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 C, Episode 10 - Cleve Crudgington

The Secret Intelligence Service building at Vauxhall Cross, London

Topics

- The original "C", head of the Secret Service Bureau (the ancestor of MI5 and MI6) was Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming. He lost his leg in a car crash that killed his only son, Alistair. He hacked off his broken leg with a penknife. As "C" he would often exercise his good leg, stabbing it with a pen, whilst his other went along on a scooter along the corridors. He also went spying on German war preparations as a German businessman, unable to speak any German at all. He signed all documents with a "C" in green ink, a practice still carried out by all heads of the secret service.

- Tangent: Lord Nelson requested that all saws should be warmed up before amputations, because he claimed the worst aspect of the amputation of his arm was that the saw was cold.

- Tangent: During Apartheid, rather than choosing a black person, the South African cricket team once picked a one-legged Norwegian.

- What did Cleve Crudgington do with champagne corks? He opened them with his invention, the champagne cork opener. (Forfeit: Rams them up his arse)

- Tangent: Krug, as in Krug champagne, means "Beer mug".

- Condensation nuclei make champagne bubbly. (Forfeit: Carbon dioxide)

- Luvvie alarm: Stephen talks about the Duke and Duchess of Westminster and his allergy to champagne.

- Torpenhow Hill is twice as interesting a Mount Fuji, because "Torpenhow Hill" means "Hill Hill Hill Hill", whilst "Mount Fuji" is just "Hill Hill". They are tautological place names. Other examples include the River Tyne (River River) Paraguay River (River River River) and Sahara Desert (Desert Desert). "Boutros Boutros-Ghali" means "Peter Peter-Expensive". Correction: The hill in question is just "Torpenhow", not "Torpenhow Hill". Therefore, it is "Hill Hill Hill". Also it is the "Yama" part of "Fujiyama" which means "mountain".

- Scottish inventions and discoveries include adhesive stamps, the Australian national anthem, the Bank of England, bicycle pedals, the breach-loading rifle, Bovril, the cell nucleus, chloroform, the cloud chamber, cornflour, a cure for malaria, the decimal point, the Encyclopædia Britannica, fountain pens, genetic fingerprinting, hypnosis, Hypodermic syringes, insulin, the kaleidoscope, the lawnmower, lime cordial, logarithms, lorries, marmalade, matches, motor insurance, paraffin, piano pedals, radar, the reflecting telescope, savings banks, the screw propeller, the speedometer, the steam hammer, raincoats, tarmac, teleprinters, tubular steel, typhoid vaccines, ultrasound scanners, the United States Navy, Universal Standard Time, vacuum flasks, wave powered electricity generation and wire rope. The panel also mentions rubber tyres. Alexander Graham Bell (who did not invent the telephone, see Series A) helped invent a hydrofoil that travelled at 70mph in 1919 and a metal detector. It was used to try and find the bullet that hit President Garfield, but it was confused by the bed springs and thus he died. (Forfeit: Television; Haggis) Correction: Matches were not invented in Scotland. They were invented in China. The first European country to make matches was France. The first friction match was invented in Stockton-on-Tees, England. Also, Scotland did not invent the US Navy, but a Scot, one of the important early figures, John Paul Jones, was Scottish.

- Tangent: Things not invented by the Scots include kilts (Irish), Hogmanay (French) and whiskey (Italian and Chinese). Correction: What is claimed to be the Irish kilt is more like a kind of tunic. In terms of a "Man skirt", the kilt IS a Scottish invention.

- The word cat comes from the Latin word for dog - "Catulus".

- There are 33 vowel sounds in the English language.

General Ignorance

- The longest animal in the world is the bootlace worm. It is the simplest organism to have a separate mouth and anus. (Forfeit: Blue whale; Giant squid; Lion's mane jellyfish) Correction from Series A - Episode 3.

- Tangent: Charles Darwin gathered all the worms in his garden and got his son to play a bassoon at them to see how they reacted.

