No Such Thing As A Fish, review

This intelligent quartet serve as a welcome reminder that comedy does not have to be dumb.

The self-proclaimed elves from QI and its rather popular spinoff podcast No Such Thing As A Fish continue their new enterprise. James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber - whose tireless research has ensured the comedy panel quiz show a place in telly history - unearth the most fascinating topical facts from the week's news stories. Its tone is best described as impish rather than bitingly satirical.

Week two of the news digest that aims to do for current affairs what the popular QI podcast No Such Thing As A Fish does for facts: find interesting stuff, kick it about, explain it and then bask in the glow of human knowledge gently expanded. Hosting in front of a live audience, which must be a daunting step up from sitting in an office with some microphones, are the "QI Elves": James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.

No Such Thing as The News - review

Opinions are divided on this no-frills style. Complaints via Twitter that "It's basically a film of a podcast" are countered by others who maintain that this is all part of its charm. In common with Channel 4's The Last Leg, NSTATN uses Twitter as a resource, asking followers to tweet in titbits of news, and acknowledging the contributors of the most entertaining facts by their Twitter handle. The absence of political satire is another aspect which could work in its favour.

This new series is based on the popular podcast No Such Thing As a Fish, in which the researchers of QI unearth and kick around their most interesting obscure facts of the week. This spin-off applies the treatment to current events: it takes a look at the week's affairs, but in search of interesting gems, rather than taking the usual panel show satirical broadsides. With James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.

Chatting with the QI Elves

Ahead of a brand new current affairs series brought to you by the QI Elves, we spoke to No Such Thing As The News presenters James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.

No Such Thing as the News review

There's no such thing as a dull moment in BBC Two's new topical comedy No Such Thing As The News - a look behind the headlines presented by the 'elves' who research QI.

Latest QI Facts book out in October

Faber is to publish the next QI Facts book, 1,342 QI Facts, in October.