Oliver Popplewell vice-chairman of the Parole Board, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 1975 he defended his godson Stephen Fry, who was 18 at the time, at his trial for credit card fraud. Popplewell and his wife had long been friends of Fry's parents. Stephen Fry writes about the event in his autobiography "Moab Is My Washpot". Following the fire at Valley Parade, the Bradford City stadium, on 11 May 1985, Popplewell was chosen to chair an inquiry held under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. Following this inquiry, he was chosen to chair a Committee of
Stephen Fry multiple times during the show's run. Fry has been the reader for the British versions of all of J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series of audiobooks. He discussed this project in an interview with Rowling in 2005. He has also read for Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" film tie-in edition and has made recordings of his own books, such as "The Stars' Tennis Balls" and "Moab Is My Washpot", and of works by Roald Dahl, Michael Bond, A. A. Milne, Anthony Buckeridge, Eleanor Updale, and Alexander Pushkin. In June 2015, Fry backed children's fairy tale app GivingTales