- Series 1 - Curator Bill Bailey
- 001 - s01e01 - 2008-02-20
-
Richard Fortey: The giant hornet of Chang Jiang
- Brian Blessed: A Yeti or Sasquatch
- Sean Lock: The modern scarf knot
- 002 - s01e02 - 2008-02-27
-
Fran Beauman: A pineapple
- Gary Sheffield: Anderson shelters
- Ben Elton: Privacy
- 003 - s01e03 - 2008-03-05
-
Arthur Smith: Arthur Cravan
- Frank Close: Nothing
- Ronald Hutton: Father Christmas
- 004 - s01e04 - 2008-03-12
-
Victoria Finlay: Pliny the Elder
- Kevin Day: The Battle of Waterloo
- Alastair Fothergill: A hairy anglerfish
- 005 - s01e05 - 2008-03-19
-
Jonathan Miller: The Nottingham alabasters
- Philip Ball: Phlogiston
- Marcus du Sautoy: The Monster
- 006 - s01e06 - 2008-03-26
-
John Gribbin: The Big Bang
- Alan Davies: Epping Forest
- Martha Reeves: Silence
- Series 2 - Curator Sean Lock
- 007 - s02e01 - 2009-05-04
-
Chris Donald: A British Railways bridge plate
- Brian Eno: Grímsvötn
- Dave Gorman: The urge to press red buttons that you know you shouldn't press
- 008 - s02e02 - 2009-05-11
-
Gavin Pretor-Pinney: A Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud
- Simon Singh: The Holmdel horn antenna
- Tim FitzHigham: Don Quixote
- 009 - s02e03 - 2009-05-18
-
Bettany Hughes: Helen of Troy
- Chris Addison: Alan Shepard's six iron
- Rupert Sheldrake: A sheep rolling over a cattlegrid
- 010 - s02e04 - 2009-05-25
-
Charlotte Uhlenbroek: A chimpanzee rain dance
- John Hodgman: Complete world knowledge
- Oliver James: Matt Ridley's nameplate from his office door at Northern Rock
- 011 - s02e05 - 2009-06-01
-
Kate Adie: The Holy Grail
- Jon Richardson: Hannah Hauxwell
- Roger Law: The perfect English Spot rabbit
- 012 - s02e06 - 2009-06-08
-
Clive James: A P-51 Mustang
- Tim Minchin: Tempting fate
- Philip Pullman: Inventions being used for things they were not designed for
- Series 3 - Curator Jon Richardson
- 013 - s03e01 - 2010-05-10
-
Marcus Chown: The Omega Point
- Terry Pratchett: A procrastinator
- Shappi Khorsandi: Charlie Chaplin
- 014 - s03e02 - 2010-05-17 - Curator Dave Gorman
-
Suggs: The Great Exhibition
- Ruth Padel: 10,000 tigers
- Leigh Francis (Keith Lemon): Spider-Man
- 015 - s03e03 - 2010-05-24
-
Richard Wiseman: The Milgram Experiment
- Kevin Eldon: The ten worlds
- Jon Ronson: A gay bomb
- 016 - s03e04 - 2010-05-31
-
Michael Welland: Singing sand dunes
- Sarah Bakewell: Michel de Montaigne's medallion
- Simon Evans: A total eclipse
- 017 - s03e05 - 2010-06-07
-
Ronni Ancona: Barry Marshall and Humphry Davy
- Daniel Tammet: Saul Bellow
- Robin Hanbury-Tenison: Nyapun, a Penan hunter-gatherer
- 018 - s03e06 - 2010-06-14
-
Sarah Millican: Pictures of animals in clothes
- David Eagleman: International Ignorance Day
- Neil Gaiman: Jack Benny's vault
- Series 4 - Curator Dave Gorman
- 019 - s04e01 - 2011-10-03
-
Francesca Stavrakopoulou: God
- Alex Bellos: A Curta calculator
- Jimmy Carr: A book containing all the jokes in the world
- 020 - s04e02 - 2011-10-10
-
Graham Linehan: A cassette tape
- Helen Scales: A tank full of seahorses
- Rory Sutherland: A single Shreddie shown from angle of 45°
- 021 - s04e03 - 2011-10-17
-
Roger Highfield: An invisibility cloak
- Robin Ince: The essential trifle
- Gareth Edwards: The first story ever told
- 022 - s04e04 - 2011-10-24
-
David McCandless: The super-ego
- Natalie Haynes: TV detectives
- David Crystal: A waffle generator
- 023 - s04e05 - 2011-10-31
-
Alain de Botton: A High Street psychotherapist
- Sara Wheeler: A carved walrus baculum
- Alex Horne: The word "dord"
- 024 - s04e06 - 2011-11-07
-
Lucie Green: An invisible coronal mass ejection
- Harry Enfield: A stupid German
- Alan West: A tot of rum
- Series 5 - Curator Jimmy Carr
