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 5 - Cat's Eyes

Camel

Topics

- Women have been shown to be able to 'smell fear'. Animals can smell the fear of each other, but not that of another species.

- Tangent: Female mosquitoes bite you and suck your blood. Male mosquitoes do not.

- John 'Cats-Eyes' Cunningham shot down the first plane by night in 1940 because he had radar. (Forfeit: Carrots)

- Tangent: The Carrot Museum in Berlotte, Belgium, is so small you cannot get into it.

- Tangent: Children around the age of two go off vegetables because the taste buds develop. It is designed to prevent children eating poisonous berries.

- Macro Polo was the first to hear the curious sounds made by the sand dunes, which he claimed sounded like the spirits of the desert. They can sound like grasshoppers or jet engines.

- Tangent: There are more molecules in a glass of water than grains of sand in the entire world.

- Tangent: The Gobi toad lives under the desert and waits every seven years for rainfall. They then mate and go back down again for seven years.

- Pliny the Elder amongst others believed that giraffes were a cross between a camel and a leopard.

- Since 1982, centenarians are sent a 'telemessage' from the Queen, provided they apply for it from the Anniversary's Secretary at Buckingham Palace. The difference between a telemessage and a telegram is that the former is sent in the post.

- Tangent: Stephen gave Prince Charles some coffee made from Cambodian weasel vomit as a wedding present.

- There is no word for a Roman who is in charge of 100 men. (Forfeit: Centurion - they were normally in charge of 83)

- There is some evidence that Nero helped try put the Roman fire out, which he later blamed on the Christians. Some also believe he played the bagpipes. His last words were, "What an artist dies in me." (Forfeit: Fiddled while Rome burned)

- Elephants were captured in ancient times by Ethiopian elephant catchers who would climb on top of one, hack at the back leg with an axe, and use it as a breeding animal. Amongst the methods used to frighten elephants in battle include covering pigs in oil and setting fire to them.

- There are no animals with very short memories. (Forfeit: Goldfish)

General Ignorance

- Everyone has been to bed with a myoclonic jerk. It is that strange feeling you get when you sleep that you have just fallen. People think it comes from when we used to sleep in trees. It was a reflex so if you did drop out, you could grab the tree.

- The largest lake entirely in Canada is the Great Bear Lake. (Forfeit: Who cares?)

- Tangent: Lake Manitou has the largest lake island in the world. This island also has a lake in it, which is the largest lake on an island which is in a lake.

- Bott's dots are the Californian version of cats eyes.

Deleted scenes

- Before radar, large concrete dishes on the South Coast, a bit like giant ears, were used to detect when enemy aircraft where approaching Britain during World War II.

- Dates on films are given in Roman numerals so that it makes it harder to tell what year they were made. Early Hollywood film makers were worried that people would not see a film made only a few years ago, so they used the numerals, which before the year 2000 used all different kinds of numerals and made it more difficult to deciper.

Scores

- Sean Lock: 12 points
- Rich Hall: 3 points
- Alan Davies: -18 points
- Jo Brand: -28 points

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 21st October 2005
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Tuesday 10th August 2010 9:40pm Dave
Thursday 14th October 2010 9:40pm Dave
Sunday 14th April 2013 2:20pm Dave
Sunday 14th April 2013 6:20pm Dave
Tuesday 18th June 2013 10:40pm Dave
Saturday 30th November 2013 7:40pm Dave
Sunday 1st December 2013 3:20pm Dave
Monday 23rd December 2013 1:40pm Dave
Tuesday 24th December 2013 12:15am Dave
Sunday 23rd March 2014 11:00am Dave
Sunday 23rd March 2014 6:00pm Dave
Wednesday 28th May 2014 12:40pm Dave
Wednesday 28th May 2014 5:40pm Dave
Friday 16th January 2015 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 14th February 2015 8:00pm Dave
Tuesday 7th April 2015 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 8th April 2015 2:50am Dave
Saturday 12th September 2015 2:20am Dave
Saturday 12th September 2015 9:20pm Dave
Tuesday 8th March 2016 12:10am Dave
Tuesday 8th March 2016 8:40pm Dave
Wednesday 8th February 2017 6:40pm Dave
Thursday 9th February 2017 2:40pm Dave
Saturday 1st April 2017 12:20am Dave
Saturday 5th August 2017 12:00am Dave
Saturday 5th August 2017 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 12th September 2017 11:20pm Dave
Thursday 30th November 2017 1:20am Dave
Friday 26th January 2018 11:50pm Dave
Saturday 27th January 2018 1:50am Dave
Thursday 12th April 2018 12:40am Dave
Thursday 12th April 2018 2:40am Dave
Monday 23rd July 2018 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 24th July 2018 2:20am Dave
Tuesday 9th October 2018 2:15am Dave
Tuesday 15th January 2019 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 16th January 2019 1:40am Dave
Tuesday 10th December 2019 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 11th December 2019 8:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Rich Hall Guest
Jo Brand Guest
Sean Lock 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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