QI E06 Recording Review

*This is episode E06 in the Autumn transmission order.

The 6th Episode marks the halfway point in this series. It's all going far too quickly! I felt that this recording was slightly better than the last although I'm sure that other people's opinions will vary.

U-Girl (a member of the QI Forum) brought us all some very tasty flapjacks which were all consumed well before we went in. A huge thank you to U-Girl.

A new guy called Phil is now managing the queue for QI (may just be on Friday's though) so everyone cut him a bit of slack as he's new to all of this (he'll hate me for saying that if he reads this).

Gordon Southern did the warm up again last night. I was rather disappointed because he repeated word for word what he had done on Thursday. Although Stephen Grant does repeat some of his warm up sketch (we can't expect a whole new one every night) he does use the audience well so that the regulars get some new material. Fortunately Stephen says he is back next week. Hurrah!

Alan Davies got his phone out and filmed the audience as well as Stephen Fry. He claimed that he would put the video up on YouTube. Keep an eye out for it and post a comment if you do find it. YouTube is a big place of course! BTW, Alan Davies is not Welsh (although you probably knew that already).

Now for the spoilers. Remember to highlight the text below if you want to read it. Skip towards the end if you want to know something quite interesting about the blog. The first paragraph includes the details of the guests only.

The guests were Dara O'Briain, David Mitchell and Phill Jupitus. That means that we've made it through to the sixth episode with only one new guest in the series! All of the guests, as well as Alan, performed well with plenty of good laughs. I thought it was one of the better recordings even although it was one of the longest ever recordings (episode 2 of series D was longer but only very slightly). Technical issues at the start held things up slightly.

The theme of the episode was Europe. Subjects included; Belgium, Poland, Monasteries, Syphilis, Bananas, Bank Robbers, EU Laws (in a "call my bluff" round), Manakin Piss, Liechtenstein, Mountains, the EU Flag, Sir Walter Raleigh, the German National Anthem, German Wine, Economics and Notebooks.

Stephen Fry had a very lengthy rant about Windows (Stephen is well known for the fact that he uses a Mac). Surprisingly David Mitchell didn't jump into the conversation. However, I am sure that it will fail to make the final cut, or perhaps I will be surprised.

Props were used through out the episode, including a hard hat, flags, sausages and a nice statue for Stephen.

I was very amused when one of the panellists mentioned this blog (not by name) and even more specifically the reviews that I am writing. It's nice to know that Dara O'Briain is reading the blog. If Phill Jupitus is reading I can tell you that it's just a notebook and pen. No blackberry! If you had looked hard enough you would have spotted me writing my notes discretely in the front row. I'm a little disappointed in myself for not sticking my hand up and plugging the blog.

There seems a good chance that I wont be able to provide either of the reviews next week. It'll be Andrew that will be standing in for at least one of the reviews (I don't know which yet).

Update: My home internet is down! There a good chance that it wont be back by Saturday so even although I'll be at the Friday recording it may fall to Andrew to do both of this week's reviews.