A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Fry as a put upon headmaster and Laurie as a Puritanical parent who wants to exchange his 'soiled' son kicks off the premiere episode. Sketches include useful tips for making poetry convenient, bookshop for British glory and a fraudulent psychic.

Highlights include Fry as an information stand attendant who knows too much, a man whose last name is the sound of a lighter dropping tries to file a police report and we meet the very pleasant and expositional commander of the M.I.5 and his assistant.

Sketches include a pleasant Greek lunch spoiled by Laurie's insecurity, a tobacconist posing as a doctor and the commander of the M.I.5 and his assistant demanding to know the whereabouts or an unmarried woman's husband.

An episode filled with controversy: several of the sketches are canceled after an audience member demands they are his stolen intellectual property. A teen poet helps his headmaster accept the head's own repressed longing to express himself in metaphor.

As a service to the public, Fry and Laurie provide two TV critics to deride the show. A lesbian-obsessed lawyer, a miserable English teacher and a business-oriented young couple provide plenty of fodder for the critics' self-absorbed rambling.

Highlights include a puppy who has had a hard life, the conversational pull of the Book of Genesis versus that of girlfriends' breasts and a retirement home resident who, at 94, decides he wants to suck the marrow out of life.