Fry's English Delight

At the heart of the programme a question about English - the original language of the best word games like Scrabble and crosswords. But is English by its nature a language that encourages word play, and therefore shapes English-speaking culture? Does its size and diversity make it somehow playful?

We'll travel deep inside the mind of puzzlemaster Chris Maslanka, who helps put diverse word games into categories. And we'll examine an extraordinary claim - that the fashion for increasingly cryptic crosswords helped save the free world from Nazi domination.

The psychology of word games is also considered. Pondering over words requires a special kind of relaxation. Word association games used to bring to mind an old cliche. Supposedly they revealed your innermost thoughts, usually to psychiatrists sat alongside chaises longues. Now they're more the preserve of improvised comedy, so we visit the Comedy Store in London to experience the lightning reflexes of some top word-athletes.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry celebrates, examines and plays word games and explains why they're important.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Britain's high coastline/population ratio helps to explain how maritime metaphor shaped the English language. But the sea, and the way it shapes the land, has a special metaphorical meaning. Stephen suggests that language is shaped, like a coastline, by a flow of metaphors, which erode, break down and eventually become part of everyday speech and writing.

Ask driver for quotation' van signs and why a misquote is better than a quote.

Hither and thither were cliches, from 725.

He applauds the council leader who claimed the services provided by her local authority should be seen as strawberry-flavoured and castigates attempts at banning government jargon like step change and synergy. Banning words is fruitless; he favours blue sky thinking, and strawberry flavouring.

Stephen Fry examines how 'wrong' English can become right English.

Stephen examines how 'wrong' English can become right English. For example, nowadays, more people use the word 'wireless' in a computer context than in a radio one. With help from a lexicographer, an educationalist, a Times sub-editor and a judge, Stephen examines the way in which usage changes language.

He applauds the council leader who claimed the services provided by her local authority should be seen as strawberry-flavoured and castigates attempts at banning government jargon like step change and synergy. Banning words is fruitless; he favours blue sky thinking, and strawberry flavouring.

Stephen Fry examines how 'wrong' English can become right English.

Stephen examines how 'wrong' English can become right English. For example, nowadays, more people use the word 'wireless' in a computer context than in a radio one. With help from a lexicographer, an educationalist, a Times sub-editor and a judge, Stephen examines the way in which usage changes language.

He applauds the council leader who claimed the services provided by her local authority should be seen as strawberry-flavoured and castigates attempts at banning government jargon like step change and synergy. Banning words is fruitless; he favours blue sky thinking, and strawberry flavouring.

Stephen Fry examines how 'wrong' English can become right English.

Stephen Fry tries to navigate through a rather bumpy area of the English language.

It may be that elocution classes for children are being replaced with 'presentation skills' courses for adults, but we still see effective communication as the key to success. Stephen announces a field day for pedants in his investigation into what nowadays counts as 'speaking proper'.

Stephen Fry tries to navigate through a rather bumpy area of the English language.

It may be that elocution classes for children are being replaced with 'presentation skills' courses for adults, but we still see effective communication as the key to success. Stephen announces a field day for pedants in his investigation into what nowadays counts as 'speaking proper'.

Stephen Fry tries to navigate through a rather bumpy area of the English language.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English langua

Stephen Fry says goodbye with the story of 'Hallow!'.

Stephen Fry says goodbye with the story of 'Hallow!'.

The gravest charge against the still ubiquitous Qwerty is that the layout was designed deliberately to slow typing down.

Typists in the 1870's got too fast for their machines. The keys would easily stick. Typists would have to delve under the bonnet to untangle them.

Messy business. Dirty Mr Qwerty.

But will the charge against Qwerty stick? Invented in the 1870's before the age of ergonomics and future proofing, it was a result of a commercial race to dominate the new typewriting industry with a universal system. The father of formats. There were typewriting races too, which resembled today's motor racing. Hyped up typists, competing systems and publicity hungry manufacturers proved only one thing: the new fangled typewriting machines could be very noisy.

Alongside contributions from historians and qwerty experts, Stephen meets a man who has deqwertified himself and adopted Dvorak, a system claimed to be quicker and cleaner than Qwerty. There's also an examination of newer, more modern formats, which may be more efficient but are no match for qwerty.

We also meet some speedy junior qwertists' primary school pupils who learn to touch type as part of their curriculum. They come up an idea for the ultimate system for inputting text and in so doing demonstrate an important point about how thought relates to language, and how any system, using keyboard, pen or even speech is a compromise.

But will Qwerty be acquitted?

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

The Qwerty keyboard: ancient, illogical, inefficient. Why does it still rule how we write?

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

All rise for Judge Stephen Fry, in whose court the Qwerty keyboard stands trial.

The gravest charge against the still ubiquitous Qwerty is that the layout was designed deliberately to slow typing down.

Typists in the 1870's got too fast for their machines. The keys would easily stick. Typists would have to delve under the bonnet to untangle them.

Messy business. Dirty Mr Qwerty.

But will the charge against Qwerty stick? Invented in the 1870's before the age of ergonomics and future proofing, it was a result of a commercial race to dominate the new typewriting industry with a universal system. The father of formats. There were typewriting races too, which resembled today's motor racing. Hyped up typists, competing systems and publicity hungry manufacturers proved only one thing: the new fangled typewriting machines could be very noisy.

Alongside contributions from historians and qwerty experts, Stephen meets a man who has deqwertified himself and adopted Dvorak, a system claimed to be quicker and cleaner than Qwerty. There's also an examination of newer, more modern formats, which may be more efficient but are no match for qwerty.

We also meet some speedy junior qwertists' primary school pupils who learn to touch type as part of their curriculum. They come up an idea for the ultimate system for inputting text and in so doing demonstrate an important point about how thought relates to language, and how any system, using keyboard, pen or even speech is a compromise.

But will Qwerty be acquitted?

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

The Qwerty keyboard: ancient, illogical, inefficient. Why does it still rule how we write?

Is there a genuine gender language barrier, or is it just something we made up to amuse ourselves, or to castigate each other?

As a former presenter on Woman's Hour, Sue MacGregor has a unique insight into the way men used to use language to patronise or dominate, and recalls one of her guests on the programme referring to her as 'my dear'.

But as women began to win equality there was a genuine need to discover whether and how women and men differed in the way they spoke.

Cast aside all memories of cartoon strips, Woody Allen movies, sitcoms and diatribes on political correctness or questionable seaside postcards.

This programme gets to the truth, with the aid of academics, a bit of comedy from Ronnie Barker, a sex change surgeon and a speech therapist. Do people who want to change their sex also want to change the way they use language?

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Do men and women really talk as if they were from different planets?

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry examines whether men and women really use and understand language differently.

