Under fire over 'joshing' with his friend

Stephen Fry has apparently quit Twitter in the wake of a joke he cracked while hosting the Bafta awards ceremony last night.

After Jenny Beavan collected her award for best costume design, Fry quipped: 'Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to an awards ceremony dressed as a bag lady.'

Bevan, who won for Mad Max:Fury Road, attended the ceremony wearing a black leather jacket, baggy white T-shirt, dark trousers and a scarf.

Viewers quickly took to Twitter to call Fry out on the joke. Joe Elvin, editor of Glamour magazine said: 'Uncool of Stephen Fry to say bafta winning costume designer dressed like a 'bag lady'. I was thinking it was cool she wore what she wanted.'

He fired back: 'Will all you sanctimonious fuckers fuck the fuck off Jenny Beavan is a friend and joshing is legitimate. Christ I want to leave the planet.'

And when he should have been relaxing at a post-show party, he contused to argue with users during the night. Among his tweets was this picture of himself and Beavan, with the caption: 'Jenny Baglady Beavan and Stephen Outrageous Misogynist Swine Fry at the #EEBAFTAs after party.'

Fry added: 'She's a dear friend and she got it. Derr.'

Despite the sniping of critics, comedians rushed to Frys' defence.

David Baddiel tweeted: 'Outrage confers identity on the anonymous, unfortunately..it's the curse of here. Well done tonight, grand job.'

And Matt Lucas said: 'Didn't you get the memo? No-one is allowed to do jokes anymore.'

Writer Andrew Collins added: 'I had no inside information but it was obvious to me that Stephen Fry knew Jenny Beavan well enough to make that gag at the Baftas. Come on!'

Fry is one of the biggest users on Twitter, with more than 12million followers. He has temporarily come offline before and in 2009 threatened to leave the social media site for good because he felt there was "'too much aggression and unkindness around'.

Published: 15 Feb 2016