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A heads up to all Australian friends of QI:
ABC1 is due to air QI for the first time on Tuesday, 20 October at 9:30 PM, and presumably each Tuesday night thereafter.
The first episode to air will be Flotsam and Jetsam from the "F" series, featuring Rob Brydon, Andy Hamilton, Charlie Higson, and our perennial favourites Stephen Fry and Alan Davies.
Please be sure to tune in to show your support!
Source.
Quite a lot has been going on since the QI Talk blog has last been updated, so I thought it was time to give everyone the latest news.
Series G
QI's seventh series is currently being recorded. Out of the sixteen episodes to be made, seven have so far have been recorded. The details are written below in white so as not to spoil it for those waiting for them to be broadcast. Scroll over the text to read it.
Episode 1) G-Animals: With Bill Bailey, Sean Lock, Sandi Toksvig, and John Hodgman (that's right: four guests!)
Episode 2) Gravity: With Barry Humphries, Bill Bailey, and Rich Hall.
Episode 3) Gothic: With Jimmy Carr, Jack Dee and Sue Perkins.
Episode 4) Games: With Phill Jupitus, Sean Lock, and Liza Tarbuck.
Episode 5) Gifts: With Clive Anderson, Jimmy Carr, and Jan Ravens.
Episode 6) A Gallimaufry of Gingambobs: With Phill Jupitus, Hugh Dennis, and Andy Hamilton.
Episode 7) Green: With Danny Baker, Bill Bailey, and Jeremy Clarkson.
The other recordings will take place on May 26th, 28th, 29th, June 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 11th, and 12th.
You can find out more information from the QI Forums and the British Comedy Guide.
The Museum of Curiosity
The second gallery of The Museum of Curiosity is currently open. The radio "spin-off" to QI, hosted by QI's creator John Lloyd (Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham), now has a new curator, Sean Lock. Three episodes have been broadcast and the series is currently on the BBC iPlayer.
The Museum is also planning to expand. The people behind the show are to open a new website of the series soon, which will include a forum and podcasts, and will even allow users to donate their own exhibits.
You can listen to the new series on BBC Radio 4 on Monday evenings at 18:30, with repeats on Sundays at noon. You can follow the show on The Museum's Blog or at the British Comedy Guide.
Quite Interesting Products
Some new QI goodies are soon to be made available.
The QI Pocket Book of Animals - Following on from the pocket version of The Book of General Ignorance, a new pocket version of QI's second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance has just come out. You can buy it from Amazon and Play.
Advanced Banter (Paperback) - The paperback version of QI's book of quotations is to be published on 3 September 2009, according to Amazon and Play.
QI: The Book of the Dead - The new, fourth book published by the people behind QI to be published on 1 October 2009. Split into 42 chapters, The Book of the Dead will contain sections such as "People who died Penniless", "The One-Legged", "Only Children", "People who failed at School", "Those only Remembered by a Single Quotation" and "The Last People to Know Everything". You can pre-order the book from Amazon.
Secret Britain: The Hidden Bits of Our History: Written by Question Wrangler Justin Pollard, this is a follow up to his previous books The Interesting Bits and Charge! which look at all the quite interesting bits in the history of Britain. The book is listed on Amazon and will be released on 1 October 2009.
The QI Annual 2010: The third QI annual is currently in the making, and will feature a range of G-related topics. Contributions will come from Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Rowan Atkinson, Jeremy Clarkson, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Phill Jupitus, Jimmy Carr and many more. To be released on 5th November, 2009. Per-order from Amazon.
My Favourite People, 1978-1988: Alan's first book! QI's resident panellist and stud muffin has written a memoir of his life growing up in the 1980s. You can find more information about the book here.
QI is also hoping that to make a game for the Nintendo DS, but it is not known if and when it will come out. Sadly, no details are yet known concerning DVDs of any more QI series; Series D is the next one that should be due for release.
