A New Bunch of Updates

Goodness gracious it has been a while since this was updated. Well, we might as well do some updating now.

Series H

The eighth series of QI has now been fully recorded. This series will see the 100th episode being broadcast, although we do not know as of yet whether the official 100th episode will be a special (for those wondering, the official 100th episode does not take into account the unbroadcast pilot or the clip shows). Scroll over the white section to find out more.

The show features seven new panellists, one guest who has so far only appeared in the unbroadcast pilot, another since Series A and another since Series B. This series features the show's youngest panellist and the first member of the crew to appear on the show since Howard Goodall in Series A.

Here is a guide to all the episodes and guests:

1. House and Home - Bill Bailey, Danny Baker, Eddie Izzard.

2. Hands, Hearts and Heads - Bill Bailey, Gyles Brandreth, Sue Perkins.

3. Happiness - Rich Hall, Andy Hamilton, Phill Jupitus.

4. Holidays - Bill Bailey, Rob Brydon, Rich Hall.

5. Hypnotism - Ronni Ancona, Phill Jupitus, Robert Webb.

6. Highs and Lows - Rob Brydon, Fred MacAulay, Sandi Toksvig.

7. Hodge Podge - Jack Dee, Phill Jupitus, Ross Noble.

8. History - Rob Brydon, David Mitchell, Sandi Toksvig.

9. Horrible - Chris Addison, Sean Lock, Dara Ó Briain.

10. Hypothetical Questions - John Lloyd (yes, the John Lloyd who created QI), Sandi Toksvig, Johnny Vegas.

11. Health and Safety (Possibly Hundredth Episode Special) - Jeremy Clarkson, David Mitchell, Ross Noble.

12. Hoaxes - Danny Baker, Sean Lock, David Mitchell.

13. Horses - Clare Balding, Jimmy Carr, Dara Ó Briain.

14. Hocus Pocus (Christmas Special) - Lee Mack, Graham Norton, Daniel Radcliffe.

15. Hanimals - Sean Lock, Ross Noble, Ruby Wax.

16. Humanity - Jo Brand, Jimmy Carr, Jack Dee.

The Museum of Curiosity

The third gallery of The Museum of Curiosity has almost been completely unveiled. For those who have missed any of the meetings of the museum, which has been curated by John Lloyd and Jon Richardson, you can read about what has been going on from the museum's entry on the British Comedy Guide. Episodes are currently still available from the BBC iPlayer. The final episode of galley three is on 14th June.

This week, the complete second gallery came out on CD. You can buy it from Amazon and Play, or download it from Audible.co.uk

QI Products

A new range of QI products are coming out soon.

The Second Book of General Ignorance: Don't You Know Anything? - The follow-up to the Amazon best-selling Book of General Ignorance, the second book, written by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson contains even more stuff that you think you know, but you don't.

The QI Annual 2011 - The fourth annual book will feature "H" related subjects. Contributors include Alan Davies, Phill Jupitus, Jo Brand, Clive Anderson, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Bailey, David Mitchell, Rob Brydon, Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr.

The QI Annual Bind-Up - A collection of the first three annuals, covering the letters "E", "F" and "G".

Fry: A Memoir - Stephen Fry is to publish his second autobiography, which continues on from where his first, Moab is my Washpot, left off.

Boffinology: The Real Stories Behind Our Greatest Scientific Discoveries - The fourth in QI elf Justin Pollard's selection of "Interesting" books, in which he looks at the more interesting side of science, including how Issac Newton thought gravity was created by the Holy Spirit and the Greek invention of the slot machine.

I Never Knew There Was a Word For That - The three books of former QI elf Adam Jacot de Boinod are published together in this one publication. Containing The Meaning of Tingo, Toujours Tingo and The Wonder of Whiffling, they cover a range of words you never knew existed.

QI Petitions

Just to remind you that there are still some QI petitions being carried out. These are the petition to get the show broadcast in America, which currently has over 10,000 signatures, and the petition to get more DVDs of the show released, which is nearing 1,000 signatures.

Products, Recordings and Other Updates

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 & QI News

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.

QI F Series Broadcast Schedule

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)

F Series Starts Today

Don't forget that the first episode of the full run of the F series starts tonight at 9:00pm on BBC One. Tonight's episode is about "Flotsam and Jetsam", with guests Andy Hamilton, Rob Brydon, and returning for only his second episode, former plasterer Charlie Higson.

