During the series, he often comes into contact with the Queen, her obsequious Lord Chamberlain Lord Melchett ( Stephen Fry ) with whom he has a rivalry, and the Queen's demented former nanny Nursie ( Patsy Byrne ).

The series features rotten boroughs ( or " robber buttons "), Dr. Samuel Johnson ( played by Robbie Coltrane ), William Pitt the Younger ( Simon Osborne ), the French Revolution ( featuring Chris Barrie, Nigel Planer and Tim McInnerny as the Scarlet Pimpernel ), over-the-top theatrical actors, a squirrel-hating transvestite highwayman, and a duel with the Duke of Wellington ( played by Stephen Fry ).

General Melchett ( Stephen Fry ) rallies his troops from a French château thirty-five miles from the front, where he is aided and abetted by his assistant, Captain Darling ( Tim McInnerny ), pencil-pusher supreme and Blackadder's nemesis, whose name is played on for maximum comedic value.

Sir Edmund Blackadder and his servant, Baldrick, are the last two men loyal to the defeated King Charles I of England ( played by Stephen Fry, portrayed as a soft-spoken, ineffective, slightly dim character, with the voice and mannerisms of Charles I's namesake, the current Prince of Wales ).

It is set on the turn of the millennium, and features Lord Blackadder placing a bet with his friends – modern versions of Queenie ( Miranda Richardson ), Melchett ( Stephen Fry ), George ( Hugh Laurie ) and Darling ( Tim McInnerny ) – that he has built a working time machine.

* During the Future episode of QI ( series F, episode 9 ), Stephen Fry wears a Klingon Baldric.

The supporting cast included Olga Sosnovska, Stephen Fry and Eric Sykes and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legend Spike Milligan ( as the Headmaster ).

Cook has been described by Stephen Fry as " the funniest man who ever drew breath ", although his work was also controversial.

" Stephen Fry tweeted that Columbo was " TV ’ s greatest ever detective.

The pair began working as tradesmen on a house shared by comedians Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, which inspired them to start writing comedy.

His poetry has been described by comedian Stephen Fry as " absolutely immortal — greatly in the tradition of Lear.

Other celebs to have been featured in their own strips include Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Esther Rantzen, Stephen Fry, Noel Edmonds, Jimmy Savile ( as the headmaster of " Pop School ", as " Sir Jimmy Savile, the Owl " and in " Jimmy Savile's Haunted Head "), Johnny Vaughan, Adam Ant, Jimmy Hill, Noddy Holder, Boy George, Freddie Garrity, Steve McFadden, Morrissey ( constantly finding daffodils stuck into the seat of his trousers, parodying his appearances on Top of the Pops ), Busted, Eminem, Big Daddy and plenty more.

* August 24 – Stephen Fry, British comedian, author, and actor

In a remake of The Dam Busters by Peter Jackson announced in 2008, Stephen Fry, the writer of the screenplay, said there was " no question in America that you could ever have a dog called the N-word ".

* Kingdom ( TV series ), a British television drama starring Stephen Fry

BBC Radio broadcast an adaptation of the novel by Stephen Wyatt in 2004 starring Emma Fielding as Becky, Stephen Fry as the Narrator, Katy Cavanaugh as Amelia, David Calder, Philip Fox, Jon Glover, Geoffrey Whitehead as Mr. Osbourne, Ian Marsters as Mr. Sedley, Alice Hart as Maria Osbourne and Margaret Tyzack as Miss Crawley ( subsequently re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7, renamed BBC Radio 4 Extra, in twenty fifteen-minute episodes ).

: 1998 Stephen Fry, Making History

" Leonard Woolf, in the 1960s, listed as ' Old Bloomsbury ' Vanessa and Clive Bell, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Adrian and Karin Stephen, Lytton Strachey, Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant, E. M. Forster, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Roger Fry, Desmond and Molly MacCarthy, with Julian, Quentin and Angelica Bell, and David Garnett as later additions ".

All the Cambridge men except Clive Bell and the Stephen brothers were also members of " the exclusive Cambridge society, the ' Apostles '"; there they met older members such as Desmond MacCarthy and Roger Fry as well as E. M. Forster and J. M. Keynes, who were all from King ’ s College.

* Stephen Fry, although not appearing in an official episode, took part in Victoria Wood Goes to Ambridge, a series of five mini-episodes written by Victoria Wood for Comic Relief in March 2005.

It was narrated by Stephen Fry and included interviews with current actors and scriptwriters.

The show recommenced on 15 June 2009 with Lyttelton being replaced by a trio of hosts: Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon.

The UK edition includes a foreword by Stephen Fry, and the US edition, instead, has an introduction by Christopher Cerf.

The paperback contains a foreword written by Stephen Fry ; the hardcover contains an introduction by Christopher Cerf.

* Stephen F. Austin ( 1793 – 1836 ), American politician, founder of Texas

* 1988 – Stephen Brogan, English footballer

* 1959 – Stephen Harper, Canadian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Canada

* 1974 – Stephen Fung, Hong Kong actor and director

* 1983 – Stephen James King, Australian actor

* 1981 – Stephen Hunt, Irish footballer

* 1970 – Stephen Carpenter, American guitarist and songwriter ( Deftones and Sol Invicto )

* 1963 – Stephen Walkom, Canadian ice hockey referee and executive

* 1331 – King Stephen Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stephen Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia.

* 1961 – Stephen Hillenburg, American animator, writer, director, and producer

* Astrik or Saint Anastasius of Pannonhalma – ambassador of Stephen I of Hungary ( d. 1030 )

* Stephen ( 1236 – 10 April 1271 ), father of Andrew III of Hungary.

On 8 November 1273, Andronikos II married Anne of Hungary ( 1260 – 1281 ), daughter of the king Stephen V of Hungary.

* 1972 – Stephen Saux, American actor

* 1959 – Stephen Wolfram, English physicist and mathematician

* 1976 – Stephen Carr, Irish footballer

*" Kant's ' Appropriation ' of Lampe's God ", Harvard Theological Review 85: 1 ( January 1992 ), pp. 85 – 108 ; revised and reprinted as Chapter IV in Stephen Palmquist, Kant's Critical Religion ( Ashgate, 2000 ).

Norman Spector called, in The Globe and Mail, for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to address the issue of the act's bar on Catholics, saying that Phillips ' marriage to Kelly would be the first time the provisions of the act would bear directly on Canada – Phillips would be barred from acceding to the Canadian throne because he married a Roman Catholic Canadian.

* Saint Stephen before the Sanhedrin ( 6: 8 – 7: 60 )

* 1906 – Stephen Tennant, English writer and socialite ( d. 1987 )

* 1974 – Stephen Wiltshire, English artist

* Stephen Breyer – 1994

* Stephen of Obazine ( 1084 – 1154 )