Editing Stephen Fry (section)

=== 1981–1993: Sketch comedy beginnings ===
Fry wrote the play ''[[Latin! or Tobacco and Boys]]'' for the 1980 [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe|Edinburgh Festival]], where it won the [[Fringe First]] prize.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thinknoevil.com/latin_review.htm|title=Reviews for Latin!|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717044937/http://www.thinknoevil.com/latin_review.htm|archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref> It had a revival in 2009 at London's [[Cock Tavern Theatre]], directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.notesfromtheunderground.co.uk/fryandley.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727010942/http://www.notesfromtheunderground.co.uk/fryandley.html|archive-date=27 July 2009|title=Review of Latin!|publisher=Notesfromtheunderground.co.uk|access-date=11 November 2009}} Archived at Wayback Engine.</ref> ''The Cellar Tapes'', the Footlights Revue of 1981, won the [[Perrier Comedy Award]]. In 1984, Fry adapted the hugely successful 1930s musical ''[[Me and My Girl]]'' for the [[West End theatre|West End]], where it ran for eight years and received two [[Laurence Olivier Awards]]. The show transferred to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and Fry was nominated for a [[Tony Award]] for his adaptation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/stephen-fry-84850#Awards|title=Stephen Fry – Broadway Cast & Staff |website=IBDB}}</ref>

Fry has appeared in numerous advertisements, predominantly on UK television – either on-screen or in [[voice-over]] – starting with an appearance as "Count [[Ivan Skavinsky Skavar]]" in a 1982 advert for [[Whitbread]] [[bitter (beer)|Best Bitter]]. Fry has said, in his memoirs, that after receiving his payment for this work – £25,000 – he has never subsequently experienced "what one could call serious money troubles".<ref name=frychron>{{cite book|last=Fry|first=Stephen|year=2010|title=The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography|publisher=Michael Joseph|isbn=978-0-7181-5483-7|title-link=The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography|pages=234–237|quote="Education is the sum of what students teach each other in between lectures and seminars"}}</ref> He has since appeared in adverts for products and companies such as [[Marks & Spencer]], [[Twinings]], [[Kenco]], [[Vauxhall Motors]], [[Honda]], [[Calpol]], [[Heineken]], [[Alliance & Leicester]] (a series of adverts which also featured Hugh Laurie),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dickason |first1=Renee |title=British Television Advertising: Cultural Identity and Communication |date=2000 |publisher=University of Luton Press |page=71}}</ref> [[After Eight]] mints, [[Direct Line Group|Direct Line]] insurance (with [[Paul Merton]]), [[Trebor (confectionery)|Trebor]] mints, [[Virgin Media]], [[Walkers (snack foods)|Walkers]] potato crisps (fronting a new flavour),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Rosie |title=Walkers to launch Stephen Fry crisps for Comic Relief |url=https://www.marketingweek.com/walkers-to-launch-stephen-fry-crisps-for-comic-relief/ |access-date=6 January 2021 |work=Marketing Week |date=14 January 2011}}</ref> and [[Sainsbury's]] supermarket.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sainsbury's launches new motto with Stephen Fry advert |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/sainsburys-launches-new-motto-stephen-20696830 |access-date=21 June 2022 |work=Wales Online}}</ref> He filmed a 2016 advertisement where he explains the essence of British culture to foreigners arriving at London's [[Heathrow Airport]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Stephen Fry's guide to being British|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/12081397/Stephen-Frys-guide-to-being-British.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105112822/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/12081397/Stephen-Frys-guide-to-being-British.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 January 2016|work=The Telegraph|date=13 November 2016}}</ref>

