The Museum of Curiosity

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.

Quite Interesting Statistics

A regular reader of the QI Blog, Scott Vaughan, has sent me some interesting statistics for the scores by QI's guests. I thought I would share them with you (they're based on all of the episodes up to the end of the D series).

It won't surprise you who has the worst scores on QI. Alan Davies holds the 5 lowest points scores ever. These range from -144 points in D07 to -64 points in D12. Nor will it shock you that Alan has the lowest average score of any guest who has appeared more than 4 times. At -23.3 points, Alan's average is far below the -6.9 of Jo Brand.

Then again, only Rich Hall and Clive Anderson have won more episodes than Alan. He succeeded in A10, D06, and D09 where a mistake by Stephen gave Alan his highest score of 54 points (enough to get into the top 5) although he would have won anyway.

So who is the king, or queen, of QI? Well Helen Atkinson-Wood must be the queen having scored the most points of any guest, 200 in C09. The king's crown must go to Jeremy Hardy who scored an average of 11.3 points, the most of guest to make 4 appearances. His two princes, Rich Hall and Sean Lock are the only other panellists with a points average greater than 1 who have appeared in more than 4 shows.

You can see the statistics in greater detail right here. Meanwhile, although I haven't been posting the scores in the reviews, I can tell you that some shows have produced some very interesting results, especially with more audience participation. We'll have to wait and see what makes the final cut before the statistics can be updated.

Elving Away Behind the Scenes

Hi, Eggshaped here.

As you will know if you’ve been following this blog for the last few weeks, the recordings of QI have begun; and what a great few shows we have had so far.

I thought I’d give you a very brief insight as to what an elf does on the day of a recording (or at least what I do). As our work is mainly question research, you may think that we have a relaxing one when we’re filming – but actually there’s a lot to be done during the day.

I personally arrive some time in the early afternoon, though other elves do arrive earlier, and immediately get a copy of the day’s script (that is, the script which contains the day’s questions, the notes on Stephen’s cards, and some of the links between questions – other than that QI is, of course, unscripted) and head up to our office. The elves’ office is lush. It’s a huge room containing plenty of computers with a massive window overlooking the Thames; it even has its own balcony which will be great if the weather bucks up in the next few weeks!

The filming process begins with a warm-up with some stand-ins. Stephen asks them the questions in the same order as the show, this helps the technical peeps get an idea of how things will work, gives us an idea of how the questions will go, and gives Stephen a chance to familiarise himself with the questions.

After that, the guests will come in for their warm-up. This gives the techies a chance to test microphones and see if the guests’ clothes are camera-friendly; it also gives the guests a chance to get into the swing of things. Of course, we don’t want the guests to know the evening’s questions and answers in advance, so the elves come up with 5 brand new warm-up questions for each show. It’s a shame that sometimes the guests come up with brilliant material based on these questions which never sees the light of day!

After that it’s time for dinner, and the audience are just beginning to make their way in. While the audience arrive we like to keep them amused with a number of “factoids” which come up on screens around the studio, which I will usually type up. The screens are connected to a laptop into which I manually type the facts, I usually print off a couple of lists of facts from the QI database which I supplement with ones of my own: those of you who come to lots of shows will notice quite a few repeats of my fave facts – but hopefully I’ll try to keep them pretty fresh.

The warm-up (usually Stephen Grant) begins, and the elves take their place in the gallery (which, if you are looking at the set, is to the left, behind the curtains) where we are watching the show with a couple of laptops. We’re listening carefully for any factual errors which creep in or any questions which are asked by the guests. While it would be nice if we knew the answer to every question (we do pretty well from our original research) you can’t always predict which way a question will go, so we often will find ourselves googling away.

Stephen has got a screen in his desk which we post corrections or facts to. He also has an earpiece which he uses to communicate with the director. You'll notice he uses that when he does pickups at the end.

