'I don't know if we are going to do any more'

Alan Davies fears QI will be axed because the BBC have been slow in commissioning a seventh series.

He told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival: ‘The BBC normally commissions it annually but next year's has not been commissioned yet, so I don't know if we are going to do any more QI.’

His fears were stoked when the sixth series was scheduled for November this year – later in the calendar than it normally airs.

He said: ‘We've been on in the autumn for six years and I am very sorry that this year we won't be. There was some row about the scheduling or something.

‘The show has moved from BBC Two to BBC One and my fear is that on BBC One they would muck it about a bit and we would lose viewers and it would stop.’

However, the BBC insists he has nothing to fear.

A spokesman told Chortle: ‘QI will be back on our screens later in November on BBC One and the series will be recommissioned – but the deal is yet to be done.’

The BBC recently cut Davies’s Jonathan Creek salary by 25 per cent – and delayed the transmission of the next special from Christmas to Easter.rn

Published: 20 Oct 2009