You can catch an extended edition of the show tomorrow (Saturday) evening on BBC Two at 10:30pm with an extra ten minutes that wouldn't fit into the Friday show.

Also, you may be interested to learn that the Radio 4 series The Museum of Curiosity, starring QI creator John Lloyd and comedian Bill Bailey in a QI-inspired search for the universe's most interesting things, is now available for purchase in the form of an audio CD. You can order it from Amazon here.

Dutch QI Episode 2 - War

This week's review is brought to you by Peti.

Last Saturday was the day that VARA broadcast the second episode of the Dutch series of QI, and your reporter was installed by the television at 22:00 sharp.

Let's start at the very beginning with the opening credits. They are not a copy of the original: there is a different theme – not as catchy as the one Howard Goodall composed – and they show a supposedly comical animation of host Arthur Japin and panellist Thomas van Luyn travelling through interesting parts of history and having information put in their heads. It's a bit cheesy for my taste, but it highlights one of the major differences between the original programme and the Dutch version. The focus is on being funny more than on being interesting. As Japin opens the show "This quiz is all about interesting answers. We give out the most points for nice stories and funny anecdotes." What is this? Is interesting the same as funny now?

The set designers have borrowed heavily from the British version, with the panellists sitting around a big "Q" with a lower case "i" in the middle. The big Q seems to be scaled down, so the panellists are sitting much closer together, although it may simply be that it is recorded in a smaller studio. Behind the guests are two large screens used to a similar effect as the British version for displaying the klaxon answers and videos. The klaxon is quieter, or as one of the panellists said, "It's like I've hit the jackpot!"

For the second episode, the panellists sat with Japin and Van Luyn were Diederik van Vleuten, Lenette van Dongen, and Richard Groenendijk. It's good to see that the producers are employing good comedic talents instead of the usual selection of minor actors and television presenters that usually appear on Dutch panel shows. I do really like Van Vleuten and Groenendijk had some of the most amusing answers and stories.

The second episode of the Dutch QI was all about war. Lovely! Some of the questions, like in the first episode, were taken from the BBC programme, like the "kamikaze pigeons" and the number of soldiers under the command of a centurion. However, some of the questions haven't appeared in the broadcasts of the British version so it would seem that they are making an attempt at some original research. For example, one of Saddam Hussein's sons produced a cola drink with a Pepsi logo on it, and SS personnel had their blood type tattooed in their armpits. My favourite was that Napoleon gave his soldiers yo-yos because he thought it was good for the blood flow.

One question concerned a "secret weapon" employed by the ancient Greeks. Van Luyn: "Homosexuality. The ancient ones did that, the younger ones not so much, they thought is was a bit yucky." He goes on mocking hoplites and their stylish outfits, but it turns out his answer was right: there were armies of homosexuals. Plato suggested in his "Symposium" that if two lovers would fight, they would try to protect each other. This is followed by the inevitable mocking of homosexuality.

Groenendijk: "How did they fight? Pulling each other hair?"
Van Luyn: "Throwing handbags."
Groenendijk: "With beautifully styled hair. No, watch out for my hair!"
Van Luyn: "Throwing Gucci shoes."
Groenendijk: "So that was the secret weapon of the Greeks. But were the enemy soldiers all straight? So they turn out to be stronger. If it takes too long for us, we don't finish things."
Van Dongen: "I just have to watch the Eurovision Song Contest now!"

The programme has all the elements: good comedians, interesting facts, gay jokes...So why is it just not as good as the original? Obviously, it doesn't have Stephen Fry, the host of hosts. Also, the entertainment value is rather reduced if you know the answers to the half the questions, because they've been copied from the BBC series. But there are two major problems. One of them I mentioned before: the object of the Dutch QI is not to discover interesting facts. The object seems to be to let the comedians tell "funny anecdotes", and that's just wrong! Points are for interesting facts, whether they're relevant or not. The comedians are supposed to be funny; it's their job. The second problem is the way Japin hosts the show. He's no Stephen Fry, but he doesn't have to be. I just have a problem with him just being there to read up questions, and judge the answers. He is just a bit too serious and stiff. Now, since this is the first time he's done anything like this, it makes sense. I just hope he grows into his role.