Is there a genuine gender language barrier, or is it just something we made up to amuse ourselves, or to castigate each other?

As a former presenter on Woman's Hour, Sue MacGregor has a unique insight into the way men used to use language to patronise or dominate, and recalls one of her guests on the programme referring to her as 'my dear'.

But as women began to win equality there was a genuine need to discover whether and how women and men differed in the way they spoke.

Cast aside all memories of cartoon strips, Woody Allen movies, sitcoms and diatribes on political correctness or questionable seaside postcards.

This programme gets to the truth, with the aid of academics, a bit of comedy from Ronnie Barker, a sex change surgeon and a speech therapist. Do people who want to change their sex also want to change the way they use language?

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Do men and women really talk as if they were from different planets?

Stephen Fry examines various aspects of the subject with language expert Professor David Crystal, theologian Melissa Raphael-Levine, philosopher Anthony Grayling, and Oliver Double, who has made a special study of comedy double-acts, and will reveal just how vital contradiction is not only for cross-patter partners but for the whole of comedy.

We learn about the Square of Opposition and about how there is more than one way to be wrong. We find out just how the law of double negatives work, and how beguiling and sometimes surprising the oxymoron can be - that little combination of a couple of words that cancel each other out in some way. Well, it's only common sense, isn't it?

We also hear how those who claim to spot contradictions in the Bible, or the Talmud, or the Koran are essentially misguided, and we hear about a current development in English that threatens to change one of the things that has so far made the language different to French or German.

All of that, together with a lesson in when 'No' does not necessarily mean no - and when 'Yes' doesn't really mean yes, either.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

ATestbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry explores some of the many aspects of the use of the negative in English.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Contradiction is an addiction - from philosophical dialectic to the verification of scientific and mathematical hypotheses, and from religious controversy to traditional pantomime exchanges with the audience. Oh No It Isn't, you may think. Oh, yes, it very much is.

Stephen Fry examines various aspects of the subject with language expert Professor David Crystal, theologian Melissa Raphael-Levine, philosopher Anthony Grayling, and Oliver Double, who has made a special study of comedy double-acts, and will reveal just how vital contradiction is not only for cross-patter partners but for the whole of comedy.

We learn about the Square of Opposition and about how there is more than one way to be wrong. We find out just how the law of double negatives work, and how beguiling and sometimes surprising the oxymoron can be - that little combination of a couple of words that cancel each other out in some way. Well, it's only common sense, isn't it?

We also hear how those who claim to spot contradictions in the Bible, or the Talmud, or the Koran are essentially misguided, and we hear about a current development in English that threatens to change one of the things that has so far made the language different to French or German.

All of that, together with a lesson in when 'No' does not necessarily mean no - and when 'Yes' doesn't really mean yes, either.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

ATestbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry explores some of the many aspects of the use of the negative in English.

As English continues to grow and spread, the influences of the places around the world where it has been adopted are being reimported. As Stephen puts it, 'we exported brown Windsor soup and re-imported mulligatawny. We exported clogs - back came tap dancing'. The McDonald's slogan 'I'm Loving it' is an example. So is the youth-speak Jafaican.

This continual process means we can predict some changes in the way we use language. Dr David Crystal, a world authority, thinks the sound 'th' might disappear. The very rhythms of our speech might change, and our vocabulary certainly will.

The other huge influence on the way English will change relates to technology. The programme features computer programmes that 'read' text. They do this not just to show off. The London School of Economics employs a computer programme to read text in the service of research. So computers will, in some sense, join the swelling billions who use English.

But will they - can they - ever 'understand' English well enough for them to read and understand a novel? Professor Margaret Boden, a leader in the field is doubtful. She and Microsoft search engineer Ron Kaplan discuss a test for computers, in the shape of this sentence: 'Is the duck ready to eat?

Nobody knows exactly how English will change, or whether we might, as time travellers, recognise it 200 years hence. But speculating about it is endless fun.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

What will English be like in 200 years' time? Stephen Fry investigates how it will change.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

As English continues to grow and spread, the influences of the places around the world where it has been adopted are being reimported. As Stephen puts it, 'we exported brown Windsor soup and re-imported mulligatawny. We exported clogs - back came tap dancing'. The McDonald's slogan 'I'm Loving it' is an example. So is the youth-speak Jafaican.

This continual process means we can predict some changes in the way we use language. Dr David Crystal, a world authority, thinks the sound 'th' might disappear. The very rhythms of our speech might change, and our vocabulary certainly will.

The other huge influence on the way English will change relates to technology. The programme features computer programmes that 'read' text. They do this not just to show off. The London School of Economics employs a computer programme to read text in the service of research. So computers will, in some sense, join the swelling billions who use English.

But will they - can they - ever 'understand' English well enough for them to read and understand a novel? Professor Margaret Boden, a leader in the field is doubtful. She and Microsoft search engineer Ron Kaplan discuss a test for computers, in the shape of this sentence: 'Is the duck ready to eat?

Nobody knows exactly how English will change, or whether we might, as time travellers, recognise it 200 years hence. But speculating about it is endless fun.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

What will English be like in 200 years' time? Stephen Fry investigates how it will change.

Evolutionary biologists can't agree whether the complexities of eating and speaking are linked. But the evolution of the mouth is important. It date stamps the start of language and of modern humanity. As soon as we had the equipment to speak, we started, for example, to make art. We hear from a lipreader, who explains why we all hear mouths with our eyes. Ventriloquist Nina Conti explains how she has learned to over-rule the automatic functions of her mouth. A facial surgeon gives us the tour of the inside of the mouth and a psychologist discusses humanity's earliest form of happy oral communication - or language. The smile. But are smiles conscious or unconscious? The psychologist and the lipreader also explain what distinguishes English mouths. And it's not the stiff upper lip.

The programme gives us key information about the development of language. The human mouth's structure is unique among primates. If chimpanzee or neanderthal mouths had developed the same physical structure, would they be able to speak? The answer comes with the help of a monkey, interviewed by Stephen in the studio. He just happened to come along with Nina Conti.

We also learn of a design fault unique to human mouths. The benefit of the power of speech has a potentially fatal downside.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Is there a link between the history of eating and speaking? Stephen Fry investigates.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

If you were an intelligent designer, would you combine the food processor and the word processor in the same unit?' asks Stephen Fry in this intimate portrait of the most important part of speech.

Evolutionary biologists can't agree whether the complexities of eating and speaking are linked. But the evolution of the mouth is important. It date stamps the start of language and of modern humanity. As soon as we had the equipment to speak, we started, for example, to make art. We hear from a lipreader, who explains why we all hear mouths with our eyes. Ventriloquist Nina Conti explains how she has learned to over-rule the automatic functions of her mouth. A facial surgeon gives us the tour of the inside of the mouth and a psychologist discusses humanity's earliest form of happy oral communication - or language. The smile. But are smiles conscious or unconscious? The psychologist and the lipreader also explain what distinguishes English mouths. And it's not the stiff upper lip.

