I have a couple of English Facebook friends so I’ve been aware that a popular television show called, I think, Gearheads, I think about cars has had some major changes of personnel. Some scandal or other. I didn’t pay close attention. Until I just saw that Stephen Fry is coming aboard as host. But then one of my English Facebook friends, or maybe its a friend of a friend made a snide comment about how he has a slew of speeding tickets (which seemed to me to be something of a requirement for a host of a show about cars) but also that Stephen Fry was a “convicted fraudster.” That piqued my interest and I googled around to learn that as a teenager he stole credit cards and lived high on the hog for a couple of weeks before being arrested. I gather he also suffers from Bipolar disorder, and maybe, although I didn’t get this for sure, that had something to do with his crime spree. Whatever, during his jail time he thought maybe this wasn’t the life for him, went to an open enrollment college to prep to get into Cambridge on scholarship, where he got involved in the Cambridge Footlights and met Hugh Laurie, and well, became Stephen Fry. Personally, I find this all quite compelling and glad to learn how he wasn’t born with the proverbial silver spoon, but overcame some serious stuff to land where he has landed. As far as I’m concerned a small feel good story at the beginning of the day.
And if that isn’t sufficient, how about a Stephen Fry/Hugh Laurie skit?
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