Dutch QI Episode 1

Since QI is making its first foray abroad, we here at the QI Blog want to keep you up to date about the new series in The Netherlands. Hence we have some new reporters to introduce to you. This review of the first episode is written by Douchegordijn:

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In general, Dutch remakes of British comedy programmes tend to be painful to watch. The Dutch Never Mind The Buzzcocks is quite horrible, and although our version of Have I Got News For You is very popular, I haven’t the faintest idea why. This is why I concluded a long time ago panel-quizzes were just not suited for Dutch humour. Last Saturday, I was proven wrong.

ARTHUR JAPIN: How do guide dogs navigate in a city?
RONALD GOEDEMONDT: Guide dogs usually wear out a couple of blind people before they know the city. They start with five blind people, which they leave at places across the city. These blind people are lost, and you can hear them scream, "Where am I? Where am I?" These lost people are the navigating points for the guide dogs. They think: "Oh, that’s Harry who’s lost at the cathedral. Here we go left." It’s not that difficult.

They decided against beginning with an A-series, opting for a theme per episode instead. The theme of the first episode was "senses". The participating comedians were Diederik van Vleuten, Ronald Goedemondt, Jetty Mathurin, and recurring panel member Thomas van Luyn. The Dutch version of QI is still very much a work in progress. Usually the comedians were able to come up with a couple of decent anecdotes or witty jokes. They were, however, still searching for the best way to deliver them. Sometimes the jokes or stories seemed a bit forced, but I still found myself laughing out loud a lot.

Host Arthur Japin is no Stephen Fry. At the moment, his prompter skills aren’t good enough. When he’s presenting, you can hear he’s reading the prompter aloud. He’ll probably get better at this, though. He is a lot more bitchy than Stephen and when the contestants are making fun of him, you often see a him looking very much "not amused" (JAPIN: "I had a dog who would do anything for me. He’d get the newspaper, carry my groceries…" GOEDEMONDT: "…write books…"). However, there were moments when Japin demonstrated some strong comedic skills. It proves that even without Fry, the format works.

The editing of the programme was sometimes a bit strange, and this will be one of the areas that needs to be targeted if the show is to become a lasting success. At times, they editing gave the impression that the contestants came up with the correct answer very quickly, which is a bit strange with impossible questions like these. This created the feeling that the show was scripted even though it isn’t.

The Dutch version of QI is not up there with the English version yet, but that’s not a really fair comparison, because the first episode of QI had the same feelings of being a little forced. I found the first episode quite enjoyable, and I think the show can grow to something very good, especially for those who don’t watch the English version.



The opening credits from the Dutch version.

Dutch QI

A Dutch version of QI will begin broadcasting in the Netherlands on the 27th December. Details are thin on the ground at the moment but we do know that it will still be called QI and it is presented by Arthur Japin, a popular Dutch author and regular guest comedian Thomas van Luyn. This is the first time that QI's format has been sold abroad.

Some parts of The Netherlands already receive the British QI because some parts of the country receive BBC TV broadcasts from over the channel. More details if and when we get them (unfortunately the language barrier has prevented us from learning about this until now).

Edit (18/12/08):

Thank you very much to the people who have added a few comments about the Dutch show. To reiterate those comments, there may well still be tickets to recordings. Unlike the British version it would appear that the Dutch version is being produced with a much shorter edit time so if you're in the Netherlands you might have a chance to go and see one. The website you want is here. Also, for non-residents of the Netherlands, you may find that the show is available outside of the country here after it has been shown (much like iPlayer). Lets hope for some English subtitles.

In the meantime, we'd love for someone who's fluent in Dutch and English to get in touch about writing some reviews of the show when it airs towards the end of this month. Obviously we'd prefer fans of the British version who can give us a comparison between the two. If you're interested send us an email and we'll get in touch.

QI F Series Broadcast Dates

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).

• 22nd December 21:00 BBC1 (Fire and Freezing)
  
• 9th January 21:00 BBC1
• 10th January BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 16th January 21:00 BBC1
• 17th January BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 23rd January 21:00 BBC1
• 24th January BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 30th January 21:00 BBC1
• 31st January BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 6th February 21:00 BBC1
  
• 7th February BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 13th February 21:00 BBC1
• 14th February BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 20th February 21:00 BBC1
• 21st February BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 27th February 21:00 BBC1
• 28th February BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 6th March 21:00 BBC1
• 7th March BBC2 (Extended QI)
• 13th March 21:00 BBC1
• 14th March BBC2 (Extended QI)

F Series

Apologies for the huge gap between updates to the blog. Things up in York have been hectic with the QI society's first new intake of students.