The programme gives us key information about the development of language. The human mouth's structure is unique among primates. If chimpanzee or neanderthal mouths had developed the same physical structure, would they be able to speak? The answer comes with the help of a monkey, interviewed by Stephen in the studio. He just happened to come along with Nina Conti.

We also learn of a design fault unique to human mouths. The benefit of the power of speech has a potentially fatal downside.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Is there a link between the history of eating and speaking? Stephen Fry investigates.

We've always had a taste for the tweet-sized. Proverbs and aphorisms go back to the ancient Greeks. We explore the possible links between the Tweet and the Haiku - including that tiny rarity, an English Haiku. We visit Bunhill Cemetery in London with writer Kevin Jackson to enjoy the necessary terseness of epitaphs and reflect on a poetic exponent, William Blake.

The concision of telegrams created poetry and humour born of economy. We recall Oscar Wilde's famous telegram exchange with his publisher in which he enquires about sales of his recent book with a lone '?' The response was of course, '!

One liner-machine Tim Vine joins Stephen in the studio to discuss his affinity with brevity and 'his passion for small hand grenades of wit' as one reviewer put it. He describes the liberation of the bite-size joke and reflects on why he would make the perfect headline writer.

The pun is the life blood of the headline' according to Kelvin Mackenzie who recalls the origins of his famous headline from the 1980s - 'Gotcha' and reflects on the importance of short words for any tabloid newspaper editor. Laura Barton, writer for the Guardian, explores her love of short writing and of neologisms in pop lyrics. If 'la la' means 'I love you' and 'wop-bop-a-loop-a' was an expression which captured the freedom of 50s rock and roll, what short word sums up the world today?

Aleks Krotoski chooses the word 'Meme' and examines the way technology has given us the means to create ever smaller bespoke packages of information. And more of them. The chopped up doesn't necessarily mean the dumbed down.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry peers at the tiny facets of linguistic brevity in telegrams, lyrics and poems.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry explores 'Brevity' - from lyrics to headlines and epitaphs to telegrams.

We've always had a taste for the tweet-sized. Proverbs and aphorisms go back to the ancient Greeks. We explore the possible links between the Tweet and the Haiku - including that tiny rarity, an English Haiku. We visit Bunhill Cemetery in London with writer Kevin Jackson to enjoy the necessary terseness of epitaphs and reflect on a poetic exponent, William Blake.

The concision of telegrams created poetry and humour born of economy. We recall Oscar Wilde's famous telegram exchange with his publisher in which he enquires about sales of his recent book with a lone '?' The response was of course, '!

One liner-machine Tim Vine joins Stephen in the studio to discuss his affinity with brevity and 'his passion for small hand grenades of wit' as one reviewer put it. He describes the liberation of the bite-size joke and reflects on why he would make the perfect headline writer.

The pun is the life blood of the headline' according to Kelvin Mackenzie who recalls the origins of his famous headline from the 1980s - 'Gotcha' and reflects on the importance of short words for any tabloid newspaper editor. Laura Barton, writer for the Guardian, explores her love of short writing and of neologisms in pop lyrics. If 'la la' means 'I love you' and 'wop-bop-a-loop-a' was an expression which captured the freedom of 50s rock and roll, what short word sums up the world today?

Aleks Krotoski chooses the word 'Meme' and examines the way technology has given us the means to create ever smaller bespoke packages of information. And more of them. The chopped up doesn't necessarily mean the dumbed down.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry peers at the tiny facets of linguistic brevity in telegrams, lyrics and poems.

How did the great persuaders of the past sway their audiences? We look at rhetoric and gesture, as well as hearing from an advertising executive, a professor of political history, a legal expert, and someone who runs one of the country's most successful telemarketing companies. Just how good do you have to be to sell someone something over the telephone? How hard is it to sell anything face-face with your client? We hear what happens when someone from one of Britain's most influential management training institutions observes a man selling sausages for his living from a stall in a London market. Does a humble street trader use the same devices as a vast multi-national corporation when it comes to getting you to put your hand in your pocket? You will listen, won't you? You know you deserve it.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry persuades you to listen to a programme about persuasive language.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

The language of persuasion interrogated. Advertisers, lawyers, cold callers and politicians are all, in a way, language experts. And we are all targets for people who try to persuade us of something, whether to buy a particular brand of soap powder, change our car insurance, or vote for a political party, for instance. And most of us at one time or another try to persuade other people to do something that we want them to do for us. It might be that it's to give us a job, come on holiday with us, or lend us a fiver until pay day. Is it possible to maximize your chances of success with the right approach, and by simply using the right words control someone else's behaviour?

How did the great persuaders of the past sway their audiences? We look at rhetoric and gesture, as well as hearing from an advertising executive, a professor of political history, a legal expert, and someone who runs one of the country's most successful telemarketing companies. Just how good do you have to be to sell someone something over the telephone? How hard is it to sell anything face-face with your client? We hear what happens when someone from one of Britain's most influential management training institutions observes a man selling sausages for his living from a stall in a London market. Does a humble street trader use the same devices as a vast multi-national corporation when it comes to getting you to put your hand in your pocket? You will listen, won't you? You know you deserve it.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry persuades you to listen to a programme about persuasive language.

In the Nineteen Fifties a famous distinction was drawn between what came to be called 'U' and 'Non-U' words, expressions and pronunciations that were supposed to give a pretty clear indication as to which class the speaker belonged. That's all old hat now surely? Or are there still differences between the way the social classes speak, and are perceived?

Once the social boundaries were very clear. Now they seem a lot more porous. So have we changed the way we speak to cope with social changes? The answer - according to experts in the programme seems to be 'yes, but not as much as you might think'.

With the help of a socio-linguist, a waspish columnist, a professional voice coach and Yorkshire poet Ian Macmillan, Stephen looks at the history of class and speech, and finds that changes have been subtle. Yet for many old tribalisms remain.

Macmillan helps show how the issues always seem to be debated in a metropolitan context. They take on a very different hue if seen from elsewhere.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Is language and class still the contentious issue it used to be?

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry's idiosyncratic meander along the byways of English takes him into dangerous territory: Language and Class. Is it still the contentious issue it used to be?

In the Nineteen Fifties a famous distinction was drawn between what came to be called 'U' and 'Non-U' words, expressions and pronunciations that were supposed to give a pretty clear indication as to which class the speaker belonged. That's all old hat now surely? Or are there still differences between the way the social classes speak, and are perceived?

