QI

QI and the magical power of facts

The TV quiz's top fact-checker reveals some of the favourite nuggets of information he uncovered for its latest publication.

QI: around the world in 1,339 jaw-dropping facts

In an exclusive extract, the QI team present just a few of the jaw-dropping facts in their new book - in no particular order.

For an episode entitled Keeps, Stephen Fry introduces a one-off round called "Keep Still or Scarper", turning on whether it's safer to run away or freeze when confronted with certain wild animals. His demonstration of how to proceed if you bump into a pack of wolves (roaring like an angry Victorian gentleman, basically) makes you long to see the confrontation for real.

Elsewhere, there are insights into whether ants can hold their drink, the smile of a bowhead whale and a dispute between Fry and Bill Bailey about Welsh accents. Also adding to the fun - Sarah Millican and Jason Manford.

QI: how much money does Broadway make?

From the brains behind the BBC quiz show. This week: QI's on Broadway.

Poor, hapless Alan Davies is on the receiving end of a storm of QI klaxons as he good-naturedly lurches from one wrong answer to the next. But it's an honourable tradition and Davies is a willing fallguy - he even fails at a supposedly foolproof experiment involving a broom's centre of gravity.

Elsewhere, guests Danny Baker, Jo Brand and Marcus Brigstocke enjoy a bit of a jolly knockabout that's full of surprises and "well, I never knew that" sort of facts, including the answer to questions such as £what do mosquitos do in the rain?" and which country has the longest traffic jams. At one point it all becomes a bit much for Baker who wails, "On behalf of the audience I have to say, sometimes I hate this programme."

QI: the king with a love of 'wicked sex'

From the brains behind the BBC quiz show. This week: QI is scandalicious.

How we craft Quite Interesting facts

James "Turbo" Harkin - QI's head elf - let's us in on the mysterious art of fact crafting...

QI: Prince George's christening special

From the brains behind the BBC quiz show. This week, to mark Prince George's christening: QI gorges on Georges.

So long has QI been going (a decade; we're now up to "K" in the alphabet) that some of the arcane facts presented in earlier seasons of the show (there's no way of knowing how old a lobster is) have since been disproved. That uncertainty forms the agreeable theme of tonight's show ("knowledge"). Here, the guests (Graham Linehan and Jo Brand) not only arrive circuitously at their answers, they also question their legitimacy. Incidentally, should you ever need to age a lobster, you cut off its eye stalks and count the rings.