QI
- TV panel show
- BBC Two / BBC One / BBC Four
- 2003 - 2025
- 324 episodes (22 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.
- Continues on Tuesday on BBC2 at 9pm with Series V, Episode 14
- Catch-up on Series V, Episode 13
Episode menu
Series V, Episode 11 - Vintage
Topics
- The only region where truly vintage French wine is found is Chile. In the 1860s, French vintners discovered that their wines were being destroyed by a louse named phylloxera. The government offered 300,000 francs to anybody who could save the grapes, but ultimately they had to import American vine roots that were immune to the louse, onto which they then grafted their existing plants. Due to what is known as the great French wine blight, most of the vines today in Europe have partial American ancestry. However, the majority of Chilean vineyards, some of which had been imported from France, did not suffer from the blight. Thu, you can argue that the only true French wine comes from Chile.
- Tangent: The last time Susan drank a bottle of red wine, she got knocked over by a Volvo. Alan asks if this was a dinky toy.
- XL: The V on V-neck sweatshirts exists to absorb sweat at the neck. The original sweatshirt was developed in 1926 by American footballer Benjamin Russell Jr., whose father made knitwear for women and children. Russell hated that the woollen stuff that his itchy uniform was made out of. They adapted a design from a women's union suit, which is akin to an onesie undergarment.
- XL Tangent: V-necks can be traced back to the ancient Minoans, but their V-neck came below the bosoms. They are lots of painting and sculptures of women wearing them, all of which show their breasts openly.
- The panel are shown an old drawing of some violets and are asked to find what is hidden in the picture. What are hidden are three silhouettes, which depict Napoleon Bonaparte, his second wife Marie Louise of Austria, and their son who was the future Napoleon II. The picture was done in 1815 by Jean Dominique Antoine Canu. After Napoleon I was banished to the Isle of Elba in 1814, he promised to return to Paris when the violets flowered in the spring. Thus, violets became a symbol of his support. Supporters would say: "Aimez vous la violette?" ("Are you fond of the violet?"), and if they said they did then they were probably not a secret support of him. If they answered: "Ah, well", this meant that they hoped they would return. When Napoleon I did return, his supporters in Paris all wore violets.
- Tangent: In later years, violets became a symbol for lesbians. In 1926, French playwright Edouard Bourdet had a play called The Captive, which was first performed in New York. In it, a married woman named Irene receives violets from her unseen female lover. This inspired lesbians to wear violets. This move however angered violet farmers, because people stopped buying them in case people mistakenly thought they were a lesbian.
- XL Tangent: 'The Captive' starred Basil Rathbone, whose character Jacques was engaged to Irene, played by Helen Menken. However, the play was raided by police, who told Rathbone: "Please do not let it disturb your performance tonight, but consider yourself under arrest." At the same time, Mae West's play 'Sex' was playing and she too was arrested. Menken and West shared a paddy wagon to jail together, but they two did not get on. West accused Menken of having a fake straight marriage, while Menken accused West of being a drag queen.
- XL Tangent: Rosie comments on the rarity of having a panel with three lesbians on it. She tells that audience that usually people don't see her, Sandi and Susan together, because normally the stand on top of each other and all together they are Richard Osman.
- XL Tangent: Violets can hide your sense of smell. Ionone is the chemical that gives the flower their smell, but it fades away after a few seconds, only to return.[/indent[
- XL: The thing you could buy from the world's first vending machine was holy water. It was invented by Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria. A temple had a holy water dispenser in it, but Hero was annoyed by worshippers who took too much water without leaving a donation. Thus he invented a machine where if you put a coin in the slot, it fell onto a tray. The weight pushed the tray down, opening a valve to let the water flow, and then the coin slid off the tray and closed the valve. The technology was then lost, and vending machines did not return until the 18th century, when Captain Dudley Bradsheet created a gin dispensing machine. He spent his life savings on gin, nailed a wooden sign of a cat over a window with a hole in its mouth to receive coins, and a lead pipe under a beckoning paw. The customer put a coin in, and gin would come out of the pipe. However, it was not a true vending machine, because they way it worked involved Bradsheet standing behind the sign, pouring gin down the pipe himself whenever someone put a coin in. He got away with it however, and his idea developed into what became known as Puss and Mew shops, "mew" meaning "hiding place". The first modern vending machines were Victorian and sold stamps and stationery, but then later sweets, with chewing gum being among the first sold.
