’s actually good. It means I’m less likely to be typecast. There are fewer assumptions. And I just love America. I enjoy being here. I like the people and the work ethic, the way television is done.
I’m doing something with HBO next year, which I can’t really talk about unfortunately, which will be a comedy idea. A comedy drama, half-hour, single-camera – that kind of drama. A sitcom that isn’t as studious as a multi-camera one.
TVG: You’re in Los Angeles and shooting a Fox series. Hugh Laurie is on a little show called House on Fox. Is he working at getting you on House in a guest role?
SF: We were going to do that a couple of years ago and it clashed with something I was doing, and by the time I had time to do it they had story arc with a guest character (David Morse’s detective), and they didn’t feel that they had anything good enough for me to do. And then I had the Bones character.
It’s really sweet because they shoot next to one another so Hugh and I have lunch together in the commissary or one of our caravans. I see him all the time, but there are no plans to have me on. He’s starting a new season in June. It’s a great show, and we’re all so proud of Hugh. It’s an amazing achievement.
TVG: You’re a huge Apple fan. You interviewed Steve Jobs about the iPad for Time magazine. So, what’s your take on the iPad?
SF: Oh, it’s terrific. A beautiful object. Really extraordinary. It’s the only device of that kind that I have next to me in bed and wake up and turn to. (Laughs.) The flow, glide and feel of it quite transcend the experience. As I pointed out in the article, it’s not about its functions.
If I had a dog and said I loved my dog, you don’t immediately say, ‘How many tricks does it do?’ You don’t just list the tricks. ‘Oh no, I don’t want a dog like that. I want a dog that does 12 tricks, not nine.’ You love a dog because of its personality and the pleasure it gives you. That is the point of this.
Kingdom airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on VisionTV. Fry’s other prime-time gig, Bones, airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Global and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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