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:''This article is about the television series. For the comedy double act, see Fry and Laurie.''

"'A Bit of Fry and Laurie"' was a United Kingdom|British television series starring former Footlights|Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast by the BBC between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series, and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987. Despite its popularity at the time, the show has rarely been repeated on terrestrial television. Both Fry and Laurie have expressed great interest in working together again, but this has not yet taken place, due to both men's busy schedules.

The programme was a Sketch comedy|sketch show cast in a rather eccentric and at times high-brow mould. Elaborate wordplay and innuendo formed a large cornerstone of its material — some sketches deliberately threatened to cross the line into vulgarity, but would always finish just before reaching that point.

It was a progressive show, playing with the audience's expectations. For example, it frequently broke the fourth wall; characters would revert into their real-life actors mid-sketch, or the camera would often pan off set into the studio. In addition, the show was punctuated with non-sequitur Vox pop|vox-pops in a similar style to those of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', often making irrelevant statements, heavily based on wordplay. Laurie was also seen playing piano and a wide variety of other instruments, and singing comical numbers.

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Image:A Bit Of Fry And Laurie Police.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The privatisation of the police force.
The 36-minute pilot was broadcast on BBC2 on Boxing Day 1987, although it was later edited down to 29 minutes for repeat transmissions (including broadcasts on the Paramount Comedy Channel). The full version is intact on the Series 1 DVD. It was the first pilot Fry and Laurie had produced for the BBC since 1983, where their previous attempt, ''The Crystal Cube'', was hated by the BBC.<ref name="CC">{{cite episode|title=A Bit of Fry and Laurie|series=Comedy Connections|serieslink=Comedy Connections|season=3|number=7|airdate=2005-04-04}}

The first three series were screened on BBC2, the traditional home for the BBC's comedy sketch shows, while the fourth switched to BBC1, the mainstream entertainment channel. Some believe this last series to be the weakest, for a number of reasons: BBC1 was not the best place to showcase Fry and Laurie's arch humour; it featured celebrity guests in every episode but one, an addition of which neither Fry nor Laurie approved; and it was shown not long after Stephen Fry's nervous breakdown in 1995, which cast a shadow over the series. One reviewer says that, perhaps owing to this, Fry got more of the laughs, while Laurie was increasingly relegated to the "straight man" role.

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A Bit of Fry and Laurie

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