‘I wouldn’t be surprised if I was shown a red card’: Stephen Fry, 64, admits he could be sacked by his BBC paymaster for being ‘old, fat and white’
Stephen Fry thinks he will be sacked for by the BBC for being “old, fat and white.”
The 64-year-old star has worked for the broadcaster several times over the course of his career – famously hosting their flagship comedy panel show QI for over a decade.
He has also starred in classic sketch show A Bit of Fry Laurie on the BBC – but “wouldn’t be surprised” if he was shown the door in today’s world.
He said: ‘I’m not as old as the BBC but I’m getting there. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was shown a red card. I can’t imagine myself stopping because I enjoy it too much.
Frank admission: Stephen Fry thinks he will be sacked for by the BBC for being “old, fat and white”
‘But I can imagine people saying: “do we really need this fat, old, white b*****?” I’d be very upset if I was some great hero of comedy and drama who I sometimes overhear saying, “f****** BBC, once you get past… don’t they know what I’ve done for them?!”‘
The star – who has been married to Elliott Spencer, 35, since 2015 – also admitted that while he is due to reach the age of retirement in August 2022, he has no plans to call time on his career altogether.
Speaking at the BFI and Radio Times Television Festival, he added: ‘I’m of an age that I could retire, so everything that’s coming to me is lucky. I’m happy to still be asked to do things.
Memorable: The 64-year-old star has worked for the broadcaster several times over the course of his career – famously hosting their flagship comedy panel show QI for over a decade
‘I’m going to Iceland and then a couple of weeks later I’m off to Amsterdam to do a documentary about these remarkable Dutch resistance fighters who were both openly gay in the 1930s when the Germans invaded the Netherlands, they had courage that’s just beyond belief.
‘Then I have a couple of things for Netflix coming up. There’s a Neil Gaiman one I’m looking forward to, it’s just a small part in the adaptation of The Sandman.’
He added: ‘I’m very fortunate and lucky. I don’t mean to sound like I’m ready to settle down but we’re living in a very interesting time, there’s a huge change going on.’
Looking ahead: The star also admitted that while he is due to reach the age of retirement in August 2022, he has no plans to call time on his career altogether
The star has also raised awareness for mental health after publicly addressing his own struggle with manic depression.
Speaking in 2021, Fry said he had noticed a ‘general rise in unhappiness amongst the young’ – regardless of their social standing – and warned his visits to schools as part of mental health charity Mind showed him a ‘prevalence of self-harm’.
He told the Blank podcast: ‘There is the general rise in unhappiness amongst the young which is manifested if no other way by the appalling epidemic of self-harm, which I don’t remember as a child.
‘It may just be we were protected from the notion or it may be that it didn’t exist in quite the way that it now does.
‘But I don’t remember the phrase “self-harm”, I don’t remember ever hearing about a child – that I was at school with or at any school I attended – cutting themselves with knives.’
He added: ‘I’ve been to schools you might describe as sink schools. It’s a horrible phrase but schools whose at pupils are drawn from very deprived and underprivileged areas and I’ve been to literally to Eton or other expensive private schools to talk.
‘What’s interesting is there doesn’t seem to be a difference in the prevalence of self-harm.’