British Comedy Guide
QI. Image shows from L to R: Alan Davies, Sandi Toksvig. Copyright: TalkbackThames
QI

QI

  • TV panel show
  • BBC Two / BBC One / BBC Four
  • 2003 - 2025
  • 324 episodes (22 series)

Panel game that contains lots of difficult questions and a large amount of quite interesting facts. Stars Sandi Toksvig, Stephen Fry and Alan Davies.

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QI. Image shows from L to R: Alan Davies, Sandi Toksvig. Copyright: TalkbackThames

Key details

Genre
Panel Show
Broadcast
2003 - 2025
Channels
BBC Two, BBC One, BBC Four
Episodes
324 (1 pilot + 22 series), plus 36 other episodes
Creator
John Lloyd
Stars
Sandi Toksvig, Stephen Fry and Alan Davies
Writers
Justin Pollard, Samantha Ball, Adam Jacot de Boinod, Sophie Johnstone, Molly Oldfield, John Mitchinson, Piers Fletcher, Adam King and more
Directors
Ian Lorimer, Ben Hardy and Diccon Ramsay
Producers
John Lloyd, Piers Fletcher, Phil Clarke, Lorraine Heggessey, Mark Freeland, Sally Debonnaire, Katie Taylor, Simon London and more
Companies

QI is a panel game which believes that everything in the world is quite interesting, provided that you look at it in the right way. To quote original host Stephen Fry:

"Now, the rules are simple. Scoring is my business. Points are given and points are taken away. They are taken away for answers which are both obvious and wrong, and they're given, not so much for being correct, as for being interesting.

"Their level of interestingness is impartially determined by a demographically selected customer-service focus consultancy, broken down by age and sex - i.e. me. Because there is no-one more broken down by age and sex."

Each show features the host, Stephen Fry (Series A-M) and then later Sandi Toksvig (Series N onwards), and four panellists, including resident player Alan Davies, answering questions that are so difficult that no-one expects to get any of the answers right. Thus points are given for answers that may not be right but are interesting. Points are taken away (often from Alan), to answers that are not only wrong but are pathetically obvious.

QI is the show that proves that almost everything you know about the blue whale is wrong, the issue of how many moons the Earth has is a lot more complicated than you expect, and that there is something interesting to say about the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is.

Catch-up

Additional details

Also known as
  • QI VG
  • QI XL
  • Quite Interesting
Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Multi-camera
Picture
Colour
Soundtrack
Theme music by Howard Goodall.

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Thursday 11th September 2003 at 10pm on BBC Two
Next repeats
  1. Series M, Episode 6: Today at 10pm on U&Dave
  2. Series V, Episode 7: Today at 11:15pm on BBC2 Wales
  3. Series D, Episode 6: Tomorrow at 1:10am on U&Dave
  4. Series M, Episode 6: Tomorrow at 1:50am on U&Dave
  5. Series M, Episode 7: Tomorrow at 9pm on U&Dave
  6. Series D, Episode 7: Thursday at 1:30am on U&Dave
  7. Series M, Episode 7: Thursday at 2:05am on U&Dave
  8. Series M, Episode 9: Thursday at 9pm on U&Dave
  9. Series D, Children In Need Special: Friday at 1:20am on U&Dave
Most recent repeats

Recording details

Free tickets

  • The London Studios - Pilot to Series 16 (P)
  • Television Centre - Series 17 (Q), 18 (R) and 20 (T) - 23 (W)
  • Zoom (Virtual) - Series 19 (S)

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