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Deep South

Episode 2 of 6

Stephen Fry finds out what makes the South so distinctive, from West Virginia coalminers and bluegrass musicians in Tennessee to an Alabama parole board's deliberations.

Stephen Fry was very nearly an American. Just before Stephen was born, his father was offered a job at Princeton University but turned it down. As a result, Stephen was born in NW3 rather than in NJ, New Jersey. In this six-part series he travels, mostly in a London cab, through all 50 states of the country that he could have nearly called home and which has always fascinated him.

Stephen explores what it is that makes the south so distinctive. He joins coal miners deep underground in West Virginia, meets a young man with the state of Kentucky tattooed on his butt, enjoys a delirious session of bluegrass music-making in Tennessee, has an encounter with a bear in the Smokey Mountains, ascends in a balloon above North Carolina, learns the language of slaves in South Carolina, is invited into a Georgian family's Old Plantation house to join their Thanksgiving celebrations (and has an unfortunate encounter with a horse), fails as a dancing escort in Florida and is moved by two very different events in Alabama: a parole board's deliberations and the extraordinary hoopla of a college ball game, complete with air-force jets.

1 hour

Last on

Thu 17 Nov 2011 01:10

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Stephen Fry
Presenter Stephen Fry
Writer Stephen Fry
Series Producer John-Paul Davidson
Producer Michael Waldman
Director Michael Waldman

Broadcasts