attributes his intelligence to having a “sticky memory” rather than any particular skill. The prolific TV host, author, and comedian, aged 67, is gearing up for a fresh series of the quiz show Jeopardy! this month.
Discussing his knack for knowledge, Stephen humbly remarked: “I can’t deny that I’m a fairly knowledgeable fellow. It’s not a moral accomplishment. It’s not even really an intellectual one. I just happen to have a sticky memory. I’m pretty sure I’ve inherited it from my parents.”
Elaborating on his familial traits, he shared: “My father was a physicist. I see my mother as often as possible, like a dutiful son. And if I were to have a sort of laugh, I’ll say to her, ‘Robert Browning,’ and off she’ll go, reciting lines and lines and lines of poems in her head. When I ask her the last time she said that poem, she’d say it was likely when she was at school, claiming she can remember it because she liked it! And if you like something, you remember it. And that’s a simple truth.”
Fry continued: “She’s a very modest person, but I do think I’ve inherited some of that stickiness of memory. That said, if I re-tell a story I’d heard, I won’t be able to recall where or when I heard it!”
Stephen Fry is back for a new series of Jeopardy (Image: -)
In anticipation of the second season, Fry also shared that Judi Dench is an ardent fan, revealing: “She did write to me. She absolutely adores it.”
He even hopes to feature her in a celebrity special of the show down the line.
ITV has made some changes to the second series of Jeopardy! to make it more fast-paced for viewers. The host explained: “One of the exciting things about this second series is we’ve tweaked the format to give it more pace. It’s great that ITV have given us an hour, and we enjoyed that in the first series. But we felt that it wouldn’t lose anything by having an extra round in it. That would mean everything was quicker. And there is something about the rat-a-tat-tat of the game. The questions keep coming, and that adds to the tension and the excitement, and to the uniqueness of Jeopardy! My belief is that with the little tweaks we’ve made, it’ll be even more exciting.”
After recently winning big on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Stephen also offered advice to those on Jeopardy! and quizzers in general.
He advised: “It’s just that simple thing: to stay calm. It’s easy to say because a lot of people haven’t been on television before. Even though there’s no audience, people are nervous because they’re on television, or worried about how they look and what they’re wearing and they’re nervous because they want to win.
The TV host has a ‘sticky memory’ (Image: ITV)
“They’re very excited, and that slight tension and strain is inimical. I think back to that Zen thing that I mentioned about getting the buzzer and just letting your brain do the work unconsciously, not consciously.
“It’s like in sport. You know how to hit a ball, but if you try and concentrate on it, you’ll miss somehow. If you don’t know, don’t buzz. And what’s important is if you make a mistake, don’t let that stay in your mind, because there’s another question coming very quickly.”