Running for two series, it totalled 13 episodes and was named Alfresco (from the Italian al fresco, meaning "in the fresh air") because, unusually for a comedy sketch show of the time, it was shot on location rather than in a studio.

Fry and Laurie appear four times during the first series as two young men discussing topics such as war prevention, a trendy cinema and the SAS.

Fry appears twice as Doctor De Quincy, a character he also plays in the sitcom Happy Families in 1985, which was also written by Ben Elton.

Mark Duguid, in the British Film Institute's Screenoline resource, described Alfresco as "a relatively minor, but not undistinguished, piece of the alternative comedy jigsaw".

[2] The Guardian wrote: "The comedy's more off-the-wall than Elton's later work (some two-handers with Hugh Laurie are almost Boosh-like), and there's a joyful, post-Python 'anything goes' spirit".