The Museum Of Curiosity. John Lloyd. Copyright: BBC
The Museum Of Curiosity

The Museum Of Curiosity

  • Radio panel show
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2007 - 2023
  • 106 episodes (17 series)

Radio panel show in which John Lloyd and his curators try to fill up their museum with curious objects. Also features Bill Bailey, Sean Lock, Jon Richardson, Dave Gorman, Jimmy Carr and more.

Episode menu

Gallery 2, Episode 1 - Meeting Seven

This week's steering committee are musician Brian Eno, co-founder of Viz Chris Donald and host of Genius Dave Gorman. Donations include "the urge to press red buttons that you know you shouldn't press".

Further details

Chris Donald, the co-creator of Viz magazine, attempts to show how interesting and curious trainspotting really is by donating a British Railways bridge plate and explaining its unusual origins.

Brian Eno, most famous for his work with Roxy Music, donates Grímsvötn, a large active volcano in Iceland which provides most of the power in the country, and talks about how such energy is being developed in Britain.

The comedian Dave Gorman donates that urge that everyone gets to press red buttons that you know you shouldn't press, explaining his own feelings seeing them on disabled toilets.

Notes

The full episode title is "Meeting Seven - Rooms 44-46: Northeastern Railway Bridge Plate No. 45, Grímsvötn (An Icelandic Volcano) & The Urge To Press Red Buttons That You Shouldn't".

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 4th May 2009
Time
6:30pm
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Sunday 10th May 2009 12:00pm Radio 4
Friday 18th November 2011 9:30am Radio 4 Extra
Saturday 19th November 2011 2:30am Radio 4 Extra
Friday 20th June 2014 9:00am Radio 4 Extra
Friday 20th June 2014 6:00pm Radio 4 Extra
Saturday 21st June 2014 1:00am Radio 4 Extra
Tuesday 30th May 2017 4:00pm Radio 4 Extra
Wednesday 31st May 2017 4:00am Radio 4 Extra

Cast & crew

Cast
John Lloyd Host / Presenter
Sean Lock Host / Presenter
Guest cast
Dave Gorman Guest
Brian Eno Guest
Chris Donald Guest
Production team
Richard Turner Producer
Dan Schreiber Producer
James Harkin Researcher
Molly Oldfield Researcher

Press

The Museum of Curiosity is also enjoyable, but very Room 101. John Lloyd is the professor of ignorance at the museum, which needs to fill a second, empty gallery. Sean Lock and three guests make up the "advisory panel". All are comedians and suggest some weird and surreal objects for the gallery. The result is pretty funny.

It just makes me wish the commercial sector would put more resources into this area of programming. But it doesn't have the safety cushion of the license fee, does it?

Neil Fox, Broadcast, 15th May 2009

The Museum of Curiosity has the potential to be a great format. But with almost half of this episode was given over to introducing the guests, the actual idea of the programme (guests suggest curious ideas that get put into a museum) seemed to get lost. Hopefully this is just a quirk of this episode. The strength of the panel, comprising Brian Eno, Dave Gorman and Viz founder Chris Donald, means their introductory chats with host John Lloyd are funnier than their actual nominations for which they only had a very short time left over.

Sean Lock acts as the "curator" but this seemed to only further clutter the programme. Couldn't this and the host role have been combined into one, thereby allowing more time for the format to breathe?

Steve Ackerman, Broadcast, 15th May 2009

'Green' village gets backing from Brian Eno

Plans for a pioneering green2 village in County Durham have been given the seal of approval by a music legend.

Brian Eno, one of the founder members of 70s glam and art rock hitmakers Roxy Music, and now a respected newspaper columnist and record producer, spoke out in favour of the proposed eco-village at Eastgate, Weardale.

Speaking last week on The Museum of Curiosity show on BBC Radio 4, hosted by John Lloyd and comedian Sean Lock, he was invited to 'donate a fascinating exhibit to a vast imaginary museum'.

He put forward an Icelandic volcano as a means of energy production, and discussed potential geothermal energy production in the UK, naming Southampton and Eastgate as the country's key geothermal schemes.

Neil McKay, Newcastle Journal, 11th May 2009

Radio review: The Museum of Curiosity

The Museum of Curiosity (Radio 4) was a disappointingly lopsided listen. Before the contributors - Brian Eno, Chris Donald and Dave Gorman - gave their items to the museum, the chat was funny and flowing, and quite endearingly quirky.

Elisabeth Mahoney, The Guardian, 5th May 2009

Where else can you find the Battle of Waterloo, a pineapple and the Big Bang but in this glorious establishment? The museum is open for its second batch of exhibits, starting with Dave Gorman who wants to put in "the urge to press the red buttons that you know you shouldn't press". I'll let you find out what silly and sensible lots Brian Eno and Chris Donald want to assign. QI with even more jokes. Made me bark with laughter.

Frances Lass, Radio Times, 28th April 2009

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