- 025 - s05e01 - 2012-10-01
-
Erica McAlister: A cow pat
- Al Murray: A travellator
- Jan Bondeson: A security coffin
- 026 - s05e02 - 2012-10-08
-
Stuart Clark: Johannes Kepler's drink dispenser
- Tom Hart Dyke: Puya raimondii
- Jo Brand: Childhood, represented by a badly knitted jumper made by your nan
- 027 - s05e03 - 2012-10-15
-
Humphrey Ker: Chrétien de Troyes, inventor of chivalry
- Dr. Pamela Stephenson-Connolly: The object of desire
- Prof. Sir Andre Geim: The ghost of curiosity
- 028 - s05e04 - 2012-10-22 - Curator Humphrey Ker
-
Frank Cottrell Boyce: St Columba's Psalter
- Dr. Alice Roberts: The love child of a modern human and a Neanderthal
- Andy Nyman: Friday the 13th Part III 3-D
- 029 - s05e05 - 2012-10-29
-
Dr. Helen Czerski: A bubble
- Irving Finkel: An authentic portrait of Jane Austen
- Sean Hughes: A tab of LSD
- 030 - s05e06 - 2012-11-05
-
Dr. Buzz Aldrin: The Aldrin Mars cycler
- Marc Abrahams: The reports of Professor John Trinkaus on his pet peeves
- Sara Pascoe: User-friendly poisons, such as Botox
- Series 6 - Curator Humphrey Ker
- 031 - s06e01 - 2013-09-30
-
John Blashford-Snell: Henry Morton Stanley's compass
- Mark Watson: Mark Watson's glasses
- Joann Fletcher: A silver denarius struck to celebrate the Battle of Actium found in Barnsley
- 032 - s06e02 - 2013-10-07
-
Andrew O'Neill: A third class ticket on the London Necropolis Railway
- Amanda Palmer: A living statue
- Volker Sommer: A dozen defecated ant heads
- 033 - s06e03 - 2013-10-14
-
Howard Stringer: A sandbag
- Jane Bussmann: A funnyometer
- Richard Ingrams: A machine to give judges electric shocks if they slept in court
- 034 - s06e04 - 2013-10-21
-
Richard Herring: Grigori Rasputin
- Kristen Lippincott: A eureka moment
- Christofer Clemente: A lizard popping a wheelie
- 035 - s06e05 - 2013-10-28
-
Robert Llewellyn: An elm tree
- Cleo Rocos: A field of agave plants
- Kevin Warwick: A thinking machine
- 036 - s06e06 - 2013-11-04
-
Paul Sinha: C.B.Fry's mantelpiece
- Maggie Aderin-Pocock: The Prospero satellite
- David Frost: The Nixon Interviews
- Series 7 - Curator Phill Jupitus
- 037 - s07e01 - 2014-10-06
-
Jimmy Wales: A mobile phone in 2019 that will cost £10 to buy in Kenya
- Helen Keen: The Jack Parsons moon crater
- Kees Moeliker: A single pubic louse
- 038 - s07e02 - 2014-10-13
-
Kevin Dutton: A smile
- Sandra Knapp: Chuño
- Richard Osman: A bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk
- 039 - s07e03 - 2014-10-20
-
Sandi Toksvig: The alphabet
- Will Storr: Some type of tiny wasps
- Lieven Scheire: A parasitic wasp
- 040 - s07e04 - 2014-10-27
-
Rich Hall: The front porch
- Anna Keay: St. Edward's Crown
- Henry Marsh: A sea squirt's brain
- 041 - s07e05 - 2014-11-03
-
Clive Anderson: The Old Bailey
- Anne Dudley: The Woolsack
- Richard Williams: A Disney desk
- 042 - s07e06 - 2014-11-10
-
Neil Innes: The Institute of Cognitive Stupidity
- Bradley Garrett: London's hidden rivers
- Isabel Behncke Izquierdo: A laughing tree
- 043 - s07eSP - 2015-09-10 - Coding Special - Curator Sarah Millican
-
Sydney Padua: The Analytical Engine
- Eben Upton: A BBC Micro
- Matt Parker: A Williams-Kilburn tube
- Series 8 - Curator Sarah Millican
- 044 - s08e01 - 2016-01-11
-
Holly Walsh: The Vows of the Peacock
- David Bramwell: Part of a time machine made by the Federation of Damanhur
- Stephen J. Dubner: A microchip implanted into a human brain that could read all thoughts
- 045 - s08e02 - 2016-01-18
-
Greg Jenner: The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Hannah Fry: The equation for the perfect marriage
- Ken Dodd: William Shakespeare's chuckle muscle
- 046 - s08e03 - 2016-01-25
-
Henry Blofeld: P. G. Wodehouse