Twitter
QI, along with several other related shows and people, is now on Twitter. For those wanting to know information about the shows as they are recorded, these links will let you know live from the scene. He is a list of some quite interesting tweets you may wish to follow.
QI - @qikipedia
The Museum of Curiosity - @Curiositwitty
QI Telegraph - @QITelegraph
Stephen Fry - @stephenfry
Alan Davies - @alandavies1
John Mitchinson - @Tewlop
Justin Pollard - @JustinPollard
Katie Scott - @katiescottscott
Dan Schreiber - @Schreiberland
Jonathan Paul Green - @jpgdesign
Episode 12 of QI in the F series will not be broadcast at the previously advertised time due to a clash with BBC1's Comic Relief in Red Nose Day on 13th March. It is currently unclear whether it will be broadcast in QI's old BBC2 slot or the following week on BBC1.
Meanwhile in other news, QI's move to BBC1 continues to create international interest from producers wishing to replicate the format. Following the start of the Dutch series there are now ongoing negotiations regarding the sale of the format to be shown in France. If QI is adapted to a conventional prime time format for French broadcasts it will probably be converted into a 2 hour long show.
The full broadcast dates for the remainder of the F series:
16th January - Fight and Flight (Pam Ayres, Sean Lock, Johnny Vegas)
23rd January - France (Jo Brand, Hugh Dennis, Phill Jupitus)
30th January - Fakes (Marcus Brigstock, Jimmy Carr, Sean Lock)
6th February - Fingers and Fumbs (Jo Brand, Phill Jupitus, Dara O Briain)
13th February - Fashion (Clive Anderson, Rich Hall, Reginald D. Hunter)
20th February - Future (Rob Brydon, Sean Lock, Ben Miller)
27th February - Flora and Fauna (Jo Brand, Jimmy Carr, John Sergeant)
6th March - Film (David Mitchell, John Sessions, Emma Thompson)
13th March - Food (Jimmy Carr, Rich Hall, David Mitchell)
News just in, we now have confirmed broadcast dates for the rest of the F series. The Christmas Special will be broadcast on 22nd December on BBC1 at 21:00. The remaining ten episodes will be broadcast every Friday on BBC1 at 21:00 followed by an extended edition of QI on Saturday on BBC2 at a time yet to be confirmed between 21:00 and 22:00.
A full list of dates and times as they are currently know (with the exception of the Christmas special we don't yet know which show is which).
Firstly, my sincerest apologies for leaving you all in the dark for so long. There hasn't really been that much for me to talk about recently but we're now entering the build up for the next series and also Christmas. All this means that there will soon be lots for you to spend your hard earned cash on so that you can squeeze every last ounce of enjoyment out of QI.
Here's a run down of what you can expect:
1. September 1st
It's probably the most anticipated release from QI of the lot amongst the fans of QI. The best thing is that it's already on the shelves. This one really can't wait for the Christmas list.
Check out this video to get an idea of some of the slightly more surreal contents of the DVD.
Order from Amazon.
2. October 1st/November 17th
Last year Stephen Fry jetted off to the USA for a tour of all of the 50 states to form a 6 part series that will air on the BBC this Autumn. The accompanying book goes on sale on October 1st and the series will be available on DVD from November 17th.
Pre-order the book on Amazon.
Pre-order the DVD on Amazon.
3. October 2nd
Justin Pollard - QI's resident historian releases the second of his quite interesting books this Autumn. I probably can't beet the blurb from amazon so here is what it's all about:
"It is a book about the smaller tragedies and triumphs of war - toilets that sink U-boats, unsporting attacks on Christmas day, armies that stop for tea, bombs on renegade balloons, drunk generals, blind kings, blind drunk generals, circular warships, and all the joy and misery that such things bring with them. "
Pre-order from Amazon
4. October 2nd
Have you ever been at that ever important dinner party or social gathering and embarrassed yourself when you just didn't have the right words to mind? Or perhaps you've committed a terrible faux pas when you were the only one that didn't know who originally said that amazingly funny line? Well if so then this book isn't just for you but a whole lot of other people too.