Anyway, if you've not heard already, the first episode of the F series will be broadcast next Friday at 10:00pm on BBC2. It will be the Children In Need special starring Roni Ancona, David Mitchell and Sir Terry Wogan. Unlike previous years this episode is a one-off. The rest of the series will kick off with the Christmas special in December and the rest of the series will follow throughout January. A broadcast schedule will be avilable here as soon as we get it.

QI E08 Review - Eyes and Ears

This was also the 8th episode to be recorded, click here to read the review of the recording.

First of all, apologies for the delay in this review. There should be another one very soon for this week's episode.

The guests for this episode were Phill Jupitus, Jimmy Carr and David Mitchell. All of these guests had already been to at least one recording so they all seemed to take the filming in their strides. David Mitchell provided a particularly strong performance in this episode, with his classic style of wit and sarcasm. Jimmy Carr's comments about wife-beating were probably the most risky though. Another highlight was Alan's inventiveness in cat packaging!

This episode will probably be remembered most of all for its final outcome. As is customary in this situation, Stephen read out the scores from lowest to highest. This was Alan's fourth win on the show and with a massive achievement of a 10 point lead.

Come back soon for a review of E09 and some other goodies on this blog.

QI E07 Review - Espionage

Read the recording review here.

This week's episode was all about espionage and the guests were Jo Brand, Vic Reeves and Clive Anderson who were all dressed up in spy-type costumes - very nice. Subjects discussed included beating a lie detector, invisible ink, the cold war, fingerprints, falling lifts, tornados, activities after eating lunch.

The 'elephant in the room' bonus was won by Jo Brand who correctly thought that it was an elephant that Harry Houdini managed to hide behind a mirror. Despite getting the bonus, she only came third with a final score of 4 points as Vic and Clive pipped her to the post by both getting 5 points. Alan managed to get right down to -8 points...maybe he'll do better next week?

The Vodcast this week was introduced by the week's guests all in their original costumes (apart from a few missing items - see if you can spot them!). It contains the section of the episode about fingerprints and some other parts not previously broadcast.

Next week's episode is about 'Ears and Eyes' and is, as usual on BBC2 at 22:00 on Friday.

QI E06 Review - Everything

Episode 6, concerning Everything, was the last episode to be recorded before the children-in-need and Christmas specials. Consequently it was fairly obvious to the audience that this episode was for all the interesting E's that didn't warrant, or couldn't fit into an episode devoted to one subject.

Subjects ranged from Ecstacy to Lumberjacks. The section about Taking the King's Shilling was contributed mainly on the QI forum. Click Here to read more about it.

Some of the sections that were cut included a discussion about Ebay and a sentence with no letter E's in it. Aliens, mountains and sleep were also missed out. Unfortunately, although the audience were shown pictures of the fainting goats, the copyright could not be attained so this was cut.

This was the episode in which Stephen revealed that at the time he was one of only 5 people who knew the ending of Harry Potter (since he had recorded the audiobooks). Alan achieved yet another second place. This is one of Alan's best series in terms of his scores. Perhaps he's started swotting for the show, but we will never know.

Once again don't forget to watch the QI vodcast. Of the stuff you won't have seen in the episode, Stephen discussing Ibiza, plus Jeremy on France and Greece are the highlights. Watch out for Jeremy in the outro as well! Click Here.

QI E05 Review - Europe

Episode E05, the 6th episode to be recorded, was a real gem of an episode. This was the episode when Dara and Phill mentioned this very blog. As I expected it wasn't included in the show, mainly since it was mentioned whilst a technical difficulty prevented the show from being recorded.

The real genius in this episode was the 'Call My Euro Bluff' round. For those that don't understand this reference (because they are too young or such) should click here. This part of the episode lasted surprisingly long and took up a large chunk of the recording. Stephen also had a question, which was also a Bloff. Unfortunately the researchers (one of whom was supposedly working up until the last moment) couldn't find a wacky European law that was actually true.

The audiences' klaxon really does deserve an apology from the BBC (given the current climate). The audience didn't know the words and those who did sing it the first time couldn't be heard. Hence the version that you can actually hear in the show was recorded afterwards in the pick-ups.

This was also the episode in which Alan began filming the audience. You can view his videos on youtube or by clicking the videos in the sidebar. Before the recording started Phill Jupitus' flag was upside down. It was only 10 minutes before the warm-up (Gordon Southern on this occassion) that a member of our party pointed it out and the problem was solved.