- XL Tangent: There were vending machines which sold tights. When Susan had a normal day job, the uniform involved wearing skirts, and if anyone had tights which ripped, they would have to go to a vending machine to buy new ones.
- XL Tangent: Japan is famous for having lots of vending machines, but the idea of vending machines selling used underwear is inaccurate. There used to be vending machines that said in English that they sold used underwear, but had a Japanese disclaimed saying they were not used, but these machines were outlawed. Japan has a vending machine for one for every 33 citizens. There are more vending machines in Japan then there are people in New Zealand.
- XL Tangent: In China, there are vending machines that dispense hairy crabs. In Paris, there are baguette vending machines. Singapore had the world's first Norwegian salmon ATM.
- XL Tangent: Alan comments on vending machines on London Underground platforms, which had bars of chocolate that would come out in a drawer. However, they normally did not work. As a kid, as the trains came in, he would always see someone kicking a vending machine in anger.
- A velocipede was an early bicycle, which had no pedals and you rode it by walking along the ground. They became popular after the eruption of Tambora in 1815, the largest explosion in recorded history, which cause climates to briefly change. It led to crops failing, and thus not enough feed for horses, so people used velocipede instead of horses to travel. They were so fast that several cities started banning, with Milan doing so in 1818, followed by London, New York and Philadelphia, which led to them falling out of fashion. (Forfeit: A fast centipede)
- XL Tangent: The modern pedal bike was invented by Scotsman Kirkpatrick Macmillan, but his bike had no chain.
- Tangent: Bans on velocipedes can be compared to modern-day bans on electric scooters. Paris banned them in 2023, as have New Orleans, Las Vegas, and on public roads in Kent. The first e-scooter was invented a century ago, and was known as the autoped. There are photos of a suffragist named Lady Florence Norman riding one, with the photo shown on screen of her doing so in the middle of the road, not looking where she is going. This leads to Alan having an imaginary row between Norman and a man, with the man asking if he would like to park it for her. This leads to boos from the women in the audience due to the sexist idea of women being unable to park. Susan says the closest she has ever been to being arrested was when she was parking in a car park she uses every day and a gentleman decided to guide her into the space. She says: "I got out of my car, and I said things that I don't regret." In Germany, they banned prams. Owners need a licence with the child's name on it, which meant you could not put another child in that pram.
- XL Tangent: Another kind of velocipede was a type of vehicle you could put on a railway track, and propel it by pumping a handle. It was invented by George Sheffield from Michigan, who would ride it late at night when there were no trains around. Railway companies liked the idea, believing it would be useful for track inspections, so went into making more of them.
- The Vandals did not destroy buildings after they sacked Rome. The idea that the Vandals were barbarians who destroyed everything in their wake comes from Renaissance writers. However, by the time Rome was sacked in 455 AD, the Vandals had become Christians. Pope Leo the Great was respected by the Vandals, and when he asked them to spare the infrastructure. The Vandals did so, although they stole everything else, including people who they enslaved. It is thanks to them not smashing the infrastructure that we still have plenty of ruins from that time in Rome. (Forfeit: Wrecked them)
- Tangent: The Vandals were associated with another tribe called the Alans. Their name is a variant of Aryans, who originally came from Iran. The Vandals and Alans teamed up under a king called Gaiseric, who took what was just a few groups of people and turned into a giant force.
- The person who is Danish and the last queen of the Vandals is Margrethe II, who abdicated as Queen of Denmark in 2024. King or Queen of the Vandals is a common title in Scandinavian monarchies. The Swedish King had the title until 1973. The title is also used as Danish royalty. In 1972, Margrethe II was officially styled as the Queen of the Vandals, and is the last queen to hold the title. However, it might be a different set of vandals. It could be a mistranslation of Wends, who are a Slavic group in northern Germany. Sandi asks for clarification on is and asks if there is anyone Danish in the audience. A man in front row called Rene Dinesen helps her. It turns out he is a friend of Sandi's and is the Danish ambassador to the UK. (Forfeit: You are, Sandi)
- Tangent: Following Margrethe II's abdication, there are now no queens in Europe for the first time in about 400 years, as all the women married to kings are queen consorts.
