No Such Thing As A Fish is a weekly podcast in which QI researchers Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray share the most bizarre, extraordinary and hilarious facts they’ve discovered over the last seven days.
Since its launch in March 2014, No Such Thing As A Fish has become a bonafide cultural phenomenon, and has released over 400 episodes, had over 400 million listens, won multiple awards, been named one of iTunes’ most downloaded podcasts of 2016, 2017 and 2018, and one of Apple Podcasts’ best listens in 2019, won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication in 2019, and been declared one of the Top Podcasts of the Decade by Spotify.
The show has also been transformed into the topical BBC2 series No Such Thing As The News; been adapted into three bestselling books, The Book of the Year 2017, 2018, and 2019; performed live to sell-out crowds in the UK and abroad, from The London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House; and spawned a no.1 chart-topping, behind-the-scenes documentary Behind The Gills.
My favourite geeks. Hilarious. Sideways. Brilliant.
TIM MINCHIN
THE TEAM
JAMES HARKIN has been a writer and script editor on 17 series of the UK’s hit BBC2 comedy panel show QI, as well as producing, writing and editing four series of the BBC Radio 4 show The Museum of Curiosity. He has co-written 13 books including 1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off which was a NewYork Times bestseller. Alongside Andy, Anna and Dan, James is part of the award-winning, hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish which has recently enjoyed sell-out tours in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and across mainland Europe.
ANNA PTASZYNSKI is a script editor, writer and researcher for the hit BBC TV series, QI. With her fellow podcasters she is co-author of The Book of the Year 2017, 2018 and 2019, published by Penguin Random House, as well as being co-presenter on two series of the BBC2 TV show, No Such Thing As The News. Anna has previously worked in theatre in Melbourne and for an MSP in the Scottish Parliament, as well as brief stints hay-baling in the Scottish Highlands and trying to flog truly unpalatable plum brandy at agricultural shows.
ANDREW HUNTER MURRAY has been a writer on BBC2's QI for 14 years. Outside his work on the podcast, he's also part of the writing team at Private Eye, Britain's biggest satirical magazine, and he's one of the founding cast members of Austentatious, an award-winning improv show based on the works of Jane Austen. He appears regularly with the others on Zoe Ball's national Radio 2 Breakfast Show, in a segment called The Why Workshop. Andrew’s first novel, The Last Day, was published in 2020 and became a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the top 10 fiction debuts of that year. His second novel, The Sanctuary, was published in May 2022.
DAN SCHREIBER is a presenter, writer and producer. As well as being part of No Such Thing As A Fish, Dan has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows which include fronting his own documentary special The Great UFO Conspiracy on Channel 4, and, most recently, co-hosting Animal Planet's Monster Week alongside Jumanji star Rhys Darby. He is the co-creator and producer of the Rose d'Or award- winning BBC Radio 4 series The Museum of Curiosity (now in its 16th series) and his other developer/producer credits include making a short film with cult director Ken Russell, an animation with Paul McCartney, a podcast with Freakonomics author Stephen J. Dubner, and a comedy pilot with astronaut Buzz Aldrin. His debut non-fiction book The Theory of Everything Else was published in October 2022.
MILESTONES
SELL-OUT TOURS
In 2014 the podcasters took the show to the stage and have been playing live ever since, with sell-out shows at The London Palladium, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and at the Sydney Opera House. They have toured the UK, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand.
COMIC RELIEF MARATHON PODCAST
In March 2021, NSTAAF hosted a marathon 20-hour podcast to celebrate 35 years of Comic Relief. Dan, James, Anna and Andy welcomed 35 different guests, including Tim Minchin, Stephen Fry, Shaparak Khorsandi, Sandi Toksvig and Carey Mulligan - each of whom brought along a fact of their choosing. In total, they raised over £155,000.
A SPIN-OFF BBC TV SERIES
In 2016 the BBC commissioned No Such Thing As The News, a topical version of the podcast that took a look at interesting and funny news stories from the week. The show, produced by QITV, ran for two series.
THREE BESTSELLING BOOKS
In 2017, The Book of the Year: The Weirder Side of 2017 was released and shot into the Amazon Top 10 chart. Upon release, the 2018 sequel also became an immediate Top 10 Bestseller. The Book Of The Year 2019 was published, unsurprisingly, the following year.
NO.1 CHARTING DOCUMENTARY
In January 2018 the team were the subject of a behind-the-scenes documentary, Behind The Gills, which followed them on their 2017 UK tour and interviewed them along the way. The documentary debuted at number one on the iTunes
TV charts.
THE FIRST UK PODCAST ON VINYL
In 2015 NSTAAF signed with indie-rock label Alcopop! Records to produce a specially recorded show on vinyl.
No podcast makes me laugh as consistently as No Such Thing As A Fish. Clever, stupid, strongly recommended.
RICHARD OSMAN
PRESS
Knowledge-packed and riotously funny.
THE TIMES
Hooray for No Such Thing As A Fish!
OBSERVER
The QI Elves drop so many facts your head will spin.
GUARDIAN
Expect to be amazed...
TELEGRAPH
This intelligent quartet serve as a welcome reminder that comedy does not have to be dumb.
EVENING STANDARD
Fascinating, fun learning on everything from history to biology and culture.
NEW YORK TIMES
Brilliant and funny... educational as well as entertaining. A rare but valuable combination.
HUFFINGTON POST
Intellectual hi-jinx…The four have the easy intimacy of squabbling siblings – quick to riff on each other’s material and tease each other mercilessly.
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
What a bunch of dorks.
ANONYMOUS INTERNET USER