Stephen Fry certainly gets around. Last night he was searching for blue whales on BBC2 and onstage at the Criterion talking about his life in aid of Leukaemia Research.

If the newly slimline polymath was in serious mode on television, in W1 he was effortlessly amusing, suggesting at one point that his quiz show QI is on the Dave channel so much they should rename it “Steve”.

The only quibble was the whiff of déjà vu for Fry buffs, as the champion Twitterer trotted out familiar tales of his Mittel-European roots, teenage imprisonment, depression and his brilliantly bombastic Blackadder performances.

However, each anecdote was crisply told and it was entertaining to hear him explain that his comedy career was unplanned: he expected to become an academic and “grow tweed”.

Amid this fragrant mosey through his CV there was good news. Culture vultures were delighted to discover that he is writing the libretto for an opera based on EM Forster’s story The Life To Come. And QI’s fans could barely contain themselves on being informed that there is talk of three nights at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2010. The tweed-growing world’s loss remains comedy’s gain.

Stars in Stephen Fry audience