The Museum Of Curiosity
- Radio panel show
- BBC Radio 4
- 2007 - 2023
- 106 episodes (17 series)
Radio panel show in which John Lloyd and his curators try to fill up their museum with curious objects. Also features Bill Bailey, Sean Lock, Jon Richardson, Dave Gorman, Jimmy Carr and more.
Episode menu
- Gallery 3, Episode 1 - Meeting Thirteen
With Discworld creator Terry Pratchett, cosmologist Marcus Chown, and Iranian-born stand-up comedienne Shappi Khorsandi.
Further details
Marcus Chown, the cosmology correspondent for New Scientist magazine donates the Omega Point to the museum, which is a possible theory on how the universe will end which also involves a more scientific explanation for the afterlife.
Comedian Shappi Khorsandi offers a comedian herself, in the form of Charlie Chaplin, a comic who inspired Khorsandi when at the age of 11 she saw his film The Great Dictator, in which Chaplin satirised Hitler and the Nazis.
Discworld author Sir Terry Pratchett offers the museum an idea from his novel Thief of Time. It is a machine called a "procrastinator" which is a device which banks any spare time we have so that we can use it later for when we need as much time as possible.
Notes
The full episode title is "Meeting Thirteen: The Omega Point, Charlie Chaplin & The Procrastinator".
Broadcast details
- Date
- Monday 10th May 2010
- Time
- 6:30pm
- Channel
- BBC Radio 4
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
| John Lloyd | Host / Presenter |
| Jon Richardson | Host / Presenter |
| Marcus Chown | Guest |
| Shaparak Khorsandi (as Shappi Khorsandi) | Guest |
| Terry Pratchett (as Sir Terry Pratchett) | Guest |
| Richard Turner | Producer |
| Dan Schreiber | Producer |
| James Harkin | Researcher |
Press
Lord Reith would be so proud. A show to entertain and inform in one ever-so-very clever package. John Lloyd cuts the ribbon to open the third level of the Museum, revealing yet more empty plinths. Filling them with their donations this week are cosmologist Marcus Chown who, frankly, made my brain bleed with his scientific proof of the afterlife, Terry Pratchett's brilliant idea of a time bank ("the minute in your pocket will never be devalued") and Shappi Khorsandi's great anti-dictator. The guests are gold dust but curator Jon Richardson is no slacker when it comes to the sliver-sharp retort. It will make you laugh as much as it will make you think. Pornography for the brain!
Frances Lass, Radio Times, 10th May 2010John Lloyd, once a BBC Light Entertainment producer (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, e.g.), now, after glittering adventures in TV and film, a don of the comedy world, returns with a new series of a recent invention. He and comedian Jon Richardson are pretend curators of an imaginary museum to which visiting celebrities tender possible new acquisitions. Tonight author Terry Pratchett brings a secret extra day of the week, cosmologist Marcus Chown has a plausible scientific theory of the afterlife and comedian Shappi Khorsandi offers Charlie Chaplin.
Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 8th May 2010For the uninitiated, The Museum of Curiosity is presented by comedy producer/godlike genius John Lloyd, and he's joined by a different 'curator' each series; Bill Bailey, Sean Lock and now the brilliant Jon Richardson. Three contributors - comedians, scientists, authors, historians, generally fascinating people - donate something the museum each week, and that something can be absolutely anything, no matter how huge, tiny, fictional or dead. I won't give away what Shappi Khorsandi, Terry Pratchett and Marcus Chown ("cosmology consultant of New Scientist") gave to the museum in the episode I saw recorded, but I will say that all three spoke passionately about their donation, and that Chown's made my brain hurt for days. The series will air later in the Spring.
Anna Lowman, 16th March 2010