Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig

Author:Sandi Toksvig
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Feminism, Biography, Humour
ISBN: 9780349006390
Publisher: Virago
Published: 2019-10-30T23:00:00+00:00

Medlar Street

The BBC show QI, which I host, has been commissioned for another series. The show feels like such a fixture in the television schedule, so it is odd that one has to wait each year to hear if there will be more. I am so glad. It is the finest piece of education by stealth. I think of the preparation my father did when reporting on the Apollo space missions for Danish TV. He was determined that no one should be left out of the rather complicated science so he read all of it and then worked out how he could explain it to his audience without being patronising. I try to do the same.

This year I have been trying to get to grips with time travel and entangled protons. I love our team of researchers because I phoned ahead on the day of the recording and said, ‘I think we can make it clear using a banana, a knife and a biro.’ No one asked me how. They just got me a banana, a knife and a biro, and explain it we did. I was so glad we actually recorded it. Those damned comedians sometimes hijack the show and we wander off up comedic avenues where no science ever rears its head. The joker in me is delighted, the student in me shakes her head. But then the unexpected happens, which is the best bit.

We were discussing how to open a whole coconut and had before us on the desks coconuts, screwdrivers, hammers and so forth. One guest was new – a wonderful stand-up called Sindhu Vee. I didn’t know her work but liked her as soon as we met. While everyone grabbed tools she simply picked up one of the coconuts, walked round to the front of the set and smashed it into two perfect halves on the concrete floor before scooping the whole thing up without spilling a drop of the liquid inside. It was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.

QI has taught me to quibble with facts. I’ve been reading a book about great female criminals whose opening sentence reads, ‘The Femme Fatale has been with us ever since Eve ate the apple.’

It’s a good book, but I’m a pedant and the opening inaccuracy annoyed me. Eve did not eat an apple. It is one of the great myths. There is in fact no mention of an apple anywhere in the Garden of Eden. Most likely, if Eve ate anything then it was a fig, a grape or even a mushroom. For a non-believer, I’ve read the Bible rather thoroughly. During my American motel childhood, thanks to the Gideon Society, the Bible was the only book you could guarantee would be beside your bed each night. I know most people think Eve ate an apple, but that’s probably due to a misunderstanding. The Latin word mălum means evil, while mālum means apple. You can see that there is not much in it in terms of spelling.

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