Radio Times

Comfortably ensconced in the front seat of a London black cab, Stephen Fry has been on an epic tour of all 50 states of the USA, for his new series Stephen Fry in America (starts Sunday 12 October, BBC1). But as well as revealing the many and varied wonders of the United States, the trip has made Fry ashamed of his own countrymen. We asked him why.

"We British like to believe that Americans are ignorant, irony-free and vulgar. I found no more evidence of that than I find of the Dutch, the Italians, the Danes, the Russians, the Australians and - most certainly - the British. I grew more and more ashamed of Britons' exultant and ignorant arrogance in this regard."

But what of the extremism we hear so much of? "Of course, if you search you can find gun nuts, white supremacists, weird rapture religionists, god-hates-faggots extremists and freaks and weirdoes of all descriptions. But so you can here in Britain. It's an embarrassing index of our own inferiority complex that we presume to think ourselves smarter than Americans."

"What I certainly found is that [Americans] are, in general, much warmer, kinder, more courteous, hospitable and considerate than the British. Much."

So did anything disappoint Fry about his American cousins? "Americans, sadly, don't really understand coffee, bread or cheese - the great staples of life. It will give you some idea of how poor the general standard is when I tell you that Starbucks becomes one's idea of a great cup of coffee. Cheese? Forget it, unless you're in a world-class restaurant in a city. Bread? Same problem."

How do you feel about Stephen's comments? Do you agree with his analysis of the Americans - and the British? Post a comment below.

I wholeheartedly agree with Stephen's comments re coffee,cheese and bread.I've never had a decent sample of any of these.I love the States,however and would go back there any time.

Thank goodness. Finally a Brit who is prepared to see the Americans as they are, both for good and ill, rather than resort to cheap-laugh sniggering put-downs. Sure the Yanks have race problems -- so do the British. Sure some of their entertainment is tacky. Watched Big Brother lately? Yes, they're idolatrous about their flag. So are the British about their Queen.

Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Fry, and for seeing the good that there is to see in America.

A truly excellent piece of journalism, and great timing too in light of the presidential elections.

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I concur with much of what Mr. fry has said here and in his excellent series on America. I would go further and say that of the many states I have visited they seem to generally care more for the things they have whether civic or otherwise and the incidence of vadalism is very small. Some states still have obvious problems with integration which I found a little distrubing but by and large the people I met were warm, courteous and helpful. Now and then I found their knowledge of matters outside of America (other than certain elements of Iraq and Afghanistan) was sometimes sparse, but then it is an enormous country and has much to offer without ever leaving its shores. As for the comments about food I agree that they would do well to compare other countries common offerings of bread, tea and cheese; perhaps tea being understandably marginalised. Having grown up a short distance from Chaddar in Somerset I have tried, often in vain, to explain why the so called 'cheddar cheese' inflicted on the occupants of other countries is a poor subsititute. The Irish and Canadians make excellent chaddar and it therefore surprising that it has not managed to make its way into the United States in large quantities.

As a general point I think such a series has to be superficial, it was clearly not intended as a travelogue or a documentary; this was Mr. Fry's eagerness to travel the land of his birth and visit all states which is more than most people do in their own countries. For me it was entertaining, educational and fascinating which I believe was the intention.

I am sorry to be a party pooper. Really. But the fact is any attempt to weigh up the Americans is totally imposible. Why? Simply because they are a microcosm of the whole world. Every nationality is represented, everywhere. With all the concomitant (exiting) variation that this means. Alistaire Cooke couldn't do it - in 3,000 hours. Bryson has not been able to do it, - in his endless writings, and Americans themselves cannot do it, try as they may. Everything about the the world is there in all its good, bad and indifferent aspects. What holds them together? Just two things,the ubiquitous use of the WORD American, and the Flag, seen, for obvious reasons, everywhere. Love them for their openness, affability, generosity and mature sense of humour (Infinately superior to the infantile rubbish that passes for such in the UK at present). And don't forget their innate Christianity.

Stepehn Fry in America was fantastic. I was glued to the TV from start to end. Anybody who didn't like this programme are hard to please and should keep to their stupid realty nonsense on the otherside well done Auntie Beeb and Stephen

I spend a lot of time in the USA as I have family and friends out there.

