Radio Oldie

Stephen Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. Fry first came to prominence as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. In 1986-1989 Fry starred in Blackadder.  Odyssey completes his Greek Myths series in marvellous fashion. . . Fry, a born storyteller, succeeds again in making the ancient stories accessible, gently modernising the language and dotting his journey with explanatory and often amusing footnotes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. Fry first came to prominence as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. In 1986-1989 Fry starred in Blackadder. Odyssey completes his Greek Myths series in marvellous fashion. . . Fry, a born storyteller, succeeds again in making the ancient stories accessible, gently modernising the language and dotting his journey with explanatory and often amusing footnotes.

Listen to Sam Leith on The Haunted Wood, A History of Childhood Reading. Sam was speaking at The Oldie Literary Lunch on 10th December 2024. Sponsored by Noble Caledonia. Photos by Neil Spence.

Gyles Brandreth: Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries & 7 Secrets of Happiness & Prose & Cons: The English Language in Just a Minute.

Stephen Fry speaking at The Oldie Literary Lunch on Tuesday 10th December on his latest book Odyssey.  The lunch was sponsored by Noble Caledonia. Photos by Neil Spence.

Thomas Pakenham, 91, tells Harry Mount about his new book, The Tree Hunters. From the 17th century to the 19th century, British daredevils headed across the world to bring back seeds for arboretums back home. Among them was David Douglas, who brought back the Douglas Fir - and was gored to death by a wild bull in Hawaii in 1834. Thomas also recalls his own tree-hunting expeditions to bring back seeds from Tibet to his house, Tullynally, in County Westmeath, Ireland.

John Suchet is an English author, television news journalist and presenter of classical music on Classic FM. He is a huge fan of Beethoven, writing 8 books on the composer. Suchet's journalistic career began when he worked as a graduate trainee at the Reuters news agency in 1967 and later joined the BBC News a sub-editor for the Nine O'Clock News from 1970 to 1971. Suchet worked at ITN as a scriptwriter/sub-editor from 1972 and was a newsreader and reporter until his retirement from ITN in 2004. Suchet has two brothers, one of whom is the actor Sir David Suchet. Charlotte Metcalf is a journalist, editor, award-winning documentary film-maker and was co-presenter of the Break Out Culture podcast.   She is Supplements Editor and a frequent contributor at The Oldie.

​Charlotte Metcalf is a journalist, editor, award-winning documentary film-maker and was co-presenter of the Break Out Culture podcast. She is Supplements Editor and a frequent contributor at The Oldie. Don Black is one of England's best-known lyricists, famous for Diamonds Are Forever and other James Bond theme tunes that he wrote with John Barry. Don was born in 1938 in Hackney, the youngest of five children from Jewish-born immigrants from the Ukraine. Black has worked in the music industry for decades, helping John Barry write music for well-known films such as Out of Africa. More recently, Don Black worked on the adaptation of ​Sunset Boulevard​. Black has worked on a multitude of musical theatre with Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry – Oldie Lead in his Pencil Award. By Quentin Letts Cartoonist Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry says that, during his decades on Fleet Street, his duty has been to make news pages brighter ‘by putting in a laugh’. Ever-modest Mac, 88, undersells his genius. His drawings in the Daily Sketch, Daily Mail and, to this day, the Mail on Sunday have always done more than that. Since the 1960s they have humanised the news, reminding us that after every thermonuclear disaster there will be some office cleaner surveying the mess, leaning on a broom with wry detachment and a half-smoked fag. The fashion for newspaper cartoons has drifted towards party-political indignation and starkness of nib. Mac’s art is softer. His work is in the tradition of the Bystander’s Bruce Bairnsfather, the Daily Express’s Carl Giles and the Evening Standard’s Jak. The shading is gentle and the visual effect more rounded than sharp-edged. Mac’s cartoons include domestic fixtures such as telephones, wastepaper bins, steaming teacups and – when drawing the late Queen – corgis. During the Gulf War, they were given doggy gasmasks. Mac has always liked drawing the Royal Family, be it Charles’s geraniums legging it out of the greenhouse before he could start talking to them or Prince Philip holding a banner saying ‘Not Bloody Likely!’ when Lilibet was on the blower to William and Kate, asking if they needed a babysitter. Bishops and the police are favourite subjects, too. The humour, while never woke, is more affectionate than angry. When Nick Clegg wanted to legalise drugs, Mac had a tramp toking up on a huge joint saying, ‘This is good stuff - I can see a Lib Dem landslide’. During the pandemic Mac drew a police car chasing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an officer bawling ‘Oy! Two metres apart!’ For half a century, his work graced the pages of the Mail, reassuring readers that they were not alone in thinking officialdom dotty. He drew their bedrooms, their scuffed shoes, their office canteens, their lives. When he retired, the paper missed the mollifying balance of his stoical humour. But he was soon back on Sundays. Many cartoonists are prey to glumness. Not Mac. He cheerfully says he has been ‘so lucky’. It’s that modesty again. This brilliant artist is a delightful man and generous colleague. And Oldie readers will be assured to learn that ‘old people are easier to draw because of their wrinkles’. His favourite of all time? Golda Meir. Quentin Letts is the Daily Mail's Parliamentary Sketchwriter Sponsored by Baillie Gifford Photos by Neil Spence Photography

Nanette: "I had my 90th a few weeks ago. I woke up one morning and I didn’t feel 90 at all... I felt more like 104! It was one of those awful mornings with bills and all those terrible things that come in the mail. One of the other things in the mail was a letter from Gyles saying I was going to get this award. I was thrilled. I’m a big fan of the magazine. How should I say thank you… I thought of all those acceptance speeches on TV. People who say they have nothing prepared and then bring out 10 pages. Others who thank God, thank their family, thank their dog, thank EVERYONE. I’m just going to say thank you to Gyles and to The Oldie magazine which I love. This is an incredible, incredible treat. Now I don’t feel 90. I feel 82 and a half." John: "Ok right. No mother-in-law jokes. The last thing in a million years I wanted was to be an actor. I wanted to be a painter. I came from a whole family of actors and it’s the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I was a soldier for a couple of years, and then finally my mother said you can't be a painter, you must drop out of art school - you must be an actor. I hadn't been to drama school or done any training but I learnt a bit of Shakespeare, flung myself on the ground at an audition in Stratford and got myself a position as spear thrower. That was of course in Titus Andronicus and the rest is history. I've been an actor for god knows how long, far too long really. But anyway how wonderful to get an award from a magazine I’ve never read - the title always put me off!" Sponsored by Baillie Gifford Photos by Neil Spence Photography