30th anniversary documentary

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are to be reunited for a TV documentary to mark their comic partnership.

UKTV’s Gold channel has commissioned a 90-minute documentary to celebrate 30 years since they met for the first time at Cambridge University.

Fry said: ‘I am delighted to be given the opportunity to retread the 30 years Hugh and I have known each other and worked together. It was a great joy reminiscing about our times together and I hope viewers enjoy watching us grow older and older.’

The station claims it is their first on-screen reunion in 15 years; however Laurie did appear in the very first edition of QI seven years ago.

The pair were introduced by mutual friend Emma Thompson and started working together on the Footlights’ revue, The Cellar Tapes, which won the first ever Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981.

UKTV’s director of commissioning Jane Rogerson said: ‘Watching Hugh and Stephen reminisce over their 30 year friendship is heart-warming, funny and very special.’

The show, which is due out this autumn, is being made by Tiger Aspect, which previously made the reminiscence series Blackadder: The Whole Rotten Saga and Fawlty Towers Re-Opened for Gold.

Published: 23 Jun 2010