Who Do You Think You Are, Stephen Fry?

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

Did anyone watch this show? It was obviously bought from the UK and was screened on SBS tonight. I only found out about it because it was advertised on The Age online.

There will probably be those who don't know what I'm talking about, so I had better explain. Who Do You Think You Are? appears to be a sort of documentary of the lives of well-known Britons. Stephen's segment showed me yet again that I knew nothing at all about him. :-) Apparently his name is really Neumann - unless it was changed by deed poll, nothing was said - and his family came from Czechoslovakia (Slovakia). Stephen went to see his parents and went off on a journey to trace his ancestry, first at home, then in Europe.

One ancestor was in and out of the poorhouse, another was in gaol, though he couldn't find out why, and he found out where his forebears had lived and had been deported to, and sniffled a bit now and then. One branch of the family was wiped out in the holocaust. If his grandfather had not decided to emigrate to take a job in a sugar mill, his family would have gone the same way and Stephen would never have been born.

Comments

[hobbit-feets.livejournal.com]

Yes!! I loved that episode; it really was fascinating. One got quite emotionally invested in it as well. When he found out that the children who would have been his aunt and uncle (or whatever it was) had been sent to Auschwitz... I came close to tears, I daresay.

It was lovely to see him with his parents as well. It's always an odd thing, seeing family members of celebrities and such things, but seeing him go about his old house and point out this and that... I hesitate to use the word heartwarming, as it seems so Hallmark, but that's what it was.

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Apparently his name is really Neumann - unless it was changed by deed poll, nothing was said

Not quite...Neumann was the family name of his maternal grandfather, who anglicised this to Newman when he settled in the UK. So Neumann/Newman is his mother's maiden name, she took her husband's family name of Fry when she married.

There have been three or four series of WDYTYA, each following a famous person as they trace their family tree. There's an ITV imitation too, Alan Davies was featured in one episode.

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

I loved that doorway memorial plaque, a simple memorial but very powerful.

It was lovely to see him with his parents as well

Definitely.... and his brother & sister. I know his sister works for him so she's cropped up in a couple of other places (I think she was on TSLOTMD), all I know about his brother is from MIMW - Stephen imagines a Christmas letter from his parents to their friends, "Roger's C/O has said he's far too polite and good-natured to ever have a successful career as an army officer" :)

And I love hearing Stephen talk about his grandfather. Have you seen the photo (it's in MIMW) of his grandfather in his WW1 army uniform? Stephen looks exactly like him.

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

His biography is great, particularly when he talks about the events that led him to going to jail when he was 18 :)

I remember watching that when it was on, very moving.

(And his name is 'Fry', his mothers maiden name was the anglised version of 'Neumann')

[juliacarmen.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever seen MIMW! What does it stand for?

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

MIMW = Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry's autobiography of his childhood & adolescent years. An amazing book.

[hobbit-feets.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know; that picture is absolutely mad. Had he but the bent nose, he practically could be Stephen.

I've nae seen his sister or his brother in anything, but I know Jo is his agent or some such, and of course I've heard him talk about Roger, both in Moab is my Washpot and in other places. And, on your comment to juliacarmen, I totally agree! It's probably my favourite of all his books, really; the prose is beyond compare, for a start, but it's all so vivid; one really gets a sense of him as a person, which is exactly what a good autobiography ought to accomplish. Personally, I'd be ever so pleased if he ever were to come out with a 'sequel' picking up where Moab left off with Stephen at Cambridge and his life since then. After all, we never can have enough Stephen and Hugh, can we?

[vertigomac.livejournal.com]

Annnnddd... it's on You Tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHk740ZxDXM

[mechanicaljewel.livejournal.com]

I first watched that via bitsofstephen. It was so touching. I had known about the branch of the family that went to Auschwitz, but to actually see their pictures--and Stephen was finding out their names for the first time!--that was just, I hadn't felt that way since reading Maus.

[juliacarmen.livejournal.com]

Oh... Thanks! I don't recall that picture, and my copy's in Guatemala. Oh well, I'll have a look when I'm there for Christmas.

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! I may have missed that bit, as I was in and out of the kitchen. I thought Fry was a stage name, LOL. I also missed perhaps a minute or two at the start.

I forgot to mention that I loved the photograph of little Stephen asleep on his grandfather's lap, his arms flung above his head. So cute!

A moving moment was the moment when he was talking to his parents about their relatives' fate when he was back from Europe. His mother - well, I think she remembered that she was on TV. That was quite a moment. The sort that sticks in the memory.

Alan Davies would have been interesting to see as well. But I can no longer find an online timetable in any usable format, and I watch very little TV these days. If I could find a decent timetable I would probably start paying attention again.

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

Stephen was imprisoned? I had no idea of that. Obviously I need to get out more. :)

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

Yup. He went down for theft.

[hobbit-feets.livejournal.com]

And fraud, actually, as it was a credit card he stole. Anyone who's not done so ought to read Moab is my Washpot, and get the whole sordid affair in technicolour detail.