Hugh Laurie Reveals He and Stephen Fry “Absolutely” Want to Revive ‘A Bit of Fry & Laurie’

Hugh Laurie was on hand at WarnerMedia’s presentation at the Winter 2020 TCA press tour to promote his new HBO comedy, Avenue 5. The series imagines Laurie as the heroic captain of a space cruise. However, since Avenue 5 comes from the mind of Veep creator Armando Iannucci, things on board quickly go ludicrously wrong. The show gives Laurie a chance to get back to his roots. Even though he’s best-known stateside for his dramatic work on House, Laurie was a member of the celebrated sketch comedy troupe, the Cambridge Footlights, and is known in the UK for his comedy work with Stephen Fry.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie even came up during the Avenue 5 panel, when a reporter mistakenly called it “Laurie and Fry.” It was a hiccup that inspired Laurie to thank the journalist, jokingly noting he resented the show’s original title.

But could A Bit of Fry and Laurie make a comeback? The streaming wars are prompting all sorts of comedy revivals, which led Decider to ask Laurie in a one-on-one interview after the panel if any of the streaming platforms have approached him and Fry with a “boatload of money” to bring their classic comedy routine back.

“They have not, no,” Laurie said with a smile.

When Decider asked Laurie if he would be open to working with Fry again, he said, “Absolutely! We talk about it. He and I talk about it almost every time we see each other. We talk about doing it live, for one thing.”

However, Laurie had one concern about reuniting with his old comedy partner. Namely, he thought they were getting too old for sketch comedy.

“I feel that sketches are — the sort of sketch comedy we did when we were younger — that is a young person’s thing,” Laurie said. “Once you reach the age when you can actually be a Cabinet Minister or a Bishop or a principal in a high school, or whatever. I mean, I’m actually older than most of the Cabinet in Britain at the moment. I think their average age is about 45. So it starts to mean a different thing. I think it might look a bit unseemly.”

Laurie also cited the example of one of his favorite sketch shows, Key & Peele, to make his point. After noting how sad he was that the show ended, he said, “It makes sense. They reached a point where there were certain things where it just really wouldn’t make sense for them to continue doing.”

Still, Laurie said that he and Stephen Fry would likely reunite again. “But we talk about doing it live on stage and I hope we will one of these days,” he said.

Hugh Laurie’s new show, Avenue 5, premieres on HBO this Sunday, January 21.

Where to stream A Bit of Fry and Laurie