QI

Review: QI at the University of Kent, Canterbury

It would be easy to assume that attending popular panel show QI without Stephen Fry is a little like going to watch U2 only to be told Bono was going to sit this one out because he's a bit busy somewhere else. Probably saving the lives of some poor unfortunates, no doubt. But such an analogy would be far too unkind. Especially when a little bit of history was made on Monday night.

Radio Times review

Although it manages to keep the smutty/lavatorial humour to a minimum, Jack Whitehall's exuberant reaction to solving an Only Connect puzzle makes Stephen Fry smile. "You've made a happy man very old," he sighs.

Several clips in this compilation of QI highlights have an ocular theme: Phill Jupitus tries on night vision glasses, Alan Davies a peripheral vision aid and Josh Widdecombe "railway spectacles", while Jo Brand reckons her bonnet with a monocle probably belonged to an elderly Dickensian prostitute. Plus there are some terrific "liquid larks" and scientific tricks. The one involving stroking a fake hand gets Sara Pascoe very excited indeed.

Radio Times review

If you've missed any of this series, you can catch up in one go with this compilation. Of course, those who are offended by the show's occasionally lavatorial humour should leave the room during the gags about briefcase toilets, the genitals of the beluga whale, the sex lives of ladybirds and so on.

Granted it's not been the wittiest series of QI. So for me the best bits (they're included here and still made me laugh) were the panellists' riotous attempts to rotate their right foot clockwise while drawing the figure six in the air and Stephen Fry's messy science lesson about how to make a lava lamp using effervescent hangover tablets.

Radio Times review

If I tell you that the expression "penal code" is enough to raise a laugh in this edition of QI and that at one stage Alan Davies is reduced to sticking his biro to his top lip for fun, you'll get the picture. It's not, I'm afraid to say, a classic. And that's despite the presence of the usually rock-solid David Mitchell, who is strangely subdued throughout.

So why watch? Well because even a sub-par, so-so QI can put a wry smile on your face and impart mildly intriguing titbits, such as the fact that a French documentary about King Edward VII's coronation featured a lavatory attendant standing in for the king.

Radio Times review

Here's the kind of knowledge-nugget many QI fans might appreciate. Tonight, Stephen Fry offers a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of walking into a room, then forgetting why you went there. It's not just brain decay, he reassures us, but a possible hangover from our evolutionary past, whereby crossing a threshold, moving from one environment to another, in some way resets our mental state.

Now where was I? Oh yes, so also on the show are Jimmy Carr, who, love him or loathe him, is on flying form, Suggs and Claudia O'Doherty, as well as the very QI line: "I can't believe you're being so blasé about this Stephen - you've killed a unicorn."

Want to keep your marbles? Move into a smaller flat

An episode of the television quiz QI has suggested an evolutionary explanation for why crossing a threshold makes you lose your thread.

Radio Times review

It can't be a coincidence that whenever Richard Osman appears as a panellist, QI seems to trip along in a higher gear. It's the snappiest episode for a while, and although some credit for that goes (I suppose) to the questions and curiosities dug up by the QI Elves, I prefer to credit Osman, Phill Jupitus and Lucy Porter for upping the banter.

As Fry hands out plastic bags to be blown up, Jupitus quips, "Time for the controversial auto-erotic asphyxiation round..." and Osman's off-the-cuff name for a penguin dating service is inspired. We learn stuff too, about Turgenev, our fingertips and the largest native land animal in Antarctica - not what you might think.

QI biggest TV turn-on in Yorkshire

Yorkshire viewers have been surveyed by TV Licensing to see how what a potential partner watches on the box affects how attractive they are, with QI topping the chart of TV turn-ons.

Radio Times review

A slumbery round of the gently filthy information exchange, livened by a shake-up in the scoring system. We're playing Lucky Losers, this being Series L, which means klaxons are good, clever right answers are to be avoided and Alan Davies has to find a new way to come last.

With L also standing for lavatory this series, the best banter focuses on bottom-wiping: there's a terrifying lesson on which leaves to avoid when caught short in a Queensland forest, while Jeremy Clarkson and Sandi Toksvig bond over the impermeability of boarding-school loo roll. If that all sounds a bit vulgar, wait until you hear what Lillie Langtry once said to Edward VII.