The elephant in the room question was a surprise to everyone. The audience and the panellists had all been far too preoccupied with the flags on their desks to notice the change in notebooks.

All in all this was an episode that maintained the high quality of this current series. Even before the half-way point it is clear that this series has exceeded all of those before it. If you haven't seen it on BBC4 already, watch out for the Everything episode next week.

And finally, don't forget to watch the QI Vodcast for the Europe episode, currently available here. It includes the largest thing you can rent in Europe for £170k/day, more about Belgium and composting!

Daily Telegraph QI Column - Week 37

The cool days of Autumn have arrived so it's time for QI to think about the seasonal changes. Read this week's column here.

Also, don't forget that now that since UKTV G2 has rebranded as 'Dave' and is now available on freeview, you can watch repeats of QI on a regular basis. Tonight, tomorrow and Monday the channel is showing a QI marathon so tune into freeview 19 for a true QI-fest.

QI E04 Review - Exploration

Read the recording review here.

The episode was all about Exploration and the guests were Bill Bailey, Rich Hall and Sean Lock however I do think that the star of the show has to be the superb moonwalking manikin bird. It was the second episode to be recorded and will be one of the most memorable episodes of the series!

The top explorer was Rich Hall with 8 points followed by Bill Bailey with 3 points , Alan Davies with -8 points and, in last place, was Sean Lock getting a bit lost with -16 points... No one got the elephant in the room bonus this week even though I thought it was obvious...maybe the guests were too close to the large screens to see the elephant on the map.

Once again the vodcast (found here) is well worth a look and it includes some hilarious out-takes previously only seen by the 500 (approx) people in the audience back on 11 May ;-) It also contains the whole section of the programme regarding the manikin bird for anyone who wants to see it again....and again....and again....or is that just me?

Next week's episode is all about Europe so you have almost a week to brush up on your European languages, European laws and European landmarks to help you through it...

QI E03 Review - Eating

Read the recording review here.

This was actually the 7th episode of this series to be recorded back on 31 May. It sees the first episode for a new panellist, Johnny Vegas, who starred along side Jimmy Carr and Phill Jupitus. Johnny was, as usual, quite loud and he did seem to get on Stephen's nerves at times as could be told by his blunt responses and the very unusual swearing!

The highlight of this episode was 'rabbits' - it was pointed out that eating nothing but rabbit would kill you however it took Stephen a long time to get this through to the panellists! This week's 'Elephant in the Room' bonus was won jointly by Phill and Alan who worked out that mongongo nuts are often to be found in elephant dung...

The surprise winner with -2 points was none other than Alan Davies with Johnny Vegas hot on his heels with -3. With -6 was Jimmy Carr and in last place with -21 was Phill Jupitus...even though he got the bonus mentioned above!

This week's excellent QI vodcast (which can be found on the BBC QI website) begins and ends with Stephen doing what I think is a very good impression of the QI-newcomer, Johnny Vegas, who seemed quite impressed and amused. It is full of extra bits from the recording which didn't make it into the final cut - well worth a look!!

The next episode on Friday at 22:00 on BBC2 is particularly memorable to me as one particular part was absolutely hilarious so make sure you watch it! :-)

QI E02 Review - Electricity

Read the recording review here.

Foremost, I apologize for the lateness of this review; there were extenuating circumstances involving moving to England for a year's study and being cut off from the internet for several days. All is up and running now, thank goodness.

Although this was the second episode of the "E" series, it was the first of the series to be recorded; predicting the out-of-order transmission, Stephen was told to be careful not mention anything about it being the start of a new series.

A running joke throughout the evening was Stephen's unusual attraction to a horse that was shown as one of the viewscreen pictures, and the panellists took it in turns to rib him about it as often as possible. Most, if not all, of these jokey asides made it into the cut episode, and it worked very well without seeming overdone. Alan also did well in this regard by his multiple breathless conjectures about harnessing the immense power of lightning.

Each of the other panellists had some golden moments over the half hour. Jo Brand impressed everyone by her easy recall of the probability density definition of the electron. Sean Lock took an almost uncharacteristic walk on the intellectual side of the game and explained why, due to poaching, some elephants were being born without tusks, but made sure to follow up this revelation with his typical jolly silliness. Rich Hall, too, demonstrated his special ability to tell incongruous stories with a straight face while explaining his relationship to the long-deceased man who had been struck by lightning seven times.