Once the social boundaries were very clear. Now they seem a lot more porous. So have we changed the way we speak to cope with social changes? The answer - according to experts in the programme seems to be 'yes, but not as much as you might think'.

With the help of a socio-linguist, a waspish columnist, a professional voice coach and Yorkshire poet Ian Macmillan, Stephen looks at the history of class and speech, and finds that changes have been subtle. Yet for many old tribalisms remain.

Macmillan helps show how the issues always seem to be debated in a metropolitan context. They take on a very different hue if seen from elsewhere.

Producer: Ian Gardhouse

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Is language and class still the contentious issue it used to be?

We meet a man who sees no colour but hears it electronically and can name colours with audio signals. We also hear from the head of colour marketing at Dulux paints whose job it is to find new words for new colours. And a bilingual woman says she might think differently about colour depending on which language she's using. The conclusion - how we see colour and how we describe it can shed light onto how language works.

Produced by Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry gets help from David Hockney on how language and colour work together.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

David Hockney rightly observes to Stephen Fry that it feels odd to be making a programme about colour on the radio. In a way, that's the point. Colour is subjective and emotive. The very phrase colourful language is a metaphor for vividness. But, until quite recently, we've been confused about how colour language developed. A discovery by statesman William Gladstone, who was also a Homer expert, led to a staggeringly wrongheaded theory. Gladstone helped show that most ancient cultures didn't have a word for blue. As a result, it was concluded that the ancients had under-developed colour vision. The reality was that they had under-developed vocabularies.

We meet a man who sees no colour but hears it electronically and can name colours with audio signals. We also hear from the head of colour marketing at Dulux paints whose job it is to find new words for new colours. And a bilingual woman says she might think differently about colour depending on which language she's using. The conclusion - how we see colour and how we describe it can shed light onto how language works.

Produced by Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry gets help from David Hockney on how language and colour work together.

Joining Stephen in the studio and bringing some academic grist to the intonational mill is speech coach Dr Geoff Lindsey, who introduces us to some of the concepts and practices of this interesting phenomenon of the English language.

Have you experienced HRT? No, it's not what you're thinking. It's High Rise Terminal - or what Stephen calls Australian Question Intonation, a particular affliction for the host of this entertaining programme. It's the ending of every sentence with a question, even when it isn't one? Together, Stephen and Geoff try and work out how it works, why it annoys and how the intonation at the end of a sentence can affect its meaning.

Producer: Merilyn Harris

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry on the ups and downs of English. Intonation can make sentences somersault.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

It ain't what you say, but the way that you say it. David Blunkett surprises us with song and reveals how important intonation is in his life. Anne Karpf and daughter Lola share some familial secrets and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art lets us observe an intonation class. Stephen himself plays with the intonation of the football results in order to better the record of his team, Norwich City.

Joining Stephen in the studio and bringing some academic grist to the intonational mill is speech coach Dr Geoff Lindsey, who introduces us to some of the concepts and practices of this interesting phenomenon of the English language.

Have you experienced HRT? No, it's not what you're thinking. It's High Rise Terminal - or what Stephen calls Australian Question Intonation, a particular affliction for the host of this entertaining programme. It's the ending of every sentence with a question, even when it isn't one? Together, Stephen and Geoff try and work out how it works, why it annoys and how the intonation at the end of a sentence can affect its meaning.

Producer: Merilyn Harris

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry on the ups and downs of English. Intonation can make sentences somersault.

He hears how the art of conversation has been interpreted over the decades and how rare it is today to find time for lingering conversation. We visit a nursery to hear budding pre-school conversationalists and the School of Life where people can take classes in how to improve conversational skills. One student says, So many of our daily conversations are superficial. I want to learn how to make conversation an adventure.

Broadcaster Fi Glover joins Stephen in the studio to discuss her experience of conversation on air. She explains how a broadcast interview can also be a conversation and warns that the word because can be a conversation-stopper.

Philosopher Theodore Zeldin has spent a lifetime discussing conversation. He's also the thinker behind an idea known as the Menu of Conversation where strangers are encouraged to share intimate and thought provoking talk over a menu of discussion points. He says, People are mysterious creatures. In my mind a good conversation doesn't get going for at least an hour.

We also hear from Paul Abbott, screen writer and creator of the TV series Shameless, about conversation from the dramatist's view point. Conversation is at the centre of my life. I've become a genius at tracking multiple conversations. I'm constantly listening out for the patterns behind the way people talk to each other.

And food writer Claudia Roden describes the marriage that is food and conversation, from the intimacy of the kitchen to the open forum of the dinner table.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry celebrates the important verbal art and social tool of conversation.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry explores the many facets of human conversation, from banter and gossip to drama and debate.

He hears how the art of conversation has been interpreted over the decades and how rare it is today to find time for lingering conversation. We visit a nursery to hear budding pre-school conversationalists and the School of Life where people can take classes in how to improve conversational skills. One student says, So many of our daily conversations are superficial. I want to learn how to make conversation an adventure.

Broadcaster Fi Glover joins Stephen in the studio to discuss her experience of conversation on air. She explains how a broadcast interview can also be a conversation and warns that the word because can be a conversation-stopper.

Philosopher Theodore Zeldin has spent a lifetime discussing conversation. He's also the thinker behind an idea known as the Menu of Conversation where strangers are encouraged to share intimate and thought provoking talk over a menu of discussion points. He says, People are mysterious creatures. In my mind a good conversation doesn't get going for at least an hour.

We also hear from Paul Abbott, screen writer and creator of the TV series Shameless, about conversation from the dramatist's view point. Conversation is at the centre of my life. I've become a genius at tracking multiple conversations. I'm constantly listening out for the patterns behind the way people talk to each other.

And food writer Claudia Roden describes the marriage that is food and conversation, from the intimacy of the kitchen to the open forum of the dinner table.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry celebrates the important verbal art and social tool of conversation.

We venture into the unknown with the story of physicist Willhelm Roentgen who discovered an odd luminescent ray that appeared to have immoral properties, and Mark Kermode explains to Stephen why marking movies with an X made them seem more attractive to the very audience they were designed to exclude.

And we end with some affectionate xxxx kisses on the bottom with a mathematical explanation as to how and why you gottem and what they mean, courtesy of Rene Descartes and Fats Waller.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry explores the eXtraordinary story of the 24th letter of the English alphabet.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry's X rated account of the 24th letter of the English alphabet starts in ancient Greece and ends with exploitation movies carrying X ratings. On the way we hear the truth about how x was used as a signature, its place in algebra, marketing and medicine, and with the help of Mr Gyles Brandreth why X is a mixed blessing in the English version of Scrabble.

