While at Cambridge in the early 80s Hugh Laurie was a nationally ranked oarsman, Laurie would train for 8 hours a day and was on the fast track to becoming an Olympic standard rower. When forced to abandon rowing for a semester due to a bout of glandular fever he joined Cambridge’s legendary student run theater/comedy club Footlights. It was in the Cambridge Footlights that he met his college sweetheart Emma Thompson who introduced him to future collaborator and fellow member Stephen Fry. The 1981 Footlights with Laurie and Thompson at the helm (as president and vice president respectively)  won the first Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for their group’s annual review, The Cellar Tapes. The review went on to be made into a television special and then a sketch series Alfresco starring Thompson, Fry, & Laurie  (.)