On another episode, Stephen Fry explains with no doubt equal earnestness that the fins on a Saturn V rocket are there to generate lift as it travels through the atmosphere.
It's fun, as any panel show helmed by Fry certainly would be. But you don't want to put too much faith in what you hear on it, at least in advance of checking with a credible source.
It is first and foremost an entertainment program, so yeah.
In a hydrodynamic sense, "lift" is a force on a foil moving through a fluid. This kind of lift is a force orthogonal to the direction of motion through the fluid and the surface of the foil. That could be upward lift, like that on the wings of an aircraft. That could also be the forward and leeward lift on the sail of a sailboat, or the windward lift on the sailboat's keel. It could also be the lateral, stabilizing lift on the control surfaces of a rocket.