Stephen Fry-Led Spy Drama ‘The Interrogator’ Gets Series Order at Fox

Stephen Fry, a beloved English actor known best for his roles in comedies like Blackadder and A Bit of Fry & Laurie, is taking his talents into the world of crime procedurals. Variety reports that he’ll play a former MI6 agent named Conrad Henry in a new Fox show called The Interrogator. “When conventional methods have failed, Henry’s quirky charm, superior intellect, and mind-bending behavioral maneuvers make him the only man able to lockpick the minds of the world’s most dangerous criminals,” reads the official synopsis.

Fry has starred in dramas before, like his role in the 2005 action movie V for Vendetta. He’s even had a recurring role in a crime procedural before, having played Dr. Gordon Gordon Wyatt on the long-running series Bones.

That said, he only appeared in six out of that show’s 246 total episodes, and there’s a big difference between that and leading your own show. Still, if the material is built around Fry’s persona, it could work. In addition to starring, Fry also wrote the pilot, and he knows better than anyone what he can pull off. Based on the official synopsis describing Conrad Henry as having “quirky charm,” it’s possible that The Interrogator will be a crime show in the mold of Monk or Sherlock, which revolved around eccentric detectives and included plenty of jokes in between the drama.

Stephen Fry Gets Even More Prolific

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Also, Fry has been around for so long that he can pretty much do anything at this point. He pops up in the most unexpected places, including a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role in the Star Wars show Skeleton Crew and as a contestant on The Celebrity Traitors. If he thinks he can play a whimsical former spy, he can.

Fox has ordered 12 episodes of The Interrogator. Although Fry wrote the pilot, there were revisions made by Bill Harper and Matt Pyken, all three of whom will serve as executive producers. Paul McGuigan, another executive producer, will direct. There’s no release date at present.

The Interrogator will be a new Fox drama at a time when the network doesn’t have many of those on its schedule. It’s got a pair of medical dramas on the air — Doc and Best Medicine — as well as Memory of a Killer, where Patrick Dempsey plays a hitman struggling with early-onset Alzheimer’s. The Interrogator should fit in with those shows just fine. Fox has also ordered a reboot of Baywatch.