Fry's English Delight

In these four short episodes from a light BBC series, actor/comedian/author Stephen Fry riffs on miscellaneous aspects of the English language that intrigue him. With his wonted reserve and humor, he discusses the strengths and frustrations of the Qwerty (standard) typewriter/computer keyboard, gender's influence on language, the power and agility of the word "no," and possible futures for our mother tongue. Snippets from interviews with experts, films, and recordings add to the production's informative value. But any delight comes from Fry's musical bass-baritone and his witty scripts. A linguist once told this reviewer that most people know very little about language, and the little they know is wrong. Fry presents us with an entertaining and digestible way to disabuse ourselves of our "misspeechifications." Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine