The Badger Hole of Ignorance Special #1 - All about Series 1

In this episode of The Badger Hole of Ignorance, producers Dan Schreiber and Richard Turner discuss Series 1 of The Museum of Curiosity, recorded in 2006.

Aiding host John Lloyd in this first series was guest curator Bill Bailey.

The guests, and their donations, were as follows:

Show 1: Professor Richard Fortey (Curators of the Natural History Museum and the Giant Hornet of Chang Jiang), Sean Lock (The modern Scarf Knot) and Brian Blessed (The Yeti).

Show 2: Fran Beaumann (A Pineapple), Dr Gary Sheffield (Anderson Shelters) and Ben Elton (Privacy).

Show 3: Arthur Smith (Arthur Cravan), Professor Frank Close (Nothing) and Professor Ronald Hutton (Father Christmas).

Show 4: Victoria Finlay (Pliny the Elder), Kevin Day (The Battle of Waterloo) and Alastair Fothergill (the Hairy Angler Fish).

Show 5: Sir Jonathan Miller (Nottingham Alabasters), Dr Phillip Ball (Phlogiston) and Professor Marcus du Sautoy (The Monster).

Show 6: Dr John Gribbin (The Big Bang when it was the size of a Grapefruit), Alan Davies (Epping Forest) and Martha Reeves (Silence).

So here's the podcast hosted, as always, by the affable Ken Plume:



(All photos copyright Dan Schreiber)

Curioser and Curioser!

Some exciting news!

This year, I am officially one of the researchers for the fifth series of BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity.

Devised and produced by Dan Schreiber and Rich Turner, the show is hosted by QI supremo John Lloyd (above) and a guest curator. Three guests are invited onto the show to donate items to the museum that inspire curiosity and fascination. This has, so far, included the yeti, the death of Father Christmas, Spiderman, nothingness, the urge to press red buttons marked 'do not press', a walrus's penis bone, and God's wife.

Donators have included Sir Terry Pratchett, Jon Ronson, Philip Pullman, Clive James, Leigh Francis, David Eagleman, Neil Gaiman, Marcus Chown, Sarah Millican, Suggs, Professor Richard Wiseman, Brian Blessed, Alain de Botton, John Hodgman, and many many more from the worlds of science, literature, entertainment and academia. Each series has a different curator and, to date, the post has been held by Bill Bailey, Sean Lock, Jon Richardson and Dave Gorman. This fifth season sees the appointment of Jimmy Carr, a regular on sister show QI and a very clever chap.

The show starts recording in a few weeks and will go out on the radio in the Autumn.