Cabinet of Curiosities - Day 25

A very merry Christmas to you all!

And it seems appropriate to use this item - a QI bauble from the on set Christmas tree.

  
We all got given a bauble as one of our crew gifts one year and it was hugely poignant for me as I wrote that year's Christmas show. 

Writing the Christmas show was always a challenge. Every series of QI is based on a letter of the alphabet - we started with Series A and we're currently nearing the end of the alphabet with Series T currently showing. What will QI do after Series Z? Who knows. Stephen Fry used to quip that we'd start on the numbers. 'That'll take us on a few years', he'd say. 

But the letter theme goes deeper that just the series. It's fractal. Each episode is also themed around the series letter. And each question too. So, for example, for Series M I wrote an episode called Monster Mash. And the questions featured minotaurs, molochs, megapodes and mythological beasts among other things. 

And that's why Christmas shows were tricky - after 20 years (so far) of Christmas shows, the number of quite interesting facts not already covered offers slim pickings - let alone having to find a connection to the series letter. I therefore started looking a little bit left-field for my Noel episode (series N). And I found some Novelties and Nostalgic parlour games. 

My research led me to this lovely little book. Many of the games listed had great potential but the book's titular game gave me the perfect idea for a segment on the show.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

   

I'll admit that some of my colleagues were unconvinced. QI is a rightly acknowledged as a smart TV show where people learn things. This, they said, seemed a bit 'dumbed-down'. But I convinced them to go with it as there was plenty of other smart stuff on the show. And, besides, it was Christmas - what better time to have a little bit of silly fun. 

I'm glad I convinced them as it's often mentioned as one of viewers' favourite segments. 

It was also the year that Sandi Toksvig had some Nisse - Danish elf - hats made for the cast (and you can see the blue baubles hanging on the trees behind them in this photo) and she gave me one of them after the show as a keepsake. It comes out every Christmas - sometimes even on the daily dog walk 

So, please, have yourselves a few games of Are You There Moriarty today and have a really fantastic Christmas!