“I started to think of friends I could lean on for some help, but, as always happened when I attempted this kind of social audit, I realised that far too many of them were abroad, dead, married to people who disapproved of me, or weren't really my friends, now that I came to think of it.”

English actor, comedian, and musician

Hugh Laurie is an English actor, comedian, and musician. Born James Hugh Calum Laurie, he first came to wider attention through his comedy partnership with Stephen Fry, in the double act Fry and Laurie. He and Fry worked together on several projects in the 1980s and 1990s, including the BBC sketch series A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the P. G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster. Laurie also appeared in three series of the period comedy Blackadder from 1986 to 1989.