It strikes me that I haven't talked about QI (no apparent website). It's a panel game presented by Stephen Fry in which there are no points for correct answers (and in any case most questions are impossible); instead they're awarded for being Quite Interesting. Alan Davies is the regular on the panel along with a handful of other comedians.
I believe that the programme's produced by John Lloyd in his first return to TV for years and years. There's some kind of company that owns the format - I assume Lloyd's.
Most puzzling though, is the "voting system" which is referred to in the end credits. A company is credited for supplying it, yet there's no voting system in operation in the show. And since the questions are effectively genereal knowledge, there's no reason to employ one outside the bounds of the show. Very strange and perhaps someone can enlighten me?
Posted by adambowie at November 4, 2003 04:36 PMmost recent qi had magellan as not the first to circumnavigate because he died on the journey, so that it was his first mate who was first; but... magellan had previously done a trip in the other direction so that he was indeed the first to circumnavigate before he died. stephen fry has been known to make the odd inconsequential error before, such as "successors" for "predecessors" on page 340 of his "the stars' tennis balls" novel which is otherwise quite interesting in a macabre sort of way.
Posted by: richcatt at November 14, 2003 04:29 PM