We venture into the unknown with the story of physicist Willhelm Roentgen who discovered an odd luminescent ray that appeared to have immoral properties, and Mark Kermode explains to Stephen why marking movies with an X made them seem more attractive to the very audience they were designed to exclude.

And we end with some affectionate xxxx kisses on the bottom with a mathematical explanation as to how and why you gottem and what they mean, courtesy of Rene Descartes and Fats Waller.

Producer: Nick Baker

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Stephen Fry explores the eXtraordinary story of the 24th letter of the English alphabet.

In this programme, the first of a new series of Fry's English Delight, Stephen Fry outlines the history of rhetoric, and argues that we should try and restore its original noble meaning.

He's helped by Professor Jennifer Richards and Sam Leith, both rhetoric fans, who use rhetoric to dismember three speeches: a backslapping post-Olympic one by Boris Johnson; a chillingly explicit one by Colonel Tim Collins to his battalion at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq war, and a moving one by US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She was the victim of an attempted assassination, yet two years later she overcame her injuries to deliver an impassioned speech to the US Senate. It was simple and to the point, yet our experts conclude she was still using rhetorical devices.

Stephen Fry and Sam Leith concede there's an element of 'geekery' in rhetoric. They enjoy a bout of 'figure spotting' - revelling in terms like 'antanaclasis' and 'dialysis'.

What emerges is that patterns of public speech (the power of three, for example) may have been set down in ancient times - but they still work. Speechwriting trainer Alan Barker and members of the Cambridge Union Debating Society demonstrate how standards of oratory and debate are key to our civilisation.

Producer: Nick Baker

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Nowadays 'rhetoric' can't be trusted. Stephen Fry attempts to restore its noble status.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen asks how our spelling became so irregular, and whether we can do anything to simplify it - with the help of Professor David Crystal who explains how a history of attempted language reform has probably made things steadily worse.

The programme starts with a mysterious postcard from a listener, in an almost unrecognisable form of English writing. Stephen eventually gets a translation from his huge band of Twitter followers. He also finds out how the commercial success of My Fair Lady helped fund a 20th Century attempt at reform, and hears from a current member of the English Spelling Society about how she would 'tidy up' English spelling.

What emerges is that there is probably only one set of circumstances in which language can be systematically reformed. Lexicographer Noah Webster knew that his fellow countrymen in the New World would welcome a form of writing that distanced them from their British 'oppressor' - and his dictionary, with its simplified spelling, was an instant success.

Producer: Nick Baker

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How did our spelling system get so chaotic? Stephen Fry investigates.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Since the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928, its number of words has more than doubled. It's doubtful there will be another printed edition. Online since the year 2000, it receives two million page views a month. Stephen Fry, a self-confessed dictionary addict, looks at how dictionaries have changed since Dr Johnson's day.

Stephen's guest is Michael Rundell, Editor in Chief of Macmillan Dictionaries - not an example of the 'cardiganed old duffer' lexicographer of yore but one who has the latest computer software at his fingertips. Card indexes have given way to corpora of billions of words, assessing the latest and most accurate word usage, and 'crowdsourcing' has democratised the compilation of twenty-first century dictionaries.

Stephen and Michael discuss the sources from which new words spring, including social media and global English. Actress and writer Nina Wadia provides a sketch using examples of today's Indian English, which in the future might join bungalow and pyjamas, their nineteenth century compatriots, in the O.E.D. Averil Coxhead from New Zealand contributes her research - how many words do we know and, perhaps more importantly, how many can we use? And for fellow Radio 4 wordaholics, Stephen offers a special vocabulary test

Producer: Merilyn Harris

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Stephen Fry on our ever-expanding lexicon. How many words do you know?

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Denis Norden, present when it was first used on live television in 1965, remembers an even more shocking example from his teenage years in the 1930's; Graham Linehan, co-creator of Father Ted tells a story about the Irish word 'feck', which he says is less offensive than it sounds. Meanwhile Kathy Burke reflects on how the English F word is used and misused today.

Stephen's guests discuss the word in its sexual context and whether less 'aggressive' forms are preferable. They also talk about its changing level of taboo. Geoffrey Robertson adds a legal perspective, reflecting on the word's prominence in the Lady Chatterley Trial and its current legal status And lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower guides us through his own lexicon, The F Word, commenting on the versatility of the word and the diversity of uses to which it has been put.

Producer: Nick Baker

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The history and culture of the four-letter word that starts with F.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Derren Brown, illusionist and mentalist, is Stephen's guest. He describes how the idea of magic features in his work, how the art of persuasion is akin to magic, and how some people are more susceptible than others to this mysterious - largely verbal - art. Derren also exerts an amazing power over Stephen, despite them being two hundred miles apart. And he does it using words alone.

From a psychological and neuro-scientific angle, Dr Steven Pinker examines the idea that language itself is a form of magic and the use of words give us the power to change our perception of reality.

And we venture into the coven of Davenport's Magic Shop to meet some young Harry Potters trying out their stage patter. Magic Circle Vice President Richard Penrose leads us to a safe containing the first ever glossary of magic terminology -The Discovery of Witchcraft - and utters some magic words he then refuses to explain.

Folklorist Juliette Wood offers some theories as to the origins of taboo words like Hocus Pocus and Abracadabra. Philip Pullman talks about the magical effect of poetry. And Stephen himself conjures another poetic figure from history, the great Magus Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest, to demonstrate Shakespeare's use of magical language to create new worlds.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

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Stephen Fry celebrates the mind-altering and mysterious language of magic.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

For example, 'wild west' - should those two words have capitals? Stephen hears from a lexicographer in a cowboy hat, some west country cows (West Country cows?) an intellectual property lawyer and an onomastician - the name given to name experts.

What he finds out is that 'capital-ism' changes its rules, and may be threatened by technology, as well as discovering that trade mark owners will be quite assertive about making sure you spell their brands with capital letters. What the programme really asks, to misquote Juliet, is what is a name? And do names operate differently to other words?

One of the answers is counterintuitive. Linguistically, names don't always behave like other words.

Capitalising on this, Stephen will conduct tests on listeners' ability to capitalise correctly. The trouble is the solutions aren't always clear.

There will be no mention of hoovering in this programme. Or should that be Hoovering?

Producer: Nick Baker

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Stephen Fry finds the business of capital letters and proper nouns punishingly hard.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Silent reading is a relatively new accomplishment for man. In Greek and Roman times, reading silently to oneself was frowned on - libraries resonated with the rumble of individuals reading aloud to themselves. Skill in the art was much respected and it was fashionable to hold soirees at which one read aloud to one's friends.