The show ends, hopefully a great success, and we make our way to the green room where the show is discussed and the bar is slowly emptied.

The second interactive QI DVD

Hi everyone. Those of you who read the QI forums (and if you don’t, why ever not?) will know who I am, so I sha’n’t elaborate.

QI Fanatic asked me here to say a little about the forthcoming interactive DVD game. I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with the joys of exam marking for the last couple of weeks, so it’s taken me a bit longer than I wanted to get around to it, but that’s Real Life for you.

Now then, that DVD. Well, it’s out later in the year, and of course everyone who reads this blog will want to have one.

I don’t want to give too much away about just exactly what’s going to be on there, but I can give you a few clues. There will be an option to play against someone else – but don’t panic if you prefer testing your knowledge or lack thereof to be a solitary pursuit, that will be possible too. And of course there are plenty of klaxons lurking. As for what the questions are about, that would be telling – but when we came up with them we tried fairly hard to make sure that all the subject areas you’d expect in a quiz were covered. Therefore, there may or may not be questions about quetzals, qvints, Qatar, quoits, and just perhaps even some things that don’t start with the letter Q.

The fully accredited elves – that’s people like eggshaped, who had something to say right here a few weeks back – are rather busy in the spring preparing for the recordings of the TV series (they start today, as you probably hadn’t failed to notice). As a result QI took on a bit of extra help to come up with the material for the DVD, and roped in three of the more established contributors to the forums as Peredhil (some prefer the title proto-elves). That was really a very exciting moment – receiving a message from Close To The Top asking me if I’d be up for supplying some multiple choice questions. It’s not as easy as it looks, specially since every answer has to be supported by reference to reputable sources – the last thing we want is for someone playing the game to know that we’ve got it wrong, so verification of everything included is essential. But it was fun, and I’m sure you’ll all have fun too when you get to play the game in a few months time!

Coming Soon!!!

First of all, apologies for the relative lack of posts on the blog in the last couple of weeks. I've been busy sorting out some treats for you all.

Tomorrow is the first recording of the E series of QI at the London Studios. To celebrate the blog will host an exclusive look at the work on the new Interactive DVD that will be released this autumn. All of it will be brought to you by one of QI's newest recruits.

Also, me and Andrew will be writing reviews of all the recordings. As things stand, I will be reviewing tomorrow's recording and Andrew will be reviewing Friday's show (Bill Bailey is confirmed as a guest for that one). Next week I'll be able to make both recordings. I am very excited about next Friday since I will be going as a production guest (so the review will include my experiences in the green room).

Meanwhile, watch out for QI's daily telegraph column (as always I'll post a link as soon as it is added to the website).

All in all, it's going to be a pretty exciting month as far as QI goes.

A Guide to QI Recordings 2007

QI Recordings take place at The London Studios (located on the South Bank near Waterloo). They will start in just 2 weeks time and tickets for the first two shows have already been issued.

The studio has a capacity of approx 400-500 (we counted the number of rows and seats). However, the show is very popular and getting into the recordings can be a challenge. At least half of the seats are deliberately double-booked (sometimes it has looked like the entire audience has been double-booked). Arriving early is essential because the show is so popular. Doors open at 18:45 but arriving before 18:00 is necessary to guarantee entry.

If you're travelling any distance or at any expense arriving even earlier is advised. You shouldn't take any risks because travel and accommodation costs cannot be refunded by applause store. If you're travelling from outside the UK I advise that you call applause store (instead of using the online application) in order to request priority tickets. They are not always available but if you can get them they will ensure that you will gain entry (you'll still have to make sure that you arrive by 18:00 though as this is the point when the two queues are separated).

The nearest tube station is Waterloo station on the Jubilee, Northern, Bakerloo, and Waterloo and City lines. It's about 5 minutes walk from Waterloo to the studios, check this map (the studios are marked as "The London Television Centre").