Stephen Fry has got it just right and the series has been great.

Frankly, I just find the series to be shallow and superficial, bordering on inane drivel. Been there, see it .... and it ain't anything like the old plumper portrays it.

I'm not sure Stephen Fry is being entirely fair. Those are very sweeping generalisations he makes about our view of Americans as "ignorant, irony-free and vulgar". I do like Stephen a lot and having watched 4 of the 6 programmes in this series, I am sure Americans he has encountered, as well as viewers, are likely to have found him charming. On occasion however, he has appeared to overdo this almost to a point of obsequiousness, particularly around people like Ted Turner. As a visitor to America I'm sure he was anxious not to offend, but if he'd been a little less concerned about walking on eggshells around some of the people on his travels, a more critical eye might have offered greater insight about the USA and its citizens.

Sorry to sound chippy but he speaks from an Anglo-London-perspective not a Scottish one. Could he please leave us Scots out of this and use England and not Britain in future because I believe we Scots have our own relationship with America and the Americans and it isn't one that obsesses as to whether Americans 'do' irony or not and presenting it as somehow Damasecene for us all when discovering that they do etc etc.

As an American, my take on seeing what I have of Stephen Fry in America, is that perhaps Fry became a bit irate at what he saw as an excessive strain of criticism about Americans, the anti-Americanism. What I have witnessed, read and heard of that is hateful. It has seemed to me a desire to degrade America, based on an agenda that is all about hatred; a desire to demonize and dehumanize.

My country has it's share of bad characters, but so do all the countries of the world, and I will add, that much of what is known as America's past sins, slavery and the wrongs against the indigenous peoples, were originated with the Spanish (inventors of the trans Atlantic slave trade, the genocide and exploitation of the indigenous), England (slavery and displacement of the indigenous), the Dutch (slavery and displacement of the indigenous), the French (slavery and displacement and exploitation of the indigenous). The slave trade that preceded the African slave trade, originated in Africa, by Africans, and was introduced to the Spanish and Portuguese by Arabs. The Spanish committed real genocide against the indigenous in what is now, Mexico, Central and South America, they attempted to do the same in the SE & SW portions of what is now, the US. Slavery still exists in the Arab world, and in Africa. Slavery and exploitation wasn't ended in Russia by their revolution, the USSR was based entirely on slavery and oppression. Marxism, an oppressive construct, birthed in Europe has as a legacy of the slaughter of untold hundreds of millions, and the enslavement and abuse of untold hundreds of millions more,especially when you factor in it's introduction to Asia.

Examine what the UK and Europe are doing to it's own people through the ruthless demand that the people be denid their right to vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The EU demand that the Magna Carta, something the British people should be inordinately proud of, be eradicated.. your parliament and the queen agreed to, and did removed it's protections. Sincerely, who is Medieval now?

Please tell me why I shouldn't laugh when I hear about how the British and Europe have such a sense of history, and remember, I haven't even touched on the rise of the Nazis and Fascism?

As a non-British and non-American person I can enlighten you all: from our point of view, both countries and their inhabitants have their own peculiarities! But, when the inhabitants see that you're a visitior and might be in need of help, they all will try to help you, no matter what! And besides that, they all ask about your view on their country or state or county, and are always pleased to hear that you as a visitor are enjoying your stay in their beautiful part of the world. I experienced this during my visits to different countries, including these English speaking ones. And when you bother visiting my place, I'll probably help you too and ask the same questions. It's called social talk and genuinely being interested in people. So much for patriotism!

I find this programme thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking because of Fry's interactions with the ordinary people, he speaks to everyone and anyone with the same intensity and fasination from a havard professor to a lobster fisherman and the icing on the cake is that they are as fasinated by him as he is of them. His openness leads to genuinely revealing television, in the same vain as Louix Theroux but an order of magnitude better. I look forward whole heartedly to the rest of the series.

I know this is completly off topic but does anyone know the name of the piano song used in the 'Stephen Fry in America' advert....it has been on recently

'The best writers, the best musicians, the best artists, the best thinkers, the best scientists...'