QI: Advanced Banter is more than 450 pages of funny and humorous quotes organised into an A to Z of 250 useful topics. You'll never be found wanting again when the moment is right for the witty one liner.
Pre-order from Amazon.
5. October 30th
Wonders of the Ancient World is Justin Pollard's second book to be published in the space of a month. Back in the days of the Romans and the great Greek poets, lists of the great wonders of the World were rather popular. Historical figures ranging from Antipater of Sidion to the Roman geographer Strabo created such lists but none of them had the luxury of travelling the world with the freedom that we have today. This book could quite easily be a travel guide for the time traveller who plans to visit all of the great wonders of the world in the past. But for the rest of us this book is a brilliant journey of the imagination to see the sights that would have adorned the ancient lists if only Boeing had decided to build the 747 a couple of millennia earlier.
Pre-order from Amazon.
6. November 6th
This one truly is primed for your Christmas list. If last year's annual is anything to go by then you really will have a whole year's worth of reading material here. As with the 2008 edition there will be lots of sections written by QI's many varied comedic guests and researchers, and potentially a few little snippets from the QI forum members.
* If you're hunting for it on the book shelves later in the year, do note that this is not necessarily the final version of the cover.
Pre-order from Amazon
7. January 8th 2009
The CD of the first series of The Museum of Curiosities, starring QI's John Lloyd and Bill Bailey will be available early next year. No album cover as yet, but that would give away who won the competition to design it.
*This post was edited on 01/09/08
On Tuesday I attended the first of 5 run-throughs of a new show being produced by QI called the QI Test. In attendance were several forum members including Andrew, Neotenic, Mr and Mrs Tetsabb and Smiley_Face.
Upon our arrival we were soon shepherded down to the basement studio, not a particularly large room and certainly not somewhere that you could fit an audience. There were 16 chairs placed in two concentric semi-circles. After we were introduced to Justin Gayner (one of QI's senior elves - in experience and not age I should add) we all sat down and got to business. The format of the show was explained to us and we began playing the game.
This unfortunately is where things get a bit vague. This was the first of five run-throughs before a proper pilot is produced and pitched to the BBC. There will likely be some big format changes anyway so what I could say here wouldn't be that informative. Plus, for obvious reasons, the producers will not want the format ti be known to the public until the time is right. What I can probably tell you is that in its current guise there is a very inventive take on the pun at the heart of QI's name (the IQ test) but frankly that's probably something you'd already worked out for yourselves.
After the show there was some quick chat and then we headed over to the pub where Justin Pollard (historian, author and QI elf) joined us for a few drinks. I was quite impressed by the idea for the QI Test, it definitely has the potential (and a show at this stage of development can have nothing more than that) to become very entertaining viewing. I am pleased to say that when the show does come to fruition, you'll be able to hear about it first on the QI blog.
P.S. A review of Wednesday's recording will be available Friday.
The Museum of Curiosity has been commissioned for a second series. The radio 4 comedy is loosely based on QI and stars John Lloyd (QI's creator) as the professor and Bill Bailey (a frequent guest) as its curator. Guests are asked to contribute an item to the museum. Items already added to the museum have included silence and the Battle of Waterloo.
The next QI Annual 2009 has now been placed on amazon for pre-order here. Following on from the success of the first QI annual which covered a range of subjects beginning with “E”, this annual will cover “F” topics. The synopsis given by amazon claims that topics covered in the Annual will include ferrets, Fiji, Finland, fish, flags, flamingos, fleas, floods, flowers, fog, food, football, forests, fossils, Freemasons, fungi, fur and furniture.
It is not yet known who will contribute to the guide, but chances are it will be come from a range of QI guests, panelists and crew who wrote for the Annual last year with some extra contributions from those newly arrived to the QI world.
