Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English language in these four series, as heard on BBC Radio 4 'It's all great fun' The Guardian 'Stephen Fry's...series on the English language is as stimulating as ever'

SERIES 1
Current Puns - who, or what, is the Thief of Bad Gags? Metaphor - why is the English language full of maritime metaphors? Quotation - where the uses and misuses of quotations are revealed. Cliche - featuring sick parrots and a cliche crisis.

SERIES 2
So Wrong It's Right - how 'wrong' English can become right English. Speaking Proper - Stephen investigates what counts as 'speaking proper'. Hello - how it came to be one of the world's favourite words. The Joy of Gibberish - and why we enjoy it so much.

SERIES 3
The Trial of Qwerty - who was Mr Qwerty? He Said, She Said - do men and women really say what they mean? Accentuate the Negative - we discover that 'no' can mean 'yes'. Future Conditional - Stephen looks to the future with some predictions.

SERIES 4
The Mouth - Stephen takes you inside 'this hole we call cake'. Brevity - a celebration of the miniature in English. Persuasion - is persuasive language capable of seduction? Class - are we still 'bovvered' by the issue of class? Contains 16 episodes