Once in the studio you will be able to go to the toilet before the start of the show. However, problems often arise from people darting to the toilets as they walk in. Applause store staff request that you wait until you have sat down before going to the toilets.

Recordings normally take between 2:45 and 3:15 from doors open with a finish time between 21:30 and 22:00. However, the recording itself isn't normally longer than 2 hours. The first three quarters of an hour after doors open are required to get everyone seated, the crew to get ready and for the warm-up guy (Stephen Grant being a regular star) to do his stuff.

Since the recording takes nearly two hours, there's a lot that only you and the audience will ever see. Most of what is cut will go simply for time, although with the guests you get on some shows a significant amount can't be broadcast even at 22:00 on a Friday night.

I look forward to meeting some of my blog's readers at the recordings...

P.S. The Telegraph column should be available tomorrow and I'm hoping for another exclusive feature somewhen towards the end of this week.

A Quick Welcome to Andrew

Welcome to Andrew, a new author on the blog. Andrew is a QI veteran having watched all of the episodes in the D series being recorded as well as a significant proportion of the C series.

Andrew will be writing up some reviews of the forthcoming E series recordings (the ones that I'm not able to see).

Some Quite Interesting Additions

I've been playing about with the blog today, so there are some nice new features that you might want to take notice of.

One is the list of YouTube videos in the sidebar. This replaces the previous list that linked to the videos of QI on YouTube. These new ones will now play on this blog (they will open at the top of the page).

I've also added a list of the recording dates during May/June for QI series E. Plus if you look at the very bottom of the page there are now TV listings for QI. QI isn't showing on any of the BBC channels at the moment but it is running on UKTV Gold 2 (and does so nearly all of the time since UKTV own the rights to repeat each series 12 times!!!) so I will aim to update that list fairly regularly. Don't be afraid to post a comment reminding me to update it if I forget.

Otherwise please do add your comments about the changes I've made. I'm particularly interested in comments concerning any problems with the format (please specify your browser). There have been some problems with the site for those using firefox today. Thank you to WordLover for helping me to correct them.

Welcome to a Quite Interesting Blogger

I am proud to welcome Eggshaped as a new author on this blog.

Eggshaped is one of QI's researchers or "elves". An accountant by profession, he joined the show's team after he impressed with his online research skills on the forum. Eggshaped was also the brains behind QI's Rolling News.

Quite Interesting Errors

One of the cornerstones of the QI philosophy is that people know less than they think they do.

However, QI's elves are not omniscient beings. Like any human, they are also capable of making mistakes. What makes them elven? They know their frailties and actively encourage others to expose them.

Here is a short list of some of the mistakes that have been made on the show. It's far from a comprehensive list, so please add some other errors in your comments.

Blue

In episode 1 of the B series, Stephen said that there is no Welsh word for the colour blue. That was plain wrong; the word is "glas".

Berwick-upon-Tweed

On QI it was said that Berwick-upon-Tweed remained at war with Russia until 1966. However, the town was made part of Great Britain by a clause in an Act that imposed the Window Tax during the war. Although it was repealed within a year, the clause making Berwick part of the Great Britain remained on the statute books. Therefore the town was included as part of Great Britain when the peace treaty was signed at the end of the Crimean war.

Florence Nightingale

The nurse, well known for her actions in the Crimean War, did not invent the pie chart. William Playfair invented it nearly two decades earlier in 1801. He also invented the line and bar charts.

Piccadilly Circus

QI was right when it said that the statue in Piccadilly Circus is not Eros (the God in Greek mythology responsible for Love, Lust and Sex). However, it certainly isn't the Angel of Christian Charity. The statue is Anteros (the Greek God of requited love) which was named by Sir Alfred Gilbert. The myth that it is the Angel of Christian Charity is believed to have come about when people insisted on mistaking Anteros for Eros (who many believed was not a fitting memorial to the Earl of Shaftsbury).

