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 D, Episode 1 - Danger

Illustration of the kite flying game Basant

Topics

- A list of unusual dangers:

- The chances of burning to death while you sleep are 1 in 48 million.

- The chances of being murdered are 1 in 30 million.

- The chances of chocking to death are 1 in 120 million.

- The chances of death by a tea cosy are 1 in 20 billion.

- The chances of dying today are 1 in 257,000.

- According to the United Nations, you are three times more likely to die at work than you are at war.

- Tangent: Sean was once arrested after he knocked a security guard's hat off.

- The most dangerous job in the USA is a lumberjack. The most dangerous job in the world is said to be an Alaskan crab fisherman.

- The most dangerous military stratagem was created by King Goujian of Yue (Vietnam) in 496 B.C., which involved putting convicted criminals on the front line and ordering them to cut their own heads off to frighten the enemy.

- Tangent: If you cut a duck's legs off, it can still swim.

- Tangent: There is a story during the French Revolution that two decapitated heads were put in the same basket and that one head bit the other so tightly that they could not be separated.

- The most dangerous sport in the world is flying kites during Basant in Pakistan, itself the most dangerous country in the world. The object of the game is to cut the strings, which are filled with shards of glass and metal. As a result, people often get garrotted. It can now only be played for 15 days of the year.

- Tangent: The biggest kite in the world weighs nearly a tonne, is 40ft by 36ft, has to be flown by 50 people and has 200 strings.

- The most dangerous manager in the world was tightrope walker Charles Blondin's.

- The first person to ever go over Niagara Falls in barrel was Annie Edison Taylor.

- Tangent: The third person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel was a Briton, Charles Stephens, who tied his legs to an anvil to make it more exciting. All that was found of him after the drop was a severed arm inside the barrel, with a tattoo which read, "Forget me not, Annie".

- Tangent: A pirate ship was once filled with animals and sailed over the top of Niagara Falls. Only two geese survived. Two bears crawled out, and were shot.

- The most dangerous sporting activity for women is cheerleading.

- Tangent: America's most famous cheerleader is George W. Bush.

- The bungee strap, used in bungee jumping, was invented in Britain. You can suffer from detached retinas and detached breast tissue (if done in the nude).

- Tangent: Jimmy tells the story of a Darwin Award winner (an award given to people who kill themselves in very stupid ways). It is of a man who went bungee jumping with a towrope from a bridge. His foot snapped off and he landed in a freezing river. He also tells the story of Lawnchair Larry, the man who tied lots of balloons to his chair and flew about a mile high.

General Ignorance

- Poor air quality causes deep vein thrombosis on aeroplanes. (Forfeit: Sitting down for too long)

- You should have 4-7 hours sleep every night.

- Seismologists use the Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) to measure earthquakes. (Forfeit: The Richter Scale)

- The most dangerous earthquake in the USA since European settlement was either the New Madrid, Missouri earthquake (1811-12) or the Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake (1964). (Forfeit: San Francisco 1906)

- Tangent: 3,000 white people died in the San Francisco earthquake, but the Chinese dead were not counted. Some people set fire to their houses during the quake to claim on insurance, because they were not covered for earthquakes. Police were ordered to shoot three people on the roof of the Windsor Hotel in front of 5,000 people, rather than the see them go through the roof. Someone else asked to be killed, so the police took his name, his address and shot him through the head.

Scores

- Jo Brand: 7 points
- Sean Lock: 4 points
- Jimmy Carr: 0 points
- Alan Davies: -19 points

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 29th September 2006
Time
10pm
Channel
BBC Two
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Wednesday 1st December 2010 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 30th April 2011 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 26th November 2011 7:00pm Dave
Sunday 27th November 2011 1:10pm Dave
Wednesday 9th May 2012 7:20pm Dave
Thursday 11th October 2012 5:20pm Dave
Saturday 22nd December 2012 2:40pm Dave
Saturday 22nd December 2012 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 13th March 2013 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 18th May 2013 7:30pm Dave
Saturday 18th May 2013 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 2nd July 2013 10:40pm Dave
Wednesday 3rd July 2013 1:40am Dave
Thursday 4th September 2014 10:20pm Dave
Friday 5th September 2014 1:20am Dave
Saturday 20th December 2014 10:00pm Dave
Sunday 21st December 2014 4:00pm Dave
Friday 30th January 2015 11:40pm Dave
Friday 19th June 2015 10:40pm Dave
Monday 13th July 2015 10:20pm Dave
Wednesday 7th October 2015 11:20pm Dave
Monday 29th February 2016 11:00pm Dave
Tuesday 1st March 2016 8:00pm Dave
Friday 10th June 2016 1:40am Dave
Friday 10th June 2016 10:40pm Dave
Saturday 20th August 2016 1:00am Dave
Wednesday 22nd February 2017 12:20am Dave
Wednesday 22nd February 2017 2:40pm Dave
Wednesday 5th July 2017 1:00am Dave
Monday 31st July 2017 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 1st August 2017 1:20am Dave
Tuesday 2nd January 2018 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 3rd January 2018 1:00am Dave
Thursday 1st March 2018 1:00am Dave
Thursday 1st March 2018 2:55am Dave
Wednesday 25th April 2018 12:40am Dave
Wednesday 25th April 2018 2:40am Dave
Wednesday 23rd May 2018 12:00am Dave
Wednesday 23rd May 2018 2:00am Dave
Monday 18th June 2018 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 19th June 2018 2:20am Dave
Friday 22nd February 2019 1:00am Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Jo Brand Guest
Jimmy Carr Guest
Sean Lock Guest
Writing team
Justin Pollard Researcher
Molly Oldfield Researcher
John Mitchinson Question Writer
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Garrick Alder Researcher
Mat Coward Researcher
Christopher Gray Researcher
James Harkin Researcher
Justin Gayner Researcher
Production team
Ian Lorimer Director
John Lloyd Producer
Lorraine Heggessey Executive Producer
Katie Taylor Executive Producer
Nick King Editor
Jonathan Paul Green Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

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