Stephen Fry: 成人快手 'culture of fear' creating blandness

Image caption, Fry will return to 成人快手 Two to front the eighth series of QI

Stephen Fry has said there is a culture of fear at the 成人快手 which is creating "incredibly bland" programmes.

The host of 成人快手 Two's QI told the Radio Times executives with "cold feet" were shying away from taking creative risks.

"A lot of the adventure and excitement have gone out of television programming and a lot of it is just down to fear."

Anti-成人快手 rhetoric in some newspapers was compounding the situation, he said. The 成人快手 was not immediately available to respond to Fry's comments.

Fry said: "It's distressing because it's working - not by making people feel any less loyal to the 成人快手, but by affecting the culture of the 成人快手.

"There is this thing, I call it interfearing."

Compliance systems

He said: "I do know of so many cases where executives would say 'What we want is something new, something different, something extraordinary!'

"And they're brought something new, different and extraordinary and immediately the executive gets cold feet, falls back on something else and we end up with something incredibly bland."

He added executives were more inclined to play it safe but "for a creative institution, that's death".

The 成人快手 strengthened its compliance systems in 2008 after a series of rows over taste and decency including the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand prank calls and complaints over comments made by comedian Frankie Boyle on 成人快手 Two's Mock the Week.

Talking about the forthcoming series of QI, Fry said unlike other panel shows the celebrity contestants were not in on the answers - apart from one panellist.

"There's only one regular guest who always insists on seeing the questions beforehand and prepares for them. I won't tell you his or her name," he said.

"It really annoys me. In fact, one day, I'll make sure that person is given a list from another programme because they don't need them."