IF you could bottle the spirit of Stephen Fry, the world would be a much better place.
I was lucky enough to be among a small group of journalists who spent an hour with him this morning.
The occasion was the London Studios press launch for series three of ITV1’s Kingdom, on screen this summer.
We saw the first episode, which was surprisingly poignant and moving.
Then in walked Mr Fry for a press conference.
As you can see from this ITV pic taken at the event, he’s looking very well after losing five-and-a-half stone since the end of last year.
I’ve attended Q&As with Stephen before.
Today he was again on top form, giving us the benefit of that brilliant mind, while stressing that he’s a normal flawed human being, just like everyone else.

There will be much more on Stephen and Kingdom nearer TX.
But for the moment, I thought you might like to listen to a few audio extracts from that remarkable 62 minute press conference.
Click on the links below to hear Stephen on:
1a) and 1b) The appeal of Twitter, the web, BBC, blogs and the celebrity twitterverse. (2m 43s and 4m 15s)
2) Today’s decision by Michael Grade to step down as ITV chief executive. (24 seconds)
3) St George’s Day today and who should be the patron saint of England. (52 seconds)
4) Today’s MySpace poll which says he should replace St George as patron saint of England. (34 seconds)
5) Being thought of as a national treasure. (49 seconds)
6) The weirdest Tweets he receives and www.lmgtfy.com (1m 34s)
Audio Files:
Stephen Fry1a
Stephen Fry1b
Stephen Fry2
Stephen Fry3
Stephen Fry4
Stephen Fry5
Stephen Fry6
Links:
Stephen Fry Official Site
Follow Stephen Fry on Twitter
Follow Ian Wylie on Twitter