The Dongle of Donald Trefusis
Encyclopedia
The Dongle of Donald Trefusis is "a mixture of podcast
, audio book
and radio
monologue
" written and read by Stephen Fry
. It stars Fry as himself, who receives an inheritance from his (fictional) former university tutor, Donald Trefusis
, who has recently died. The inheritance includes a USB drive or "dongle
", which contains messages from Trefusis to Fry from beyond the grave. The series was planned to run to 12 episodes, but only three have so far been released.
programme Loose Ends
.
at the fictional St Matthew's College, Cambridge
, and the relationship shared by the two. After The Liar and Loose Ends, the two made little contact, with Fry sending him emails and Trefusis writing postcards in return. While Fry was filming in Madagascar
, he learnt that Trefusis has died and has left him something in his will
.
Fry goes to the solicitors in charge of the will, "Hodgman, Hodgman, Hodgman, Hodgman and Hodgman" - none of whom are related to each other, and discovers that what is left to him is Trefusis' collection of essays and the books in his vast library. Fry is also given a key, which he uses to open a drawer of a desk in Trefusis' library which contains an 8Gb USB drive. Fry puts the dongle into his computer and finds a collection of mp3
files, which contain messages by Trefusis to Fry.
It is revealed that messages are part of a puzzle which Trefusis is guiding Fry and those listening through. Each episode features a series of clues, with extra information being posted on a Twitter
account Trefusis has created.
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
, audio book
Audio book
An audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...
and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
" written and read by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
. It stars Fry as himself, who receives an inheritance from his (fictional) former university tutor, Donald Trefusis
Donald Trefusis
Professor Donald Cornwallis Treadway Trefusis is an eccentric fictional character created by Stephen Fry.He initially appeared as an occasional contributor of "wireless essays" to Ned Sherrin's BBC Radio 4 programme Loose Ends in 1986...
, who has recently died. The inheritance includes a USB drive or "dongle
Dongle
A software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
", which contains messages from Trefusis to Fry from beyond the grave. The series was planned to run to 12 episodes, but only three have so far been released.
Setting
The series is the first to feature the character of Trefusis, who also appeared as a character in Fry's first novel, The Liar, and made a series of appearances on the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme Loose Ends
Loose Ends (radio)
Loose Ends is a British radio programme originally broadcast on Saturday mornings, and then transmitted early Saturday evenings from 1998 by BBC Radio 4. It was hosted by Ned Sherrin until he became ill in late 2006 with a reported throat infection, and later throat cancer...
.
Availability and success
The first episode was made available to download on 26 May 2009. Initial reviews were extremely positive, although Fry has been criticised for the brevity of subsequent episodes, and a perceived lack of content.Following episodes
The following episodes were originally scheduled to be released on Tuesdays every fortnight in 2009, being 26 May; 9 and 26 June; 7 and 21 July; 4 and 18 August; 1, 15 and 29 September; 13 and 27 October. However, Fry announced at the beginning of Episode 3 that he was too busy to maintain a fortnightly schedule, and has removed the release date information from his website. As of February 2011, there has been no further news on release dates of subsequent episodes with the last episode being released over a year and a half ago.Plot
In the first episode, Fry talks about the life of Trefusis, his former tutor and professor of PhilologyPhilology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
at the fictional St Matthew's College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, and the relationship shared by the two. After The Liar and Loose Ends, the two made little contact, with Fry sending him emails and Trefusis writing postcards in return. While Fry was filming in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, he learnt that Trefusis has died and has left him something in his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
.
Fry goes to the solicitors in charge of the will, "Hodgman, Hodgman, Hodgman, Hodgman and Hodgman" - none of whom are related to each other, and discovers that what is left to him is Trefusis' collection of essays and the books in his vast library. Fry is also given a key, which he uses to open a drawer of a desk in Trefusis' library which contains an 8Gb USB drive. Fry puts the dongle into his computer and finds a collection of mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
files, which contain messages by Trefusis to Fry.
It is revealed that messages are part of a puzzle which Trefusis is guiding Fry and those listening through. Each episode features a series of clues, with extra information being posted on a Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account Trefusis has created.
Production
The series is made by Fry's own production company SamFry Ltd. and hosted by the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IDOA).External links
- Official website
- Donald Trefusis on Twitter.