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 - 2024
  • 312 episodes (21 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.

Episode menu

Series B - Birth

Special Christmas episode with Mark Steel, Phill Jupitus and Rich Hall.
St Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni, c 1635

Themes

- Each member of the panel is given a cracker with a question in it.

- In General Ignorance, Stephen and Alan swap places, with Alan asking the questions.

Topics

- Helium, which makes balloons goes up, changes the timbre of the voice, making sound travel faster. The frequency changes, not the pitch. (Forfeit: Makes it go up) Correction: Frequency and pitch are the same thing. It is the wavelength that increases.

- Tangent: It was hoped that this could be proved by getting the panel to sing on helium, but Health and Safety prevented it.

- The link between Santa Claus and emperor penguins is that they only come once a year. Santa Claus delivers presents to good children one a year and emperor penguins have a terrible sex live, with the male ejaculating sperm only once a year.

- Tangent: Aristotle believed that you should always face north when making love, because it helped conception.

- If you want to live for eight years longer whilst still smoking, become a eunuch. Smoking takes five years off your health expectancy on average. However, removing your testicles adds thirteen years onto it.

- Italian barbers used to perform castrations, so that young boys could become singers. The Castrati were people who sang with very high voices because they were castrated.

- There were no animals present at the birth of Jesus. The only reference to animals in the Nativity is Jesus being born in a manger in Luke's Gospel. St. Francis of Assisi created the idea of having model nativity sets with animals in 1223. (Forfeit: Ass; Camel; Cow; Sheep)

- The Bible does not state there were three wise men or kings. They were priests who just brought three gifts along. It does not say that there were three, or even if they were men.

- Tangent: Stephen talks about doing an interview with the President of Uganda and meeting David Frost.

- Herod's wife was called Doris. (Forfeit: Mrs Herod) Correction: Doris was Herod's first wive. He had ten wives.

- Jesus grandmother, St. Anne had seven heads. This is known because at one point, the Church recognised seven different heads, all claiming to be that of St. Anne, as her head.

- If you want to die and come back to live after three days, you want to be a water bear (also known as a "Tardigrade"). They are creatures that can survive almost anything, including poisoning, radiation, dehydration, pressure etc., by putting themselves in suspended animation.

- Tangent: Stephen claims if he could have a super power, it would be invisibility. Alan says he would like to have no bodily smell.

- The coldest place in the universe is in Louisiana, where scientists have created an iron bar a fraction above absolute zero. The only way a colder temperature can exist is if it has been created by an alien race in some other part of the universe. Correction: Since this show has been recorded, the coldest place in the universe is a lab in Helsinki, which cooled rhodium to a tenth of a billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

General Ignorance

- Thomas Sørensen plays in goal for Aston Villa.

- Mozart's middle name was Wolfgang. (Forfeit: Amadeus)

- There are six different states of matter (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate and Fermionic condensate). (Forfeit: Four)

- In the Northern Hemisphere, water drains in whichever direction you want. (Coriolis effect)

- When penguins in the Falkland Islands see jets they move away from the noise. (Forfeit: Fall Over)

- There are no sacred animals in India. The term "Scared" is a Christian one and therefore does not really apply to India. (Forfeit: Cow)

Scores

Rich Hall: 7 points
Mark Steel: 2 points
Phill Jupitus: -3 points
Alan Davies: -52 points
Stephen Fry: -56 points

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 17th December 2004
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Monday 14th September 2009 9:00pm Dave
Tuesday 8th December 2009 8:20pm Dave
Saturday 31st July 2010 8:20pm Dave
Wednesday 13th October 2010 10:15pm Dave
Saturday 25th June 2011 8:20pm Dave
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 7:20pm Dave
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 11:35pm Dave
Sunday 25th December 2011 2:00pm Dave
Monday 26th December 2011 11:40am Dave
Saturday 28th January 2012 1:20pm Dave
Saturday 28th January 2012 7:20pm Dave
Wednesday 18th April 2012 7:20pm Dave
Sunday 10th June 2012 12:20pm Dave
Wednesday 5th September 2012 11:40pm Dave
Thursday 6th September 2012 12:20am
60 minute version
Dave
Monday 15th October 2012 4:40pm Dave
Monday 15th October 2012 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 25th December 2012 2:20pm Dave
Sunday 12th May 2013 1:40pm Dave
Sunday 12th May 2013 5:40pm Dave
Tuesday 29th October 2013 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 30th October 2013 2:15am Dave
Wednesday 25th December 2013 3:10pm Dave
Wednesday 25th December 2013 11:25pm Dave
Sunday 16th March 2014 11:00am Dave
Sunday 16th March 2014 6:00pm Dave
Wednesday 21st May 2014 12:40pm Dave
Wednesday 21st May 2014 5:40pm Dave
Sunday 21st December 2014 2:00pm Dave
Friday 20th February 2015 11:05pm Dave
Thursday 23rd April 2015 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 30th December 2015 12:00am Dave
Wednesday 30th December 2015 8:40pm Dave
Monday 4th April 2016 11:30pm Dave
Tuesday 5th April 2016 8:00pm Dave
Wednesday 20th July 2016 2:00am Dave
Wednesday 20th July 2016 10:00pm Dave
Thursday 22nd December 2016 12:00am Dave
Thursday 2nd February 2017 6:40pm Dave
Friday 3rd February 2017 2:40pm Dave
Saturday 25th March 2017 1:00am Dave
Tuesday 28th March 2017 12:20am Dave
Monday 23rd October 2017 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 23rd December 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 25th January 2018 11:40pm Dave
Friday 26th January 2018 1:40am Dave
Tuesday 10th April 2018 12:00am Dave
Tuesday 10th April 2018 2:00am Dave
Friday 6th July 2018 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 7th July 2018 2:20am Dave
Thursday 20th December 2018 7:20pm Dave
Friday 21st December 2018 12:20am Dave
Thursday 30th May 2019 11:00pm Dave
Friday 31st May 2019 8:20pm Dave
Friday 20th December 2019 8:20pm Dave
Wednesday 12th February 2020 12:35am Dave
Wednesday 12th February 2020 11:00pm Dave
Tuesday 9th June 2020 12:00am Dave
Tuesday 9th June 2020 10:00pm Dave
Saturday 18th July 2020 1:00am Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Rich Hall Guest
Phill Jupitus Guest
Mark Steel Guest
Writing team
Sophie Johnstone Researcher
Molly Oldfield Researcher
John Mitchinson Question Writer
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Kate Staples Researcher
Garrick Alder Researcher
Dan Schreiber Researcher
Production team
Ian Lorimer Director
John Lloyd Producer
Mark Freeland Executive Producer
Simon London Executive Producer
Nick King Editor
Jonathan Paul Green Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

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