- The artist behind the single largest print order in the history of vinyl records was a whale. In the 1960s, biologist Roger Payne, his wife Katie, and their colleague Scott McVay, recorded humpback whale sounds. They discovered there was a rhythmic, repeated pattern which they described as songs. They released a recording of this entitled Songs of the Humpback Whale in 1971. Eight years later, National Geographic decided to give away a vinyl disc of this recording with their magazines, and thus they needed to press 10.5 million vinyl records, which is by far the largest vinyl print run ever. However, the show cannot play any of the tracks due to the fact they can't clear the copyright as can't get permission from the original composer. (Forfeit: Tom Jones)
- Tangent: The biggest-selling 12-inch vinyl single is Blue Monday by New Order. However, the design of the packaging cost so much that New Order lost money on every copy they sold.
- XL Tangent: The late Linda Smith once joked to Sandi that she bought a CD of whale music, but it turned out to be a dolphin tribute band.
- Tangent: Vinyl records work by having the sound recorded in grooves, and a needle goes around on the grooves, causing vibrations which turn into electrical signals, and are fed through an amplifier. You can replicate by attaching a need to a piece of paper that has been turned into a cone, and then spinning a record on a lazy Susan. Sandi gets Susan to try and spin the lazy Susan, but they cannot make it work.
General Ignorance
- XL: Great Dane dogs come from Germany. In Germany they are called "Deutsch Dogges". They are a mixture of an English mastiff and an Irish wolfhound, and no-one knows where the name "Great Dane" comes from. (Forfeit: Denmark)
- XL Tangent: Some years ago, Sandi was looking to buy a house, and the owners who were selling had a huge Great Dane. When Sandi asked the owner why they were moving, she said that they wanted to get horses, leading Sandi to ask why they didn't just get a saddle for the dog./i]
- [i]XL Tangent: A Great Dane called Juliana who was given a medal during the Blitz, because it urinated on a bomb that had landed on a shoe shop, and thus stopped it from catching fire. Juliana was nicknamed: "the Great Dane with the great bladder". Juliana did the same thing with another bomb in 1944.
- In hunter-gatherer societies, while the men were out hunting the women joined them. 80% of the societies termed hunter-gatherers, women join in the hunt. In a third of those, women are hunting big game. When doing so, the women were often carrying babies. One of the oldest hunting tools, the atlatl, is a level which attaches to the back of the spear, which gives the thrower extra push. These are found all over the world, has been used at least since the Stone Age, and shows that both men and women could uses spears to kill game with the same rate of efficiency. (Forfeit: Park cars)
- Ideally, you should put 85% of your effort into your work. If you put in 100%, you will burn out. The idea of giving 110% dates back to the 1910s, but this was originally an insult, directed at braggarts who thought they were going to be perfect.
- Tangent: Susan says she always gives 100% and likes it when other people do. She was once at a verified crossing point for school children, and a lollipop lady asked Susan if she wanted a hand crossing the road. Susan said she was not a child, but the lollipop lady said it was all part of the service.
Scores
- Susan Calman: 8 points
- Josh Widdicombe: -2 points
- Rosie Jones: -29 points
- Alan Davies: -37 points
Broadcast details
- Date
- Tuesday 7th January 2025
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 45 minutes
- Recorded
-
- Monday 11th March 2024, 18:45 at Television Centre ('Vintage', with Susan Calman, Rosie Jones and Josh Widdicombe.)
Cast & crew
Sandi Toksvig | Host / Presenter |
Alan Davies | Regular Panellist |
Susan Calman | Guest |
Josh Widdicombe | Guest |
Rosie Jones | Guest |
Rene Dinesen | Self |
James Harkin | Script Editor |
Anna Ptaszynski | Script Editor |
Sandi Toksvig | Script Editor |
Will Bowen | Researcher |
Anne Miller | Researcher |
Mike Turner | Researcher |
Jack Chambers | Researcher |
Emily Jupitus | Researcher |
James Rawson | Researcher |
Lydia Mizon | Researcher |
Tara Dorrell | Researcher |
Leying Lee | Researcher |
Manu Henriot | Researcher |
Joe Mayo | Researcher |
Lieven Scheire | Researcher |
Miranda Brennan | Question Writer |
Diccon Ramsay | Director |
Piers Fletcher | Series Producer |
John Lloyd | Executive Producer |
Nick King | Editor |
Jonathan Paul Green | Production Designer |
Gemma O'Sullivan | Lighting Designer |
Howard Goodall | Composer |
Aran Kharpal | Graphics |
Helen Ringer | Graphics |
Sarah Clay | Commissioning Editor |
Video
How violets became a symbol of support for Napoleon
Who knew violets had so many hidden symbolisms?
Featuring: Sandi Toksvig, Alan Davies, Susan Calman, Rosie Jones & Josh Widdicombe.