Moons

QI has repeated on several occasions (also in the book) that the Earth has more than one natural satellite. This refers to NEOs (Near Earth Objects) . However, they do not orbit the Earth and therefore they are not Moons. In fact they orbit the Sun on a similar orbit to the Earth. This error has been the subject of considerable debate on the QI forum.

Thanks to Gaazy, Jimherbert, Dr Bob (twice) and Saint Micheal who were the original users that posted these mistakes on the QI talk forum.

Quite Interesting Transcripts

So, you've heard something on QI that you really want to know more about. Maybe it's something to do with your job, your schoolwork or just something you're really interested in. However, you can't really remember what was said or on which episode. Well if the idea of sitting through hours of QI on YouTube (although plenty of us do that anyway) to find out what was said isn't an option for you, then this website will be perfect for you.

Sarah (aka Minerva Moon) has spent the last year writing transcripts of episodes of QI. Now you can quickly read through whole QI episodes to find what you're looking for. Simply using your browser's find function (ctrl+f) could let you find in seconds what would have otherwise taken you hours.

However, Sarah now needs your help. Writing a transcript can take anything up to 10 hours of work. So getting through a whole series, let alone 4 of them, takes a lot of dedication. If you would like to volunteer to transcribe an episode, fill out the form here.

Liffs

The Meaning of Liff was a book written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd in 1983. Liffs are things that have no word to describe them in the English language and are married to a place name from anywhere in the World. John Lloyd, also being the producer of QI, started a thread on the QI Forum all the way back in 2003. Since then, the thread has grown into the most hilarious thread on the forum.

Plenty of good examples from the forum include:

Noards
The bits of wall behind a radiator that never get painted.

Great Knowley
One whose sole contribution to society is watching repeats of Eggheads all day and being a pub know-all in the evening. The worst kind of smartarse.

Little Knowley
An eight-year-old Countdown champion. The second worst kind of smartarse.

Pirnmil
I small system of shafts and gears typically found within the engines and other apparatus of ocean liners built between 1940 and 1965.

Poughkeepsie
The person who initiates and then commentates upon another person's colonic irrigation.

You can read or contribute to more than 700 Liffs in this thread. Alternatively you could buy one of 3 books by John Lloyd and Douglas Adams here on amazon. You can also read the Liffs which will appear in every Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph here.

QI's Live Online Quiz

This Friday will see the return of QI's Live Online Quiz. The quiz is run and organised by members of the forum and run on an external chat room. The quiz master changes each week. Since the quiz master has control over writing the quiz, the scoring and pretty much everything it's never exactly the same from week to week.

The quiz is loosely based around the show. Many of the questions will have klaxon answers that will lose players points. Scoring has usually been in the format: 5 points for first correct answer, 2 points for second correct answer and -10 points for a klaxon. However, that often changes, especially for harder questions.

A common theme has been for one round of questions to be posted on the forum. Answers are then sent as a private message to the quiz master, ensuring that those who are slow typers aren't at a disadvantage.

Anyone can join in with the quiz. If you want to then go to this link at 8:00pm GMT on Friday (16th February). The quiz will be hosted by 96aelw (aka Alfred) this week and Suze 2 weeks later.

Changelings

For the next few months, I'm going to take a more detailed look at some of the website's and the forum's more interesting features. To begin with I'll introduce you to changelings.

Changelings was first invented by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (or Lewis Carroll as you are more likely to have known him). I first came across it when it was posted on a forum by Len Porter of Brighton, from which I adapted it for the website.

Changelings is a word game. Words are of a fixed length (either 6, 7 or 8 letters long) and from the start word players must change one letter with each turn and then make an anagram of the new word. Repeats are not allowed.

The challenge of the game is to find words that no one can reply to because it is a 'dead end' or words that are so difficult to follow that no one replies within 3 hours. Players earn points through the game which lasts either 4 or 6 weeks. Those with the most points win the game.