You might have noticed that Rich Hall seemed a bit baffled when the scores were announced; they'd emphasized earlier that his one point came from his rather trivial calling out the name "Menlo Park", and funnily, it turned out that he received no further points than that. After the recording ended, he declared petulantly, "I got one point because I've been to Menlo Park," which, if it's any consolation to Rich, earned him supportive laughter.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the episode was Stephen's exaggerated camp German accent, which he exemplified by patting himself down with a distressed expression while voicing, "Oh, wo ist mein Handy? Ich habe mein Handy verloren!" (To non-adepts of German: "Oh, where's my mobile? I've lost my mobile phone!") It was certainly a hit with the audience, and caught Jo Brand's fancy particularly as well, for she got him to repeat the imitation later on in the recording.

The QI Quickie that accompanied the episode offered an extra discussion that didn't make it into the show: "Suggest a way to shock a couple of hundred monks," featuring French profanity and Rich Hall's punmanship. The panellists also discuss electric fences, the arrogance of pioneers in the history of electricity, and Alan's unfortunate experience with stripped wires.

There are several moments that I took note of during the recording that didn't make it into the final cut, but I hesitate before sharing with you in the hopes that they'll be featured in the 13th episode. Keep an eye out for Jo's story about why she had recent reason to call the emergency services, and Sean Lock's musing on his peculiar physics teacher.

QI E01 Review - Engineering

Read the recording review here.

This was the fourth episode to be recorded in May and one that I have particularly fond memories of because I was a production guest and following the episode I went to the green room.

One of the funnier features of this episode was the train that was used to send sweets to the panellists when they got a correct answer. Of course the use of toffees wasn't very wise. In rehearsals Roses' chocolates were used and these could be consumed far quicker than the mastication intense toffee. As a consequence, Rob Brydon really did struggle to get his words out whilst the toffee was stored in his cheeks like a hamster. The other guests kept their sweets until the end so that after the show they could throw them into the audience.

There was a rather interesting introduction for the Elephant in the Room card. Perhaps what wasn't mentioned is that playing the card comes with a points penalty if an elephant isn't the answer. This was the downfall for Bill Bailey who achieved one of his worst ever scores.

There was one very significant section missing from the show and it wasn't included in the vodcast either. Now this was the funniest moment in the entire series for me but discussing it with Piers Fletcher after the show, he described the fact that such jokes are funny because they just keep going. Hence fitting it into the show was unlikely because it would take up so much time.

However, one mustn't forget that the thirteenth episode will be a clip show formed entirely from unbroadcast material. Piers' hints that the last one on the show is hilarious makes me wonder if this is it. Hence I shall reveal nothing more about what happened that was so funny. You'll have to wait until after Christmas to see it though.

The QI vodcast which accompanied this show included some extra unbroadcast material so I sincerely suggest that you go check it out here. It's 7 minutes long. Extra features include the London Eye, Darwin Awards, Vaseline and Alan's comments about fans wanting photos. The decision to make a vodcast only came about during the series so you'll note that the early recordings' intros and outros were filmed after the recording. That's the case for Bill Bailey's intro here, although later shows will have a selection that involves the audience and Stephen.

This episode was an unusual second place for Alan. He has won three episodes before but 2nd places are rare. Only in episode A07 has Alan been second until now. I know how Alan does in the rest of the series, but I won't be spoiling that for you. I didn't even write notes of the scores!

Edit: News just in (20:30 24/09/07) QI E01 was the highest rated programme on BBC2, Channel 4 and 5 over the entire weekend (Fri-Sat).

Next week's review for E02 will be presented by MinervaMoon, our USA correspondent who made the trip to the UK to watch the recording.

(Don't forget this Friday, the exclusive review of the Book of Animal Ignorance)

QI Blog EXCLUSIVE and More News

Next Friday (28th September) you will be able to read an EXCLUSIVE advance review of the new QI Book; The Book of Animal Ignorance. The review will include some brief extracts. The book will be published on Thursday 4th October. Pre-order here.

Also, from this Sunday you'll be able to read a review of this week's episode of QI. Since the show will have been broadcast (twice including Saturday repeat) there wont be any whited out text for the spoilers.

Don't forget to watch episode one (E01) of QI tonight on BBC2 at 22:00 and episode 2 (E02) on BBC4 at 22:30. Following the show you'll be able to watch the QI Vodcast on the BBC website.

(Note: this is the fourth post today, read on for more news)