Tag Archives: Fan

Stephen Fry’s shows us his 100 Greatest Gadgets

For those of you who turned in to Stephen Fry’s Channel 4 count down of the 100 greatest gadgets, and watched it until the end, would have discovered Fry’s number 1 greatest gadget ever to be the cigarette lighter. It took 3 hours for the number 1 gadget– I could see why Fry chose it as the greatest gadget, but it was a bit of an anti-climax for someone who doesn’t smoke.

“It’s not the order in which things are invented that makes them the most impressive, it’s the importance they have to humanity. So my number one is this: fire with a flick of the fingers,” Fry explains.

Other gadgets in Fry’s list included the Nintendo Wii, telephone, kettle, karaoke machine, iphone, ipad and ipod, which made some people to believe that the TV show was sponsored by Apple.

We were surprised that air conditioning was not seen on the list of the greatest gadgets, however, the fan came in number 68, which shows people do appreciate keeping cool in the UK! One of the fans that were mentioned was the innovative Dyson bladeless fan.

There are many polls and countdowns on Channel 4, which are usually open to public voting beforehand, however all the gadgets for ‘Stephen Fry’s 100 Greatest Gadgets’ were chosen by Stephen Fry himself, as the title of the show suggests.

Some presenters and comedians also featured in the show, by giving their views and opinions on a few of the gadgets. Al Murray, a comedian said he couldn’t imagine life without a toaster and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen said he would struggle to imagine life without scissors.

People who watched the programme may be been unsure what Fry’s definition of a gadget was as among the list was a corkscrew, whistle and a pen.

What is your favourite gadget?