Stephen Fry comes face to face with dinosaurs in a new TV show... and even gets to feed them.
The actor, author and comedian, 65, said the Channel 5 series in which he confronts the CGI creatures is a wonderful way of bringing science to life.
He added: “I am a traveller going back in time and standing there, down and dirty in with the animals and the experts.”
Fry, a dinosaur fan since he began collecting fossils as a child, will interact with digitally created landscapes and animals, pioneering an exciting new way to illustrate worlds that pre-date us.
The actor, 65, hopes the series – Dinosaur – will educate and inspire both children and adults.
But he knows the special relationship many youngsters have with the prehistoric monsters.
He said: “We’ve tried to be as truthful to the science as we can.
“It’s not cutesy. On the other hand, we wanted to be affable, available and accessible for adults and active youngsters as well.
“I know kids have this very special relationship with dinosaurs.
“Usually parents just don’t know as much [about dinosaurs] as they do so it’s great for children to be able to say ‘No, Dad, that’s not a triceratops. What are you thinking of?’
“That’s an important phase in their life when they can be more expert.
“I had some pretty good model dinosaurs in my bedroom as a child, including a diplodocus which I always thought seemed friendly.”
Revealing a little about how the show was created, Fry said he was able to see the dinosaurs he was interacting with during the filming and was even able to “feed” them.
He went on: “I was in an empty green studio surrounded by green walls and green surfaces and told where my eye-lines were going to be.
“If I looked at the monitor, I could see the dinosaur and me in the picture.
“Whether it’s flying through the air or on the ground with me, it’s magic.”
Dinosaur begins the first of four episodes next Sunday on Channel 5.
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