- Helen Sharman: The Deep Space Climate Observatory
- Felicity Ward: A toilet
- 047 - s08e04 - 2016-02-01
-
Tim Smit: The New Emperor's new clothes, which change colour when you lie
- Doris Vickers: A star clock
- Rufus Hound: The monkey mirror
- 048 - s08e05 - 2016-02-08
-
William Hartston: A black pawn on top of an entire of pile of chess pieces balancing on top of a rook
- Sophie Scott: A human tongue
- Matt Lucas: A fart
- 049 - s08e06 - 2016-02-15
-
Lucy Cooke: A pygmy sloth
- Adam Lowe: A Lucida 3D laser scanner
- Susan Calman: Fifty Shades of Grey
- Series 9 - Curator Noel Fielding
- 050 - s09e01 - 2016-07-29
-
Howard Goodall: A pantalon
- Rachel Armstrong: A witch bottle
- Nish Kumar: Blonde on Blonde
- 051 - s09e02 - 2016-08-05
-
Janey Godley: Some random dogs that wandered the streets in the 1970s
- Milton Wainwright: A box used to detect microscopic alien life in the stratosphere
- Corey Taylor: A deep fried wing of the Museum
- 052 - s09e03 - 2016-08-12
-
Susie Dent: A fly on the wall in a meeting between Francis Grose and Samuel Johnson
- Mike Shanahan: Some wild fig trees
- Ross Noble: Rarajipari
- 053 - s09e04 - 2016-08-19
-
Tristram Wyatt: A human pheromone
- Vic Reeves: An albino lapwing used by Sir Mick Jagger in 1966
- Kate Williams: A Cottingley fairy
- 054 - s09e05 - 2016-08-26
-
Janina Ramirez: Hildegard of Bingen
- Peter Frankopan: A retro 1970s spice rack
- Jenny Colgan: Narnia red
- 055 - s09e06 - 2016-09-02
-
George Monbiot: A short-faced bear
- Katie Birkwood: A Treatise on Astronomy by Gerolamo Cardano
- Craig Brown: Crossroads Motel
- Series 10 - Curator Jo Brand
- 056 - s10e01 - 2017-01-09
-
Helen Arney: The 4 newest chemical elements: Nh, Mc, Ts, Og
- Thomas Thwaites: A history book published in 2222 AD
- Aseem Hashmi: A ship's anchor
- 057 - s10e02 - 2017-01-16
-
Lucy Porter: Lycra
- Mark Forsyth: A wayzgoose
- Dave Trott: A ploughman's lunch
- 058 - s10e03 - 2017-01-23
-
Amber Butchart: The colour mauve
- Jack Waley-Cohen: A book of Tom Swifties
- Jimeoin: The speed of cheese
- 059 - s10e04 - 2017-01-30
-
Sofie Hagen: The manifesto for the rules of Dogme 95
- Jon Ablett: A snail glued to a board
- Kate Fox: Stone age selfies
- 060 - s10e05 - 2017-02-06
-
Deborah Frances-White: Emilia Lanier
- Dave Goulson: A pair of virgin deathwatch beetles
- Tony Robinson: A war memorial depicting the finale of Blackadder Goes Forth
- 061 - s10e06 - 2017-02-13
-
Henry Eliot: Longplayer
- Bee Wilson: The smell of coffee
- Michelle Wolf: CNN
- Series 11 - Curator Romesh Ranganathan
- 062 - s11e01 - 2017-07-28
-
Cally Beaton: The population of The Netherlands
- Sally Phillips: A knitted tea cosy to cover the museum
- Suzy Lishman: An exact replica of the foot bones of Richard III
- 063 - s11e02 - 2017-08-04
-
Phill Jupitus: A Siouxsie and the Banshees concert at Chelmsford Odeon on Sunday 26 July 1981
- Roger Graef: The theory of deterrence
- Prue Leith: Alexis Soyer
- 064 - s11e03 - 2017-08-11
-
Rainer Hersch: A descant recorder
- Beth Healey: The International Space Station
- Kaffe Fassett: The Watts Towers
- 065 - s11e04 - 2017-08-18
-
Cariad Lloyd: A Moomin
- Amanda Owen: A shepherd's whistle
- Gyles Brandreth: A button from the actor Donald Wolfit's King Lear costume
- 066 - s11e05 - 2017-08-25
-
Clive Oppenheimer: A small tin of magma
- Penny Rose: A skirt lifter
- Francis Wheen: A much-misinterpreted letter from Darwin to Marx
- 067 - s11e06 - 2017-09-01
-
Andy Miller: A burst balloon and an empty honey pot
- Kathy Lette: The maternal instinct
- Stephen Fry: A bunch of grapes
- Series 12 - Curator Sally Phillips
- 068 - s12e01 - 2018-01-08
-
Nikki Bedi: Ganesha
- bbb: The Moon Under Water
- Rory Bremner: "Mad Jack" Churchill
