The elves who prepare QI’S Christmas quiz treat
QI Elf Anne Miller on the formidable fact-finding task she and the other show researchers undertake in order to deliver a festive special and the new QI books
At QI we love Christmas. And not just because Stephen Fry nicknamed the team of researchers and writers who work on the programme the ‘QI Elves’, so we feel especially festive when December rolls around. Rather, we love Christmas because for us it is not only the most wonderful time of year but also the most interesting.
Each series of QI is themed around a letter of the alphabet so the specials of QI Christmas past have ranged from ‘Advent’ and ‘December’ to ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Merriment’. Over the last 16 years we have made 15 different Christmas specials – curiously there has only been one series that didn’t have a Christmas special and that was Series C, but this was because the series broadcast earlier in the year rather than because we couldn’t think of a festive word beginning with ‘C’…
Writing a QI script is always special but there’s something especially wonderful about tackling a Christmas one as these shows are where some of the most memorable moments have happened; from Daniel Radcliffe talking about the history of magic in ‘Hocus Pocus’ to Susan Calman and Matt Lucas playing Victorian parlour games in ‘Noel’. It’s also the time of year to bring out our best discoveries – in Series K’s Christmas special ‘Kris Kringle’, we had a special guest in the form of rifleman Tony Robinson from the D Company London Irish Rifles of the London Regiment (who is nicknamed Baldrick). Tony brought us a football that was used by soldiers in the trenches of the First World War in 1915. In Series O we discovered that Britain’s first Christmas stamp was designed by a six-year old.
It is reassuring to find a constant stream of festive facts – one of our most-recent discoveries is that the winning tree in the annual competition of the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association is displayed outside No 10 – while the runner-up tree goes inside.
However, we have mined information about Santa, snowmen and reindeers quite extensively so are always looking for a new spin on Christmas material and this year – for QI Series P – we will be celebrating in the ‘QI Arms’ in an episode called ‘Pubs’. Sandi and Alan will be joined by the brilliant combination of Cariad Lloyd, Noel Fielding and Josh Widdicombe for a show all about eating, drinking and celebrating with questions on topics ranging from pints to pies to pool.
We’ll also be joined by a few special guests. There are several cameos by QI Elves scattered throughout this series of QI, and both James Harkin and Mike Turner make an appearance in ‘Pubs’. What exactly they’ll be doing needs to remain a secret until transmission but I can say that one will be wearing a Santa-patterned jumper while the other will be dressed in a rather more elaborate disguise…
Mathematician Dr Katie Steckles will also be there. We met Katie at an event run by comedy science troupe Festival of the Spoken Nerd, and she has devised an elaborate experiment for us, using pints of beer to explain mathematical concepts. We were delighted when she agreed to demonstrate it at the QI Arms.
We will also have some live music in the form of pianist Sam Cable. He’ll be accompanying a few festive singalongs. On the day of filming, we cued up the dreaded QI Klaxon in case anyone was tempted to shout ‘play it again Sam’, because the actual quote from Casablanca is ‘play it, Sam’ but (spoiler alert) the panel were too sharp and managed to avoid our trap.
As well as making BBC2’S QI, the QI team also makes a weekly podcast No Such Thing As A Fish and a Radio 4 programme The Museum of Curiosity. Museum has been running for 10 years and sees QI creator John Lloyd presiding over a vast imaginary museum. Each series John is joined by a different comedian playing the role of the museum’s curator and for every episode the pair are joined by three guests who each choose the donation they would most like to see displayed in the museum’s collection. There have now been 237 different donations including astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s transportation device to get to Mars, Konnie Huq’s Blue Peter badge, and poet Benjamin Zephaniah’s donation of the ancient art of Tai Chi. This year we decided it was time to undertake the museum’s first ever stock-take and so we gathered together four of our most marvelous former curators – Lee Mack (series 13), Sally Phillips (series 12), Jo Brand (series 10) and Jimmy Carr (series 5) to examine the full collection and add a few more exhibits of their own.
One of the secrets of QI is that
There is only one person in the UK called Mr Baubles but at least 16 people with the surname Grinch
we generate far more facts than can ever be used in the programmes; so for the past seven years we’ve gathered up our favourites to create a series of QI fact books. This year’s title, 2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks, is the biggest fact book we’ve ever written but the carefully chosen title refers to the fact that it will also be the last one: it brings the total number of facts in the series up to a staggering 10,000.
The book includes a selection box of festive facts including that there is only one person in the UK called Mr Baubles but at least 16 people with the surname Grinch; that the first person to use the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ was also the first to use the word ‘Prosecco’ and that beer mats were originally placed on top of glasses to keep the dust out.
We also found out that the very first game of pool was rather different from the version we know today. The word comes from a medieval game jeu de la poule, in which players took turns to throw things at a chicken and the first person to hit the chicken won it as a prize. We obviously didn’t wish to harm any actual chickens when making this year’s QI Christmas special but we quite liked the idea of playing ‘original pool’ so keep an eye out and you may spot both our solution to the problem and that cameo by our Head Elf, James Harkin.
● 2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks and No Such Thing As A Fish’s topical take on the year, Book of the Year 2018 are out now.
● The Museum of Curiosity: Annual Stock-take airs on Radio 4 on Christmas Day at 8am. The QI Christmas Special ‘Pubs’ airs on BBC2 over the festive period.