Fry's career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of ''[[Cambridge Footlights Revue#1981 revue|The Cellar Tapes]]'', the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue<ref>{{cite magazine| title=The Cambridge Footlights Revue - BBC Two England - 20 May 1982| url= https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a1a1b9be8e814ea9bf2a6a9086baf7f3 | magazine= [[Radio Times]]| issue= 3053| date= 13 May 1982| page= 63| access-date= 24 May 2021 }}</ref> which was written by Fry, [[Hugh Laurie]], [[Emma Thompson]], and [[Tony Slattery]]. The revue caught the attention of [[Granada Television]], who, keen to replicate the success of the BBC's ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'', hired Fry, Laurie and Thompson to star alongside [[Ben Elton]] in ''[[There's Nothing to Worry About!]]'' A second series, retitled ''[[Alfresco (TV series)|Alfresco]]'', was broadcast in 1983, and a third in 1984; it established Fry and Laurie's reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered Fry, Laurie and Thompson their own show, which became ''[[The Crystal Cube]]'', a mixture of science fiction and [[mockumentary]] that was cancelled after the first episode. Undeterred, Fry, Laurie and Thompson appeared in "[[Bambi (The Young Ones)|Bambi]]", an episode of ''[[The Young Ones (TV series)|The Young Ones]]'' from 1984 where they parodied themselves as the ''[[University Challenge]]'' representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/hawkslane/231/yo21.html |title=The Young Ones – Bambi |access-date=10 February 2007 |work=Transcription of the "Young Ones" episode "Bambi" as it aired on American MTV in the mid-'80s |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070309155934/http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/hawkslane/231/yo21.html |archive-date=9 March 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Fry also appeared in Ben Elton's 1985 ''[[Happy Families (1985 TV series)|Happy Families]]'' series. In April 1986, Fry was among the British comedians who appeared in the first live telethon [[Comic Relief]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Jem |title=Soupy Twists!: The Full Official Story of the Sophisticated Silliness of Fry and Laurie |date=2018 |publisher=Unbound Publishing}}</ref> In 1986 and 1987, Fry and Laurie performed sketches on the LWT/Channel 4 show ''[[Saturday Live (UK TV series)|Saturday Live]]''.

In 1986, the BBC commissioned a sketch show that was to become ''[[A Bit of Fry & Laurie]]''. Following a 1987 pilot, the programme ran for 26 episodes across four series between 1989 and 1995. During this time, Fry starred in ''[[Blackadder II]]'' as Lord Melchett, made a guest appearance in ''[[Blackadder#Series 3: Blackadder the Third|Blackadder the Third]]'' as [[the Duke of Wellington]], then returned to a starring role in ''[[Blackadder Goes Forth]]'', as General Melchett. In a 1988 television special, ''[[Blackadder's Christmas Carol]]'', he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo. Between 1990 and 1993, Fry starred as [[Jeeves]] (alongside Hugh Laurie's [[Bertie Wooster]]) in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster]]'', 23-hour-long adaptations of [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s novels and short stories.<ref>{{Screenonline TV title|1060579}}</ref> Fry has appeared in a number of BBC adaptations of plays and books, including a 1992 adaptation of the Simon Gray play ''[[The Common Pursuit]]'' (he had previously appeared in the West End stage production).

Having made his film début in ''[[The Good Father]]'' (1985), followed by a brief cameo in ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]'' (1988; getting clobbered by [[Kevin Kline]] in an airport), Fry was then featured by [[Kenneth Branagh]] as the eponymous Peter in ''[[Peter's Friends]]'' (1992). Fry came to the attention of radio listeners with the 1986 creation of his alter-ego, [[Donald Trefusis]], whose "wireless essays" were broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme ''[[Loose Ends (radio programme)|Loose Ends]]''. In the 1980s, he starred as David Lander in four series of the BBC Radio 4 show ''[[Delve Special]]'', written by [[Tony Sarchet]], which then became the six-part Channel 4 series ''[[This is David Lander]]'' in 1988. In 1988, Fry wrote and presented a six-part comedy series entitled ''[[Saturday Night Fry]]''. Frequent radio appearances have ensued, notably on panel games ''[[Just a Minute]]'' and ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]''.

Fry was cast in Simon Gray's ''[[The Common Pursuit]]'' for its first staging in the West End on 7 April 1988, with [[Rik Mayall]], [[John Sessions]], Sarah Berger, Paul Mooney and [[John Gordon Sinclair]], directed by Simon Gray.<ref>[http://simongray.org.uk/common-pursuit-other.html The Common Pursuit: other productions on the Simon Gray website] Retrieved 18 August 2010 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105193227/http://simongray.org.uk/common-pursuit-other.html |date=5 November 2013 }}</ref> Fry is a long-standing fan of the anarchic British musical comedy group the [[Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band]], and particularly of its eccentric front man, the late [[Vivian Stanshall]]. Fry helped to fund a 1988 London re-staging of Stanshall's ''[[Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera]]'', written by Vivian and [[Ki Longfellow]]-Stanshall for the [[Bristol]]-based [[The Thekla|Old Profanity Showboat]].