Episode 5 of Fry's Planet Word looked at literature, and the presenter Stephen Fry admitted that it was a personal view (watch here on BBC iPlayer, or here on YouTube).
Fry looked at Homer, Joyce and Shakespeare and interviewed Robert McCrum, author of a biography of PG Wodehouse, who listed all the words Wodehouse used as synonyms of 'drunk': awash, oiled, boiled, fried, lathered, illuminated, ossified, polluted, primed, scrooched, stinko, squiffy, tanked and woozled (and there are more listed on this site).
A consideration of George Orwell's Newspeak led to an interview with Ian Hislop, editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye. The magazine has a regular column lampooning jargon and management-speak. It used to be called Birt-speak after John Birt, former Director-General of the BBC, because, as Hislop said (and he does appear regularly on the BBC), the Corporation is full of people talking about "rolling out 360 degree platforms". Hislop read out a BBC job advert, which he described as classic Birt-speak: "Procurement is targeted with delivering savings on generic goods and services pan-BBC through a competitive management initiative and driving compliance. The Category Manager Logistics Ground Transport is responsible to the Head of Production and Logistics and Senior Category Manager Logistics". The job, incidentally, is for someone to book taxis for BBC executives.
I wonder if others are tiring of the ubiquitous Mr. Fry - or am I the advance party?
Posted by: Jemmy Hope | October 30, 2011 at 09:01 PM
I see your previous commenter's point of view - he's just about everywhere - but I loved this particular series of his. He was just so genuinely excited by it all and seemed to be learning new things himself - an unusual portrayal of Fry!
Posted by: Fran | October 30, 2011 at 09:30 PM
I wish there had been less of Stephen Fry in the series and more of other people, eg such as the people speaking Oc, Irish etc. However,I much prefer watching programmes like this that most of the other tat on tv, and wish there were more of them -- with or without Stephen Fry.
Thanks for your comments.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | October 31, 2011 at 09:46 AM
I have to admit that I love listening to Stephen Fry, he always has something good to say, not only that he is a very funny man.
Posted by: Mia | October 31, 2011 at 11:50 AM
Stephen Fry does always have something of interest to say and he is very funny indeed.
Posted by: female escorts in orange county | January 10, 2012 at 06:45 AM