Oh well that's that then. Case closed. Paul has spoken, and anyone who thinks differently is bigoted. Idiot.

It's too large and diverse a country to make the sweeping generalisations such as Stephen Fry points out. America, like anywhere else, has its freaks, weirdos and extremists. In fact it probably has far more. It's why America is such an easy source of mockery. We've been fed though TV, film and the web, a relentless cultural record of American extremes; the oddities; the plain weird. Is it any wonder this slide into lazy stereotyping has come about? We've been fed it for years and, in general, people have lapped it up. Hopefully then the programme will help remind people of the other side of the coin.

I'm glad to see that, at last, there's an antidote to the idiotic (and, frankly, thoroughly embarrassing) anti-Americanism that's so prevalent these days. And I'm even more pleased to see that it's the excellent Stephen Fry who is doing the job. America, for all its faults, is still the greatest country on earth - and I say this as an Englishman who loves his own country. The best writers, the best musicians, the best artists, the best thinkers, the best scientists... the list is endless. And that, by the way, isn't a matter of opinion. It's a fact. To deny otherwise is merely to demonstrate how bigoted and petty-minded you are. Go Stephen! Go USA!

I wold just like to add that, in being so nasty and intransient about the British/Europeans at such length, he does exactly what he disparages himself at the way he says we behave about the US.

I am surprised that Stephen feels, in order to praise the Americans, that he must be so nasty about Europeans. He is not just crital, but seems so disgusted about us that maybe he should go and live in the US, where it sounds as if he would be much happier. I do not usually send comments via e-mail, but I am so insensed. Who does he think he is? I really feel that every day he spends here must be so awful for him - poor wingeing Stephen!

Maybe our society is so programmed to admire US values - be they in music, books, comedy or anything else - that we seek to knock Americans down to feel as though it somehow compensates. If we were forever being told to look up to the Swedes or the Swiss, the same thing would happen. Most Americans I've met seem just as amiable as anyone else, but I am struck by how little they have been taught or told about the world beyond their own borders.

If Mr. Fry was an American actor and would have said something about American audience like that what he had said about English, he would not have stayed American actor any more. A piece of advice, Mr. Fry: "Never cast dirt into that fountain of which thou hast sometime drunk".

And speak for yourself, please, not "We British", but "I, Fry, has always thought that Americans are ignorant, irony-free and vulgar. And now I think: shame on me". You are lovely hypocrite))

Thank you, Stephen Fry! As an American and frequent visitor to England, I have sometimes felt the sharp edge of this antipathy some Britons seem to feel for us. I'm happy to say, though, that it's been rare and more than offset by many kindnesses. So what do we have here? People will be people wherever you find them. The good ones and the buttfaces can be found in all populations.

I've spent my share of time in America. With the exception of Washington DC (where I was unfortunate enough to live for 6 months) I'd agree that Americans are, on the whole, a freindlier bunch than us Brits.

What upsets me however is the inescapable blandness & relentless commercialism of the place. What Middle America makes up for in heart, it desperately lacks in soul.

I totally agree with the comments about coffee, bread & cheese. I never for one moment thought I would be craving a ploughmans & a cup of coffee during my holiday in USA back in 2000. Seems like it hasn't changed either. Sad but true!!

Before I proceed, I adore Stephen Fry and all that he gives us lucky Brits.

However, I am almost certain that I have heard him express some of the anti-American sentiment that he now decries, while hosting QI, and via other avenues.

Is he saying that this recent visit to America has changed his views, or were his previous views expressed solely for the purposes of humour? Alternatively, have I dreamed the notion of Stephen Fry previously slating the Americans? If it's the latter, should I seek psychiatric help?

One area that I hope he touches upon is comedy. I find that, generally speaking, the comedy styles between the two nations are quite different. You need only watch the introduction jokes to Letterman, etc to appreciate this. They are frequently much more political in their humour, as we Brits were in the 80s.

I'll also be interested to hear about what he made of their quite suffocating (and frequently blinkered) patriotism.

In fact, as I think about it, I'd be quite happy to sit and watch Stephen talk about anything.