Stephen Fry quit the comedy quiz show QI because budget cuts left him feeling overworked, according to his co-star Alan Davies. The 50-year-old panellist revealed that Fry, 59, was required to record three episodes in a single day due to financial constraints.
Davies said: 'For budget reasons, they ended up making him do three shows in 24 hours. Sometimes he’d go upstairs and have a vodka and tonic and a lie down then come back and say, “I don’t want to do this.” I sympathise, because I felt exactly the same way. It’s not fair.'
Fry stepped down from the BBC programme last year after hosting more than 180 episodes. His departure came midway through the alphabet, with the 'M' series being his last before Sandi Toksvig took over.
At the time, Fry stated: 'For thirteen years I had one of the best jobs on television....After passing the alphabetical halfway mark I thought it time to move on, but I will never cease to be grateful to John Lloyd for devising QI and for everyone else for making it such fun.' He added that he did not want to 'feel stale' or 'tread water', and expressed confidence in Toksvig as his successor.
