A Guide Around The Museum

The Museum of Curiosity was created in 2007, and first broadcast in 2008. It was created by QI creator John Lloyd and two of the show's researchers, Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber. The show itself was designed to be more akin to what Lloyd had first envisioned QI to be (QI was first planned as a radio programme, rather the televisual success it is now).

The programme features a range of people, both entertainers and academic experts, trying to donate objects into a fictional museum, the eponymous 'Museum of Curiosity', which is described by Lloyd as, "A baroque folly that makes Gormenghast look like a bus shelter." The museum, located somewhere in the middle of Epping Forest and guarded by Don Quixote, is the only museum in the known universe to have a large Icelandic volcano in the boiler room, a mathematical object that can only be seen in 196,883 dimensions, the whole of the Big Bang shrunk down to the size of a grapefruit, and Matt Ridley's nameplate from his Northern Rock office door located in a special Credit Crunch Wing.

In the programme, Lloyd acts as 'The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham' (a reference to him actually being a professor for this University). The first series featured Bill Bailey as the curator of the museum, as well as the man who provided the museum's musical needs. This includes playing the theme tune to every episode in a slightly different way. Following his move to "retire" from panel games Bailey left the show (reportedly "headhunted by the Pencil Museum in Cumbria"). As a result, every series or "gallery" as they refered to has a different curator. In gallery two Sean Lock was curator, while in the forthcoming third gallery it will by Jon Richardson.

Each episode began with Lloyd and the curator taking the audience a guide around the museum, before reading out the CVs of each member of the "Steering committee", which features three guests. Each member of the committee tries to donate something to the museum. The donation can be anything, no matter how large, expensive, intangible, or even if there are doubts over whether or not the donation actually exists. Past examples have included the yeti (donated by the actor Brian Blessed); the Battle of Waterloo (by comedian Kevin Day); Anderson Shelters (by historian Gary Sheffield); and absolutely nothing (by particle physicist Frank Close). Lloyd and the curator then decide if the exhibit should be included in the museum. So far, everything suggested has been admitted. During series one, each episode ended with the curator giving a comic comment on a Bertrand Russell quote. No such quote ends the episodes in series two, but instead a selection of different quotes.

One notable feature of this show is that it manages to remain amusing despite the fact the most of the guests are not comedians, but are academics. As an audience you wouldn't expect laughs to come from a mathematician or a modern-day hermit, but the laughs do come, as well as the listener being informed about a wide range of subjects along the way.

The Museum is currently planning to expand online. Amongst the things planned include a forum, podcasts, scraves (so you can tie your own Sean Lock neck knots) and users will be able to donate their own exhibits. A book is also being made. The third series will start in May 2010.