The Museum of Curiosity

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The Museum of Curiosity

John Lloyd and Bill Bailey hosting The Museum of Curiosity.
Other names The Professor of Curiosity
Genre Panel game
Running time 30 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Languages English
Home station BBC Radio 4
Starring John Lloyd
Bill Bailey
Creators John Lloyd
Dan Schreiber
Richard Turner
Producers Richard Turner
Dan Schreiber
Air dates 20 February 2008 to 26 March 2008
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 6
Opening theme Bill Bailey
Website
BBC Homepage

The Museum of Curiosity, formerly entitled The Professor of Curiosity,[1] is a radio comedy panel game on BBC Radio 4, that started on 20 February 2008.[2] It stars John Lloyd as "The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham" and overseer of the fictional "Museum of Curiosity". Bill Bailey acts as co-host of the programme,[3] the curator of the museum and the person who provides the museum's "music needs".

The programme has been compared to the television panel game QI and is considered by some to be a spin-off.[3] Both programmes were co-created by Lloyd and there are several people, including Bailey, who frequently work on both QI and The Museum of Curiosity. As a result, critics tend to compare the series to QI,[4] with some critics saying that The Museum of Curiosity is not as good as its forerunner.[5]

Contents

[edit] Format

The programme begins with Bailey introducing the show. He plays the theme tune to the programme in a slightly different way in each episode, for example, "The implausible pitch change".[6] Bailey and Lloyd introduce themselves as well as giving the audience and listeners a short guide to the museum. They then introduce the "Advisory committee"; a panel made up of a mixture of celebrities and academic experts, with Lloyd reading out their CVs.

Afterwards, each member of the committee attempts to donate something to the museum. The donation can be anything, no matter how large, expensive, intangible, or even if there are doubts over whether or not the donation actually exists. Examples of donations include a yeti,[6] the Battle of Waterloo,[7] and absolutely nothing.[8] Lloyd and Bailey decide whether it is worthy to enter the museum. At the end of the programme, Lloyd and Bailey look through the audience suggestions for things the museum could exhibit or ask the audience curious questions. Bailey usually finishes by giving a humorous comment on a Bertrand Russell quote.

[edit] Production

The series was first recorded as a pilot in 16 April 2007 called The Professor of Curiosity, in which the guests were Alastair Fothergill, Victoria Finlay and Simon Munnery. This pilot has yet to be broadcast.[9] The series was co-created by Lloyd, Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber. Turner and Schreiber are the prodcuers of the show. The shows researchers are James Harkin, Xander Cansell and QI.[3]

[edit] Episodes

The front covers of the scripts for The Professor of Curisoity and episode three of The Museum of Curiosity.
The front covers of the scripts for The Professor of Curisoity and episode three of The Museum of Curiosity.
Episode Air date Advisory committee Exhibits donated
1 20 February 2008
2 27 February 2008
3 5 March 2008
4 12 March 2008
5 19 March 2008
6 26 March 2008

[edit] Reception

Reaction to the series was mixed. Phil Daoust in The Guardian described the show as being "Unusual" and "Eclectic".[16] Chris Campling, writing a preview of the episode highlighted the series in his "Radio Choice" column in The Times.[17] Gillian Reynolds highlighted the programme as one of his radio choices in the Daily Telegraph.[18] Rosanna Chianta in Scotland on Sunday compared the show positively to QI, also created by Lloyd.[19] Miranda Sawyer of The Observer criticised the show saying that, "it's no QI, because the joy of that programme rests almost entirely in the host, Stephen Fry, and his subversion of the prissy, clever character we're familiar with (in QI, Fry is clever, but relaxed). The Museum of Curiosity is presented partly by Bill Bailey and mostly by John Lloyd, producer of QI (are you getting a theme?). Lloyd may well be a nice chap, but we haven't a clue who he is, and, on the evidence of this, he isn't a big or witty enough character for us to feel desperate to get to know him."[5]

Nicholas Lezard in The Independent on Sunday was lukewarm about the show, saying it "more or less worked." He wrote:

I try to envisage the pitch. Imagine if you or I went up to the Head of What Goes Out at 6.30 on Radio 4 and said: "It's a show where we ask guests to bring along an item of interest for us to put in an imaginary museum. They get to tell us some anecdotes, and we make the odd quip." The Head of What Goes Out at 6.30 on Radio 4 puts the tips of his fingers together and says: "Is that it?" "Well, basically, yes." "And will your guests be famous?" "Well, we thought for the first show we'd have Brian Blessed, who is an enormous pain in the arse but undoubtedly very well known; a comedian not too many people have heard of like, say, Sean Lock, and then we'd have a completely off-beam choice, perhaps Richard Fortey, who is a world expert on trilobites and a member of the Royal Society." This sounds a bit mad, no? As I said, if you or I pitched this idea we'd hardly have time to eat our free BBC biscuit before being shown the door. But as the hosts are Bill Bailey and John Lloyd (who had the idea for, among many other things, QI), then they get the green light. Good for them.[4]

Kate Chisholm in The Spectator commented positively: "I've at last found myself laughing at a Radio Four comedy programme, transforming that 6.30 graveyard slot, which in recent years has become synonymous with smutty jokes and banal innuendo, into something a little different. The Museum of Curiosity (Wednesdays) is a bit like Paul Merton's Room 101, but without the ego."[20]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Pilot". The Professor of Curiosity.
  2. ^ Lavalie, John (2008-03-30). The Museum of Curiosity. epguides.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
  3. ^ a b c Curious commission: R4 to make QI spin-off. Chortle.co.uk (2007-12-11). Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
  4. ^ a b Lezard, Nicholas. "The Museum of Curiosity, Radio 4: Try pitching this to the boss", The Independent on Sunday, 2008-02-24. Retrieved on 2008-02-27. 
  5. ^ a b Sawyer, Miranda. "Whatever the Doctor does is fine by me", The Observer, 2008-02-24. Retrieved on 2008-02-27. 
  6. ^ a b "Episode 1". The Museum of Curiosity. 2008-02-20. No. 1, season 1.
  7. ^ "Episode 4". The Museum of Curiosity. 2008-03-12. No. 4, season 1.
  8. ^ "Episode 3". The Museum of Curiosity. 2008-03-05. No. 3, season 1.
  9. ^ The Museum of Curiosity (a Guest Stars & Air Dates Guide). epguides.com (2005). Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  10. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 20 February.. BBC (2008-02-20). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  11. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 28 February.. BBC (2008-02-28). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  12. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 5 March.. BBC (2008-03-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  13. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 12 March.. BBC (2008-03-12). Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  14. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 19 March.. BBC (2008-03-19). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  15. ^ Images from the Museum of Curiosity, 26 March.. BBC (2008-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  16. ^ Daoust, Phil (2008-02-20). Pick of the Day. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  17. ^ Campling, Chris. "Backstage at the Brits; The Museum of Curiosity - Radio Choice", The Times, 2008-02-20. Retrieved on 2008-02-21. 
  18. ^ Reynolds, Gillian. "Wednesday's TV & radio choices", Daily Telegraph, 2008-02-20. Retrieved on 2008-02-27. 
  19. ^ Chianta, Rosanna. "Radio", Scotland on Sunday, 2008-02-17. Retrieved on 2008-02-21. 
  20. ^ Chisholm, Kate. "An English malady", The Spectator, 2008-03-05. Retrieved on 2008-03-05. 

[edit] External links

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