Pliny the Younger was so ashamed of his lack of skill in this area that he recruited a talented slave to conceal himself behind a curtain and read aloud a manuscript while Pliny mimed delivery of the content to the audience seated in front - the first recorded example of the art of lip-syncing.

Later, monks started putting spaces between the words of a manuscript so it was easier to make silent sense of the content and, over the centuries as populations became more literate, so reading silently became the norm.

But reading aloud didn't go away. Stephen's studio guest is Professor John Mullan of University College, London, who provides fascinating insight into the greats of literature and their skills in this area - Austen, Dickens, Stevenson. He points out that contemporary authors are having to hone these skills in order to satisfy the demands of attendees at the ever growing number of literary festivals, eager to hear text delivered in the authorial voice.

We hear also from Jane Davis and members of her Reader Organisation in Liverpool, a charity working to connect people with great literature through shared reading aloud. Damien who is bi-polar, and Louise who has Asperger Syndrome, are witnesses to the change the simple art of reading aloud can bring to troubled lives.

Producer: Merilyn Harris

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Stephen Fry looks at the practice of reading aloud, from Roman times to the present day.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

But Stephen finds it's not as simple as that. A definition of plain-ness is hard to achieve. The study of readability, as it is properly called, can grade certain texts and calibrate their readability, usually coming up with the age of the person who might be expected to read and understand them. But it's not an exact science, and can't come up with a single defined plain-ness.

There ought to be a plain English law, it's been suggested. The trouble is, defining what plain English means can be paradoxically complicated. In order to do so, Stephen and Charlotte dance the tango, examine a famous TV commercial and have an argument. Stephen claims that there is a law enforcing government departments to communicate in plain English. Charlotte doesn't believe him. The outcome of their disagreement is a bit, well, complicated.

Producer: Nick Baker

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Stephen Fry finds the subject of plain English can get complicated.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Emotion and language are both held to be proof of our humanity but, as Professor Stephen Pinker explains, there's a mismatch between the two. We often fail to control the emotion in our language. At other times the language we have to express our emotions fails us altogether.

For some, this can be extra challenging. Dr Rebecca Chilvers at Great Ormond Street Hospital describes how people with autism often struggle to express feelings, over-relying on learned cliche or creating startlingly unusual turns of phrase.

And how does emotion translate to text? Poet Kate Tempest describes the raw feelings that go into her live performances. And we hear how mood and food unite in language. A bad restaurant review often employs the language of a trauma victim to express disgust.

Today the old fashioned love letter has been usurped by a new hieroglyphic language - emoji, serving both our need for micro-second communication and our desire to emote. Should this inspire a frown face, single tear drop or a smiley grin? We now have more than 722 emoji to help us out. But how do we assess their sincerity?

And although machines don't have emotions, computers can now detect them in text. Professor Stephen Pulman, computational linguist, explains 'sentiment analysis'.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry gets emotional with John Lydon and Stephen Pinker.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

God seemed to have signalled his approval of the English cause in 1588, by helping destroy the Spanish Armada with storms. Unseasonably hot winter weather in 1661, which threatened to spread plague, was interpreted by King Charles as a punishment for human sin. In a densely worded proclamation, he ordered all subjects to fast. The weather reverted to normal and the King ordered another fast to say thank you.

Despite modern meteorology, whose language is explained to Stephen by TV meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker, people still look for metaphorical meanings in weather. One activist on the climate change demonstration on an unseasonably warm day in 2015, described it as 'an omen'.

The English preoccupation with weather as a topic of conversation can be quite complex. But Stephen argues we don't have adequate language to deal with the onset of future changes in the climate. We find it hard to realise the idea of 'future generations' as yet unborn. He quotes Marx (Groucho) on the posterity question. 'What has posterity ever done for me?

Producer: Nick Baker

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Stephen Fry discusses weather and climate talk with experts and climate change activists.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen leads us into a world of private communication, only to find such languages are not just to keep secrets - they also build camaraderie, foster creativity, forge identity, and save lives.

Former New York cop Lou Savelli reveals the lingo of the city's street gangs, taking us to the heart of a dark world where the key to the code means the difference between life and death. Better know your bugs from your puppies.

Former MI6 officer and espionage historian Harry Ferguson lays bare the language of the spy, from obscure jargon to the language you use to talk someone into betraying their country. But, he warns, secrecy can become a poisonous addiction.

There are less sophisticated groups who use secret languages. As linguist Professor Bill Lucas reveals, practically every family secretes obscure neologisms which mean nothing to outsiders. Finding a lost bimmer on the floordrobe does add a bit of colour to the daily grind.

At the doctors, you've encountered a whole world of secret medical language designed to mystify. You might even have benefitted, says Dr Phil Hammond. After all, a sore shoulder doesn't sound like much, but 'call it by a fancy latin name and you can get out of sex, work and the washing up for a week'.

From Polari to Morganish (what do you mean you've never heard of it?) Stephen Fry cracks the code and lets us in on the secret. Just don't tell anyone else.

Producer: Kate Taylor

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Stephen Fry reveals all, as he decodes the mysterious appeal of secret language.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Bilinguals have big advantages. Those who are bilingual from birth acquire human empathy earlier and all bilinguals have advantages that go beyond language skills. Stephen delights in the stories of different bilinguals ranging from 4 year-old Luca, becoming fluent in English and French simultaneously, to 70 year old Barry Davis, bilingual in Yiddish and English. Stephen talks to him about how he uses his skill as an interpreter helping members of the London Chasidic community, many of whom have English as a second language.

In between, meet teenager Francesco in Rome who lives in a bilingual family but gets most of his English from the internet. Also there's Berliner Juliane, who learnt her English on an Arkansas rodeo and is a subtitler/translator currently working on MTV's challenging reality show Geordie Shore. And hear how Aatif Nawaz, bilingual comedian and Islam Channel chat show host, enjoys the way a multilingual audience laughs.

Bilingualism isn't that rare and bilinguals, according to new research, are often more attentive and better at decisionmaking. Antonella Sorace, Professor of Developmental Linguistics at Edinburgh University and a world authority, says there's no such thing as the perfect bilingual - one language always dominates, albeit slightly. She's bilingual in English and Italian, the latter surfacing when she gets cross.

There are downsides, but they tend to come from monolinguals' perceptions of bilinguals. People who speak the language of one place perfectly and then reveal they come from another place can make others feel deceived.

Producer: Nick Baker

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Yet the interest felt in Britain in 1770, when Doctor Johnson described a kangaroo to dinner guests for the first time, has never left us. Perhaps because Australian English has been so well documented, from the first exchanges of languages with Aboriginals, explained by Professor Jakelin Troy of Sydney University from the Ngarigu clan of New South Wales.

