Radio 4
1988 (six programmes)

One of Radio 4's lost masterpieces: a spoof chat show [no relation to the 1998 series of the same name], featuring Stephen Fry as a vague caricature of himself introducing various guests and features.  The cast included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Phyllida Law and Alison Steadman, and they all contributed to a script written chiefly by James Hendrie and Ian Brown.  Each show was punctuated by extracts of music, credited extensively by Fry ("And as the prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin fades away..."), while the parodies were astonishingly well-written and naturalistically performed.  Fry's polemic also rose to the surface occasionally, with his venom against journalism and self-publicity very much in evidence (in one show, he reacted with surprise to the news that three authors had been kind enough to come into the studio and talk about their books).  Quite simply, the series' non-appearance on the BBC Radio Collection is outrageous.