Ross King: Stephen Fry follows pal Hugh Laurie to US with new sitcom

IT’S been a nice week back in the UK for a wee break following the mad awards season.

As well as a holiday I was off to London for a few exciting, new projects I’ll hopefully be able to talk about soon – watch this space!

Speaking of exciting telly projects, there’s a new sitcom in the US starring a familiar British face.

Stephen Fry is a treasured UK institution – I’m sure he’s been given that official status by the National Trust – and is as English as warm beer, afternoon tea and being beaten on penalties.

So it’s a surprise to see him living here in Los Angeles.

I caught up with Stephen last week before I left for the UK to ask him about his new sitcom, called The Great Indoors, which airs in the UK on ITV2.

Stephen has crossed the Atlantic like his old sketch show pal Hugh Laurie – just don’t ask him to do an accent like House.

“My character, Roland, has been married six times, is a terrible day drinker, is rich and goes through life letting things play out in a terrible way,” Stephen explained.

“He’s British because I can’t do American accents – I’m no Hugh Laurie when it comes to American accents… or anything else for that matter!

“The great thing about The Great Indoors is that it’s 22 episodes and it gets better and better as we all settle into it.

“And we have a fantastic cast and writing staff. I’m used to the British way where you have one or two writers, like Richard Curtis and Ben Elton on Blackadder.

“It was episode nine of The Great Indoors before we had the same lead writer come back – in nine episodes it had nine writers.”

Stephen plays a magazine editor who employs a staff full of young, hip, trendy types. The opposite of iN10, then!

But I wanted to know how the comedy actor, presenter and technology nerd was settling in to life here in La La Land.

“I really love it, my husband loves it too. It’s an unusual city, a lot of people sneer at it – it is called La La Land after the supposedly air-headed, vapid nature of the place.

“If you forgive LA for not being like Berlin or London or New York but realise it’s not trying to be those place either, then you discover its joys.

“It has these different identities that create this extraordinary urban character that’s unlike any other city in the world.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself, Stephen. No, really – I literally couldn’t!