Stephen learns from Dr Bruce Moore, editor of the Australian Oxford Dictionary, how a convict called James Hardy Vaux helped track the language called Flash among transported criminals. The aim was to make it understandable by government officials. Vaux, a thrice-deported bigamist and petty thief was the first to notice how Australian English might have an entertainment factor. He wrote, 'I trust the vocabulary will afford you some amusement from its novelty; and that from the correctness of its definitions, you may occasionally find it useful in your magisterial capacity.

Australian English does seem to have a talent to intrigue and amuse. We learn, for example, where the original Sheila comes from, and examine the school reports of one of Australia's favourite Sheilas, Dame Edna Everage.

Adam Hills agrees that Australian English is entertainingly blunt, which sometimes means words that are totally acceptable in Australia are regarded as taboo in Britain.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry gets the dinkum oil on Australian English. With Adam Hills.

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Comedian Adam Hills - who studied linguistics at university - helps Stephen Fry uncover the history of Australian English, from its beginnings in the early 1700s to the present day. In 1911, Winston Churchill said it 'represents the most brutal maltreatment which has ever been inflicted upon the language that is the mother tongue of the great English nations.

Yet the interest felt in Britain in 1770, when Doctor Johnson described a kangaroo to dinner guests for the first time, has never left us. Perhaps because Australian English has been so well documented, from the first exchanges of languages with Aboriginals, explained by Professor Jakelin Troy of Sydney University from the Ngarigu clan of New South Wales.

Stephen learns from Dr Bruce Moore, editor of the Australian Oxford Dictionary, how a convict called James Hardy Vaux helped track the language called Flash among transported criminals. The aim was to make it understandable by government officials. Vaux, a thrice-deported bigamist and petty thief was the first to notice how Australian English might have an entertainment factor. He wrote, 'I trust the vocabulary will afford you some amusement from its novelty; and that from the correctness of its definitions, you may occasionally find it useful in your magisterial capacity.

Australian English does seem to have a talent to intrigue and amuse. We learn, for example, where the original Sheila comes from, and examine the school reports of one of Australia's favourite Sheilas, Dame Edna Everage.

Adam Hills agrees that Australian English is entertainingly blunt, which sometimes means words that are totally acceptable in Australia are regarded as taboo in Britain.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry gets the dinkum oil on Australian English. With Adam Hills.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Stephen Fry's inquiry starts and ends with an exchange of handwritten letters between himself and Grayson Perry, who uses lots of text in his work. What will Grayson make of Stephen's handwriting and vice versa? Especially as Stephen's letter quotes WH Auden, claiming we like our own handwriting in the same way we 'like the smell of our own farts.

Although graphology - the divining of personality through handwriting - is a pseudo-science, handwriting inevitably feels more personal than electronic text. With the help of Sherlock Holmes and a modern forensic document examiner, Stephen delves deeper into what our handwriting says about us. Philip Hensher, author of The Missing Ink, helps uncover the mysteries of our writing, and Professor Mary Beard weighs in with a forensic examination of some Roman physical text - not, as you might assume, from a grand memorial, but from the walls of a Pompeian brothel.

We also visit the first industrial scale printing press in Europe, now housed in the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp. Stephen learns how, in the late 16th century, industrial scale multiplication of human effort in a still intensely physical environment changed the nature of language and who is in charge of it. All the while, he concentrates on physical ingredients - why ink caused a stink and why much of what was written at the time was literally (yes, literally) not worth the paper it was printed on. Paper was expensive, and much of it was recycled, rather than kept for posterity.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry delights in language made by hand.

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Roman carvings, graffiti, inky handwriting and printing - handmade physical text always offers extra clues about who created it and why. So, is digital text robbing English of a personality which enhances the experience of writing and reading?

Stephen Fry's inquiry starts and ends with an exchange of handwritten letters between himself and Grayson Perry, who uses lots of text in his work. What will Grayson make of Stephen's handwriting and vice versa? Especially as Stephen's letter quotes WH Auden, claiming we like our own handwriting in the same way we 'like the smell of our own farts.

Although graphology - the divining of personality through handwriting - is a pseudo-science, handwriting inevitably feels more personal than electronic text. With the help of Sherlock Holmes and a modern forensic document examiner, Stephen delves deeper into what our handwriting says about us. Philip Hensher, author of The Missing Ink, helps uncover the mysteries of our writing, and Professor Mary Beard weighs in with a forensic examination of some Roman physical text - not, as you might assume, from a grand memorial, but from the walls of a Pompeian brothel.

We also visit the first industrial scale printing press in Europe, now housed in the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp. Stephen learns how, in the late 16th century, industrial scale multiplication of human effort in a still intensely physical environment changed the nature of language and who is in charge of it. All the while, he concentrates on physical ingredients - why ink caused a stink and why much of what was written at the time was literally (yes, literally) not worth the paper it was printed on. Paper was expensive, and much of it was recycled, rather than kept for posterity.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry delights in language made by hand.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

What we mean by 'mad' changes constantly. Outmoded diagnoses - moron, hysteric, schizophrenic - turn into insults. But our dissociation of madness seems to downgrade its seriousness. As Dr Oliver Double from the University of Kent describes, today we use its terminology to describe everything from being mildly annoyed to being creatively exhilarated or intoxicated. A rave in the 1990s was 'mental'. A recent sit-com was 'hysterical'. The creative endeavors of an artist are 'totally bonkers'. Comedians channel madness, real and metaphorical. Even an innocent game of Krazy golf borrows from the looney lexicon.

Jess Thom is a writer and comedian and the founder of Tourettes Heroes. She talks about what language means for someone with tourettes syndrome and why she wants people to feel free to laugh at what she describes as her 'crazy language generating machine' - the propensity to suddenly shout out bizarre words and phrases.

Nowadays, we're all too ready to use what we think are modern technical terms - bipolar, sociopathic, narcissistic, obsessive compulsive, on the spectrum - revealing much about the hyper self-conscious, self-examining era in which we live. The new pseudo-clinical lexicon has permeated informal discourses far beyond the realms of psychiatry.

It's enough to drive you mad. Metaphorically, of course.

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Stephen Fry probes the Krazy language of madness. With Jo Brand.

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Stephen Fry openly uses his own experience of mental ill health to consider the ever-changing way in which what's commonly called madness is talked and written about. With the help of comedienne and former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand, the controversial comedienne Maria Bamford and the writer Jon Ronson.

What we mean by 'mad' changes constantly. Outmoded diagnoses - moron, hysteric, schizophrenic - turn into insults. But our dissociation of madness seems to downgrade its seriousness. As Dr Oliver Double from the University of Kent describes, today we use its terminology to describe everything from being mildly annoyed to being creatively exhilarated or intoxicated. A rave in the 1990s was 'mental'. A recent sit-com was 'hysterical'. The creative endeavors of an artist are 'totally bonkers'. Comedians channel madness, real and metaphorical. Even an innocent game of Krazy golf borrows from the looney lexicon.

