I’m relistening to The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry and this inspired the sketch above. The book is about a fallen poet, Ted Wallace, who is sent on quest by his goddaughter at the grand country house of his oldest friend. In truth it really is a thinly veiled caricature of Fry himself with the Wallace, a burnt out metropolitain snob, and a screaming queen director called Oliver Mills acting as two sides of Fry’s own character – well at least that is how it appears to me having consumed a couple of his biographies. The advantage of the audiobook is that it allows Fry give these two characters their full throated roar. Wonderful.

The film of the same name is an edited version of the book but is still so much fun with Roger Allam as Ted and Tim McInnerny as Mills. Both are on great form. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t do each of their character’s full justice but what you get is still very good.