Alan Davies

The "G"-series topic this week was "Germany", with guests Jo Brand, Rob Brydon and Sean Lock joining regulars Alan Davies and "QImaster" Stephen Fry. The juice of QI isn't as succulent as it once was, but you're always guaranteed some eyebrow-raising trivia and a few good moments of comedy banter. I'm frankly bemused Jo Brand still gets work (because she's like a comedy blackhole to me), and this episode wasn't helped by weaker than usual turns from Brydon and Lock.

Still, "Germany" was a topic that particularly interested me, as I used to live in Germany and once worked with a Germany lady living here in England, so cultural differences and Anglo-German relations is something I've discussed many times. It's certainly interesting subject matter for Brits, who have a strange relationship and perception of our European neighbours. In this edition of QI we learned that Germans don't care that England beat them in the 1966 World Cup, that they're unaware their countrymen have a reputation for rudely claiming sun loungers with beach towels while on holiday, and that they broadcast an old Freddie Frinton and May Warden comedy sketch called Dinner For One every New Year's Eve (simulteneously, on every channel).

It's so rare to see two women sitting next to each other on a comedy panel show that even Sandi Toksvig seemed surprised. On QI last week Toksvig and team-mate Ronni Ancona had a witty old time sparring with Jack Dee and Alan Davies - even if the episode was called Girls and Boys and had questions all about girls and, er, boys. The show was funny, as QI usually is. Which is just the point. Women can perform brilliantly on panel shows, so why don't they appear more often? The usual one lass, three lads format is as tired patronising and boring as the older male/younger woman newsreading cliche. It's time for change.

As part of its current "G" series, QI explored the sexes in a "Girls & Boys"-themed edition, by dividing the four players into male and female duos (Alan Davies and Jack Dee vs. Ronni Ancona and Sandi Toksvig).

We learned many things, not least the scientific reason for why QI itself features so few women, how pink used to be the traditional colour for boys, and how all babies were called "girls" pre-1920's...

I still enjoy QI, but I find it less enthralling than I used to. Maybe the format's just become too predictable, or the facts are less interesting for whatever reason. I'm not sure. It's still amusing and occasionally fascinating, but I'm no longer quite so keen on it. Overexposure thanks to endless repeats on Dave, perhaps? In this episode, I thought Jack Dee was extremely disappointing (he recycled the "male drivers asking for instructions" cliche!), but Ronni Ancona was better than usual. Sandi Toksvig, a very quick-witted person (as her own BBC Radio 4 The News Quiz proves), is somehow rendered smug and irritating whenever she's on television, too.

QI returns from its holidays to make a fresh assault on our ignorance, and with something of a dream team: Dara O'Briain, Rob Brydon and David Mitchell - with Alan Davies in his usual right-handman role and Stephen Fry asking the obscure questions as our twinkling schoolmaster of a host. Preview DVDs were unavailable but QI is always a garden of comic delights - more so than ever tonight as Fry tests his pupils' horticultural knowledge.

How long is a piece of string?

Alan Davies leaves behind his role in the TV quiz show QI to explore the world of quantum mechanics for the BBC science programme Horizon.

Davies fears for QI's future

Alan Davies fears will be axed because the BBC have been slow in commissioning a seventh series.

You need to watch QI. I don't know if you know it at all, it's been around for a while in England. Stephen Fry's the host, Alan Davies is the permanent guest star and there's a rotating panel of famous people whose qualification for being on is they're amusing. Or Quite Interesting, which is what QI stands for. It's really just people talking shit. Tonight they're Rob Brydon, Andy Hamilton and Charlie Higson. I only really know Rob Brydon, and I love him. He's in Gavin & Stacey at the moment, it was on UKTV last night, he plays Bryn, Stacey's uncle. The topics on QI are letters from the alphabet, we're up to the Fs at this point, a fair way into the series. But it's a loose half hour. Tonight includes James Bond's job, Mick Jagger's walk, Bert Ward's post-Batman and Robin career in porn, and flags. Quite a lot about flags - extremely entertaining and mindless, just what you need during stressful times of (insert source of personal worry here). Even the buzzers are good - Andy Hamilton's is the Captain Pugwash music.

Alan Davies quivering over QI

Alan Davies fears QI will be axed.

Alan Davies 'takes 25% pay cut'

Jonathan Creek actor Alan Davies has said he has taken a pay cut for a new episode of the BBC One drama.

Alan Davies on QI, being attacked and that tramp

With QI and Jonathan Creek, Alan Davies established himself as comedy's good-natured boy next door. But, as he publishes a memoir of his teenage years, he reveals a rebellious young man at odds with life in Eighties Essex.