Jess Thom is a writer and comedian and the founder of Tourettes Heroes. She talks about what language means for someone with tourettes syndrome and why she wants people to feel free to laugh at what she describes as her 'crazy language generating machine' - the propensity to suddenly shout out bizarre words and phrases.

Nowadays, we're all too ready to use what we think are modern technical terms - bipolar, sociopathic, narcissistic, obsessive compulsive, on the spectrum - revealing much about the hyper self-conscious, self-examining era in which we live. The new pseudo-clinical lexicon has permeated informal discourses far beyond the realms of psychiatry.

It's enough to drive you mad. Metaphorically, of course.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry probes the Krazy language of madness. With Jo Brand.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

Ummm!, Phht and Yipee! are, strictly speaking, interjections not words. But, if Oh! is an involuntary noise humans make rather than a word, isn't that also a kind of onomatopoeia? According to linguist Richard Ogden, reader in phonetics and linguistics at the University of York, interjections like Oh! and onomatopoeia like Kapow! are linked on a sliding scale.

Stephen tries to look at this practically by talking to comedian Spencer Jones who communicates on stage almost entirely using an extraordinary repertoire of crazy noises and interjections. He explains why these sounds create intimacy and warm humour.

But our story of Oh! is also about language imitating non human sound and the beauty of onomatopoeia - words like cuckoo, tinkle and plop. Stephen talks to graphic novelist and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons about the specialised lexicon of onomatopoeia in comic book and graphic art work, and about the odd games graphic artists play when they're developing new fillings for speech bubbles.

But how does our story of Oh! translate into other languages? Why is foreign onomatopoeia different to English onomatopoeia if both are mimicking the same sound? We hear from Professor Catherine Laing and from illustrator James Chapman about onomatopoeia in Korean, Spanish and Japanese. It's one of the most remarkable features of comparing foreign languages to our own - we're hearing exactly the same sound but producing wildly different interpretations of the words to represent those sounds.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Fry links Oh! and Bang! The sounds made by people and things.

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The subject of order is by no means as easy as ABC. Alphabetical order as we know it occurs in languages used by 75% of humanity and is 5000 years old. This programme tries to discover why. And fails. Word order in sentences much simpler should be. Yet some rules - about, for example, the order in which adjectives occur in a sentence - are rather complicated. Why Jolly Green Giant and not Green Jolly Giant? And why ping pong, not pong ping?

All this enjoyable complexity comes before we even tackle the subject of orderliness. Writer David Sedaris, for example, is famous for pristine prose and a desire to have order in his daily surroundings. He goes to great length to achieve both, as Stephen finds out. But are they connected? Aren't writers supposed to live disorderly lives?

The big question, which we leave till last in our running order, is how does language order thought? A psycho-linguist explains.

Oh yes, don't forget the giving of orders, and the role of the exclamation mark. We meet a journalist and editor who told her staff not to use them for a month. It was harder than she imagined!

Producer Nick Baker/Testbed Productions

Stephen Fry looks at the role of order in language with the help of David Sedaris

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

British Sign Language is the preferred first language of more than 70,000 deaf people in the UK. It's also a language culture with a surprisingly short history as an official language. Records show the existence of the language back in the 1500s but the term wasn't used by linguists until the late 1970s and it was only recognized officially by the British Government in 2003.

Stephen speaks and signs with Dr Kate Rowley (whose first language is BSL) and learns how the language has evolved and adapted, how it differs from other sign languages around the world and how its morphology works. As Professor Bencie Woll explains, BSL bears little relationship to spoken English. It's written on the human body, rather than paper for a start. Still, it has rules. It has grammar. And it has regional diversity. No wonder it commands such interest from linguists.

We also hear from Paula Garfield, who is the founder of Deafinitely Theatre and profoundly deaf herself. She describes the complex process of translating Shakespeare's comedy play Love's Labour's Lost into BSL and how certain signs, like the sign for love, are universally understandable. And we consider the naming of body parts in sign language using Caitlin Moran's famous Ode to the Camel-Toe lecture at the 2016 Women of the World Festival at London's South Bank Centre.

At Frank Barnes School for deaf children in North London, we hear from school children and teachers about language acquisition for BSL users and learn about one unique element of sign language - the personal sign name. Stephen may even be honored with his first ever name in BSL.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

For the last 40 years or so, experimenters with chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas have claimed significant success in teaching these intelligent animals language. But linguists have always cast doubt on those claims, arguing that there's a biological reason why humans are the only animals on earth able to use language.

We hear from Penny Macfarlane, whose long relationship with Koko the Gorilla was more of a close friendship than a scientific experiment. It was conducted mostly in sign language. We also meet Sue Savage Rumbaugh whose long term associate, a bonobo called Kanzi, passed some difficult language tests, and Herbert Terrace whose lengthy experiment with a chimpanzee called Nim was aborted when he decided Nim was not truly earning anything linguistic except the ability to beg.

We also hear from English Literature students from the University of Exeter who study the role of animals in fiction.

On the fictional side, Stephen considers Eeyore in Winnie The Pooh, Black Beauty, Tarzan's chimpanzee sidekick Cheeta and a nameless talking ape created by Franz Kafka. In a way, Dr Doolittle's contribution is the most important. Rather than teaching animals to be human language users, Doolittle famously wanted to learn animal languages. But, as we hear, that comes with its own set of problems and the warning that if they could talk to us, we might not like what they say.

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Can animals use language? Stephen Fry weighs up the evidence.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag

When it comes to articulating memory and turning it into words, it's a slippery process - as Stephen discovers when he tries to recall details from the day he was arrested and taken to prison as a teenager, more than 40 years ago.

Stephen learns how suggestive language and leading questions from others can produce false memories which nonetheless feel real. He turns to the work of Psychologist Dr Julia Shaw whose research into false memory led her to conduct an experiment in which she successfully planted false memories of breaking the law as a teenager into the minds of 60 people.

Memory athlete Yanjaa Wintersoul explains how she committed the entire IKEA catalogue to memory, using ancient Greek mnemonic techniques. And Simon Russell Beale describes his methods for memorising many of the great Shakespearean roles he's played, including King Lear and Hamlet.

When it comes to language that scans and rhymes, our memories are much more likely to work reliably. Professor Usha Goswami, a neuroscientist explains why our exposure to nursery rhymes and rhyming songs as children is crucial to our language development and to a healthy and accurate memory in later years.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

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Stephen Fry finds out how language can both unlock and muddy memories.

Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English languag