- Berries include bananas, tomatoes, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, watermelons, kiwifruits, cucumbers, grapes, passion fruits, papaya, the pomegranate, gooseberries and blueberries. (Forfeit: Blackberry; Strawberry; Raspberry)

- The second actor to play James Bond was Bob Holness. (Forfeit: Sean Connery; David Niven)

- According to Buddha, "A person should wander lonely as a rhinoceros." (Forfeit: Cloud)

- Tangent: John's brother was almost killed by a circus crocodile in Londonderry.

Deleted scenes

- Tangent: A friend of Mark's was went to California, where he said that when people go to vineyards, they have to give comments on the samples of wine they drink. He wanted to say, "Shit, but free".

- Celts were invented on top of Primrose Hill, at midnight, 27th September, 1717. The whole idea of Celtic practices, such as worshiping midsummers day at Stonehenge, is a myth, invented by forger and opium addict Iolo Morganwg (real name, Edward Williams).

- Tangent: The panel try to annoy Stephen by pretending they believe in astrology, something which he is strictly against.

Scores

- Mark Steel: 2 points
- John Sessions: -16 points
- Clive Anderson: -28 points
- Alan Davies: -84 points

Notes

For corrections, see the QI Qibble Blog here, here and here.

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 25th November 2005
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Thursday 8th July 2010 10:20pm Dave
Friday 20th August 2010 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 30th October 2010 9:40pm Dave
Sunday 28th November 2010 7:00pm Dave
Wednesday 22nd December 2010 7:40pm Dave
Monday 31st January 2011 11:15pm Dave
Sunday 21st April 2013 2:20pm Dave
Sunday 21st April 2013 6:20pm Dave
Tuesday 25th June 2013 10:40pm Dave
Saturday 14th December 2013 7:00pm Dave
Sunday 15th December 2013 2:40pm Dave
Thursday 3rd April 2014 10:00pm Dave
Friday 4th April 2014 2:30am Dave
Friday 12th September 2014 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 13th September 2014 1:55am Dave
Tuesday 20th January 2015 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 23rd September 2015 8:00pm Dave
Thursday 24th September 2015 1:00am Dave
Thursday 3rd December 2015 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 29th March 2016 12:20am Dave
Tuesday 29th March 2016 9:20pm Dave
Tuesday 17th May 2016 2:10am Dave
Tuesday 17th May 2016 11:20pm
60 minute version
Dave
Thursday 18th August 2016 1:40am Dave
Thursday 18th August 2016 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 17th November 2016 12:00am Dave
Thursday 8th December 2016 12:00am Dave
Thursday 16th February 2017 6:40pm Dave
Friday 17th February 2017 2:40pm Dave
Friday 14th July 2017 12:20am Dave
Saturday 12th August 2017 12:00am Dave
Saturday 12th August 2017 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 15th August 2017 12:00am Dave
Tuesday 15th August 2017 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 19th September 2017 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 20th September 2017 1:20am Dave
Saturday 25th November 2017 8:20pm Dave
Sunday 26th November 2017 4:20pm Dave
Tuesday 17th April 2018 12:00am Dave
Tuesday 17th April 2018 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 31st July 2018 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 24th October 2018 10:40pm Dave
Friday 18th January 2019 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 19th January 2019 1:00am Dave
Tuesday 24th September 2019 8:20pm Dave
Tuesday 17th December 2019 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 18th December 2019 8:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
John Sessions Guest
Clive Anderson Guest
Mark Steel Guest
Writing team
Justin Pollard Researcher
John Mitchinson Question Writer
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Garrick Alder Researcher
Dan Schreiber Researcher
Mat Coward Researcher
Christopher Gray Researcher
James Harkin Researcher
Production team
Ian Lorimer Director
John Lloyd Producer
Mark Freeland Executive Producer
Sally Debonnaire Executive Producer
Nick King Editor
Jonathan Paul Green Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

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