The QI Annual for 2009 is to be released on the
QI's C series will be available on DVD from the 1st September. It is already available to pre-order on amazon here. There is however still a space on your shelf for the D and E series, but if you want the opportunity to get your hands on them then the commercial success of these DVDs is crucial, make sure that you encourage your friends to buy the DVDs as well.
In the QI world, the lord overseers Lloyd and Mitchinson are known, in whispered reverence, as "The Two Johns". Apart from their roles in researching/supervising the TV show, they were the dual authors behind the books of General Ignorance and Animal Ignorance, and run the operation whose mission it is to find something quite interesting in everything--even, dare I say, Chelmsford.
I spiel to you because John Mitchinson, who, by his own admission, doesn't "know what to do with this info!", asked me to advertise the fact that the this dynamic duo is going to be making a presentation about "12 suitably interesting beasts" this coming May, at the Guardian Hay Festival in Wales. If that weren't exciting enough for you, they're going to be dressed to the nines . . . as a sheep and a chicken. In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning which is the sheep and which the chicken.
The nitty-gritty details:
What?: The QI Zoo: The Book of Animal Ignorance
Where?: The Hay Festival
Which?: Hay-on-Wye, Wales
Who?: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
When?: Saturday, 26 May 2008 | 7:00 pm
Why?: Does one really need an excuse to dress up in silly costume and educate the masses?
[The Hay Festival 2008 website and schedule.]
Ticketing: Tickets are free to students who apply successfully through this page. When the programme is released, tickets can also be purchased here.
The following are provisional dates for the full series of recordings for season F which take place in May and June. Please note that the producers reserve the right to change these dates at short notice.
Monday 5th May
Tuesday 6th May
Monday 12th May
Tuesday 13th May
Monday 19th May
Tuesday 20th May
Wednesday 28th May
Thursday 29th May
Wednesday 4th June
Thursday 5th June
Wednesday 11th June
Thursday 12th June
We're still looking for more reviewers of the recordings. Send an email to qifanatic@googlemail.com if you're interested.
Applause Store are now taking applications for tickets to the first two recordings of the F series. Please note that contrary to previous years, only online bookings will be accepted and it will consequently be harder to get into recordings.
Tickets can be booked here.
Also, due to commitments for several members of this blog, we will be looking for additional guest authors this year to write reviews of the recordings. The reviews have proved to be a very popular part of the blog with several hundred readers. If you intend to be at any of the recordings and are interested in writing the reviews then please get in contact by sending an email to qifanatic@googlemail.com. We are particularly looking for anyone who has experience of review writing.
The Museum of Curiosity is the latest creation of John Lloyd, the creator of QI and it's coming to a wireless near you at 6:30pm on Wednesday 20th February for the next 6 weeks. It is a radio 4 comedy based around the principles of QI where a panel of guests will contribute an item to the museum. John Lloyd takes the role of the professor whilst regular QI panelist Bill Bailey takes the role of curator (at his keyboard).
Having seen the show being recorded, I am very confident that this series is going to be a big hit. It could well be radios' VI to TV's quite interesting since it doesn't rely purely on comedic talent but also on notable talents in many fields (Alastair Fothergill, the producer of Blue Planet and Planet Earth for example). However, the show still benefits from strong comedic talent including Bill Bailey himself and panelists like Kevin Day.
Don't forget to listen next Wednesday at 6:30pm on Radio 4.
Apologies for the delays in updating the blog over recent weeks. The reasons for this should become apparent within the next week. To bring the news up-to-date regarding the column, click here to read interesting moon facts and click here for six based factoids (without a mention of cricket).
The long-awaited series B DVD will go on sale on March 17th. It is now available to pre-order on amazon. Click here to do so. Hopefully the wait for series C won't be so long.
Apologies for the update on the QI column. Things are very busy at the moment, as will soon become clear. Click here to look to the stars.
The QI Column reaches the half-way point in the tour of the alphabet this week with letter M. Click here.
It's a new year and time for lots of firsts. Click here for this week's column. Happy new year everyone.
