Quite Interesting Limited is a British research company, most notable for providing the research for the British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

panel game '' QI'' (itself an abbreviation of ''Quite Interesting'') and the Swedish version ''

Intresseklubben ''Intresseklubben'' (English: " The Interest Club") was a Swedish panel show, aired in Sveriges Television between 2012 and 2015, based on the long-running BBC panel show '' QI''. The show was hosted by Johan Wester, with Anders Jansson as a perm ...

'', as well as other ''QI''–related programmes and products. The company founder and

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

John Lloyd John Lloyd may refer to: Artists, writers, and entertainers *John J. Lloyd (1922–2014), American art director and production designer *John Lloyd (graphic designer) (born 1944), co-founder of design consultancy Lloyd Northover *John Lloyd (journa ...

, the creator and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

of ''QI'', and host of the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

panel game '' The Museum of Curiosity'', which also uses Quite Interesting Limited for its research. John Mitchinson is the company's

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

and also works as head of research for ''QI''.

About

Lloyd founded Quite Interesting Limited in 1999. It is claimed that the idea of founding the company came on Christmas Eve 1993. According to his profile on QI.com, "he came to the sudden and alarming realisation that he didn't really know anything. Changing gear again, he started reading books for the first time since he was 17. To his horror, he discovered that he hadn't been paying attention and, with painful slowness, unearthed the closely guarded secret that the universe is astoundingly quite interesting." The philosophy of the company is that it claims that there are four primal drives:

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

, shelter and

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans ...

. Out of these, curiosity is supposedly the most important because, "unlike the other three drives, it is what makes us uniquely human." The company claims that, "Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way." Those who carry out research are known as the "QI Elves". Notable elves include Justin Pollard and

Vitali Vitaliev Vitali Vitaliev (russian: Виталий Витальев) is a Ukrainian-born journalist and writer who has worked in Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland. Biography Vitaliev was born in 1954 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He graduated from ...

. They are also responsible for helping to write the questions used on ''QI''. People wishing to become elves are recommended to start by commenting on the forums of the ''QI'' website.

Products

DVDs

Books

References

{{QI QI Companies based in Oxford British companies established in 1999 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom