QI Series F, Episode 7 Recording Review

This recording was the first outing of the Quite Interesting Society at the University of York, so whilst I was writing this review I also had the minor concern of getting 10 students to the recording on time. After what turned out to be a 6 hour drive from York to London (due to traffic on the M1 and central London) our two cars arrived outside the studio at 7:18, and we walked into the studio as the floor manager was giving the safety briefing. We ended up seated all over the place, I myself was sat on a chair in front of the curtain at the back of the studio. It was by far the worst seating I had ever had in that studio but it was still better than sitting on the far side of one of the wings.

Before I could get the notepad out, Ben Norris strolled on to warm-up the audience. It was a competent skit but if I'm to be honest the adrenaline was only just wearing off from having been minutes from turning round and heading straight back to York; I wasn't precisely concentrating at the time.

Stephen Fry walked on and I was rather pleased that my request for him to shout out the society was successful. There was a quick wave from our scattered members and Stephen told us to "get a life" (fair comment) and told the audience about York's claim to fame - the largest plastic-bottomed lake in Europe.

After Stephen had introduced the guests there was some quick banter about how he was stalked by Courtney Love and a rendition of "Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable" it was soon time to start the tape rolling for the recording. Thus here begin the spoilers:

The guests for this recording were Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell and Rich Hall. This episode will be one of a minority this series formed only from regular guests. The topic of the episode was Food. The topics of oysters and fruit machines introduced a running joke into the show about oral sex and this was probably how this episode will have become one of the funniest of the series (not that one is in a position to judge having seen only two of them).

Other topics discussed included; tongues, yakult, tape worms, crabs, Scottish drinks, oysters, melons, Russian service, chips, muscle, teeth, snakes, cheese, cake and the Internet. David Mitchell was given two Teacher's Pet awards throughout the recording.

After the recording we all headed into the green room where we were all introduced to Stephen Fry and Alan Davies plus a number of the elves. After enjoying the free bar (except for the drivers) it was then time to head back home. The dawn had come before we were in our beds.