Audio review

With all the driving I've been doing, I got a subscription to Audible.com to download stuff to listen to on my trips up to Fort Bragg and back.

Last week, I listened to Saturday Night Fry, a BBC radio program(me) from 1988 that stars (are you ready?) Stephen Fry (who also wrote it), Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, Phyllida Law (Emma Thompson's mother), and a couple of other guests. There are only six episodes, all very literate, very funny, sometimes very ribald, and occasionally so British they are incomprehensible upon a first listen.

I love the play with language which happens constantly and at a rapid clip. "First, we shall introduce our guests tonight," says Stephen. "Some who are quite familiar, and others who are more reserved in their manner." They go by so quickly I had a delayed reaction to some of them.

Some of the satire is incredibly au courant, helped, I think, by not referencing any immediate news topics. The game of "Kick the Frog" still finds its applications in current society; I was reminded (and isn't this pathetic?) of church politics. Speaking of church politics, the studio audience Bishop in the first episode amused me greatly and assured me right off the bat I was going to have a good time.

Mostly it's fun to hear all of these people from 20 years ago, having fun together and being as silly as they want to be. How young they look, don't they? But they sound just the same. Very fun. I recommend it.