The next game of changelings has just started in QI's games room. You can play here:

http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5935&start=0

If you would like to start a game of changelings on your own forum you can read a copy of the rules here:

http://geocities.com/marmaladepublications/Changelings.pdf

Everything QI: Quite Interesting

Welcome to the QI: Quite Interesting blog.

Not everyone knows what QI is, especially if you don't live in the UK. Hence, to officially launch my blog I have included here everything that you need to know about this excellent British comedy.

The TV Show

QI started life in 2003 as a comedy panel quiz on the BBC. Stephen Fry hosts the show and Alan Davies is the one member of the panel that appears in every programme. Although it is a quiz, none of the guests are expected to get any of the questions right because they are too hard. Instead, points are awarded for being interesting.

An important feature of the show is the General Ignorance round. This is full of questions that people believe they know the answer to but are totally wrong. Good examples would be "How many wives did Henry VIII have?". The answer is either 2 or 4, but it most certainly is not 6!

The show airs on Friday nights at 10:00pm on BBC2 and is usually followed by the next week's episode on BBC4 at 10:30pm. The show is the highest rating programme on BBC4 and always does very well on BBC2. It is also usually repeated on BBC2 on Saturdays in a varying time slot.

Each series is themed according to a letter of the alphabet, the first series being the A series, followed by the B series and so on.

The Book of General Ignorance

The TV show has given rise to The Book of General Ignorance which is based upon the round in the TV show. It is a list of 230 questions that most people believe they know the answer to but are completely wrong.

The book was written by John Lloyd (the TV show's producer and co-author of The Meaning of Liff) and John Mitchinson (the head researcher for the show). It also features a foreword by Stephen Fry and 4 words by Alan Davies.

The book became a surprise bestseller over the Christmas period, becoming Amazon's number one Global bestseller for Christmas 2006. Its success even shocked the authors and it has sold more than 300,000 copies. The book will go on sale in the USA in 2008 but it can already be bought in Canada.

A follow-up book is already being written called The Book of Animal Ignorance. The title is fairly self-explanatory.

The DVD

In 2006 a petition was raised asking for the release of the first series of QI on DVD. It was one of few examples where a petition was successful (A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie being the other DVD that was released after a petition of this type). It received more than 1,500 signatures and was a significant factor for the BBC in approving its release.

However, sales over Christmas were poor, although this was largely due to a failure to adequately advertise the release of the DVD. Optimism of further releases of the rest of the series is high.

The series A DVD was preceded by a successful interactive DVD in 2005.

The QI Rolling News

In the last month the QI website began a news feature which endeavours to find the most interesting news there is on the Internet and collect it in one place for your pleasure. I've been one of those hounding down the news and you can read my stories here:

http://www.qi.com/news/search.php?hound=grizzly

The QI Elves

The researchers for the show are called "Elves". They were first called this by Stephen Fry in the first series. These mythical creatures regularly post on the QI forum where they also do a good proportion of their research. One of the unique features of QI is that fans can easily get an interesting piece of information into the series as a question by posting their sourced research on the website. This has allowed the forum to become a thriving community in itself.

The QI Philosophy

One of the most significant features of QI is that it has developed its own philosophy. When John Lloyd was designing the programme he specifically wished to avoid the "book of facts" type of format. Instead of listing boring information the researchers hunt for the interesting nuggets of information that are so often left out of the classroom or textbook.

Above all QI is about anything and everything that is interesting.

Introducing QI

Welcome to this blog all about the excellent TV show QI. I'll be bringing you everything that you'll want to know about it. I'll discuss everything from the recording of the show and the researching by the 'elves', to the QI book(s) and the club in Oxford. Plus I'll be able to bring you the latest in the interesting news stories from around the world as I post them on the QI website as a newshound.

If you're new to QI then find out more about it by clicking on the list of links to the left.

I'll be starting regular posts on this blog from the first week of February. Come back then!