New QI host Sandi Toksvig has admitted that Alan Davies’ dunce role on the TV quiz show is all an act.
The 50-year-old comedian and actor, who has been a team captain on the BBC programme since it began, was often teased by former host Stephen Fry, 59, for his answers.
But Sandi, 58, who has become the first woman to host a major comedy panel show by fronting QI, told ITV show Lorraine: “He gets it. It’s an act.
“I have to say he’s one of the cleverest, most charming people I have ever worked with.”
She said her relationship with Alan would be different from the one the Jonathan Creek star had with Fry.
“He and I honestly have a little bit more of a love fest,” she said.
“I like him very much and what he brings to the show. It’s that proper combination of entertainment and information.”
The pint-sized presenter had to ask for a bigger chair after taking over from Stephen on the BBC show, in which she makes her debut as host later this month.
“Stephen is 6ft 3in and I’m not,” she said.
“They had to put up a little platform. I seriously had to climb up on to a platform. They are talking now about the next series and asked me ‘Is there anything you would like to change?
“And I said ‘I wouldn’t mind a chair that fits’.”
Sandi has shed four stone, partly by taking up boxing.
She said she believed the sport was a good way of combating domestic violence.
“I’m absolutely obsessed with boxing,” she said.
“I was thinking I should try and box (female Olympic champion) Nicola Adams for a laugh. It would be funny.
“Boxing … is a fantastic defence against domestic violence, and not because they’re going to punch back but because it gives them confidence and it gives them the strength to say ‘Actually, you’re not going to treat me like that’.”
Stephen stepped down as host of QI after 13 years in the role, saying it was “one of the best jobs on television” but that he felt “it was time to move on”.