- 069 - s12e02 - 2018-01-15
-
Joe Lycett: A half-folded towel
- Tom Shakespeare: Georges Couthon's rolling chair / wheelchair
- Konnie Huq: A Blue Peter badge
- 070 - s12e03 - 2018-01-22
-
Stephen K. Amos: Tooting Broadway tube station
- Victoria Hislop: The mati
- Suze Kundu: Kevlar
- 071 - s12e04 - 2018-01-29
-
Sindhu Vee: The concept of hygge
- Paul Nurse: The Large Hadron Collider
- Rowan Pelling: A saucy limerick
- 072 - s12e05 - 2018-02-05
-
Ella Al-Shamahi: The perfect cave
- Dillie Keane: Her own homemade, slow-made chutney
- Richard Curtis: The Australian word googies, meaning "eggs"
- 073 - s12e06 - 2018-02-12
-
Robert Twigger: The attentionometer
- Suzanne Williams: The bus seat that Rosa Parks refused to give up
- Jack Carroll: Football Manager
- Series 13 - Curator Lee Mack
- 074 - s13e01 - 2018-10-01
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: Tai chi
- Kat Arney: A multi-coloured corn on the cob studied by Barbara McClintock
- Lucy Beaumont: The smallest window in the world
- 075 - s13e02 - 2018-10-08
-
Dolly Alderton: The world's worst wedding list
- Athena Kugblenu: A tin of corned beef
- Professor Nigel Shadbolt: Deep Blue
- 076 - s13e03 - 2018-10-15
-
Karen Dunbar: Side B, track 14 on disk 8 of a Pioneer LaserDisc karaoke machine (I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor)
- Professor John Wood: A single atom of iron and an X-ray free-electron laser
- Shaun Keaveny: An old-fashioned tube of toothpaste
- 077 - s13e04 - 2018-10-22
-
Steve Mould: Tomy the Talking Tutor
- Lucy Mangan: An amusement arcade penny pusher machine
- Graeme Le Saux: A 1980s Sony Walkman
- 078 - s13e05 - 2018-10-29
-
Daisy Goodwin: Prince Albert
- Lord Butler of Brockwell: 30 Russian MiG jet fighters found buried in the sand
- Nina Conti: A set of false teeth
- 079 - s13e06 - 2018-11-05
-
Andrea Wulf: A Labelling Machine
- Vikram Jayanti: A mirror showing unfinished masterpieces
- Bridget Christie: A vial of her own tears
- 080 - s13eSP - 2018-12-25
- Christmas Special - Decennial Stocktake - Curators
Lee Mack,
Sally Philips,
Jo Brand
and Jimmy Carr
-
Lee Mack: Boredom
- Sally Philips: Things that are so mediocre they normally they wouldn't be remembered
- Jo Brand: The smell of an estate agent
- Series 14 - Curator Bridget Christie
- 081 - s14e01 - 2019-09-30
-
Linda Agran: Test cricket
- Shini Somara: A slotted screw
- Jessica Fostekew: A sign saying "Live, Love, Laugh"
- 082 - s14e02 - 2019-10-07
-
James Wong: A terrarium
- Sarah Kendall: A ship in a bottle
- Sir Chris Evans: A cabbage
- 083 - s14e03 - 2019-10-14
-
Bobby Acharya: The Extra Dimension Observatory
- Fern Riddell: The Fruits of Philosophy published by Annie Besant
- Ahir Shah: A tin of tobacco
- 084 - s14e04 - 2019-10-21
-
Jen Brister: A microphone
- Jason Hazeley: Maurice Ravel's royalties
- Edward Brooke-Hitching: A land grant for 60 acres of land in the Poyais
- 085 - s14e05 - 2019-10-28
-
Celia Imrie: A half-burnt candle
- Lindsey Fitzharris: A cemetery gun
- Andrew Maxwell: A scale model old-school gypsy caravan
- 086 - s14e06 - 2019-11-04
-
Philippa Perry: A swarm of fruit flies
- Carlo Ratti: A bionic arm
- Doug Allan: The feeling you get when a wild animal trusts you
- 087 - s14eSP - 2019-12-23 - Christmas Special
-
J.K.Rowling: Inspiration
- Glyn Johns: A 3M M23 8 Track tape machine featuring a recording of Something by George Harrison
- Shazia Mirza: A pair of real eyebrows
- Series 15 - Curator Alice Levine
- 088 - s15e01 - 2020-09-07
-
Georgia Lewis Anderson: A mobile phone inside a crystal ball
- James Prichard (great-grandson of Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie's 900ml mug inscribed "Don't Be Greedy", from which she drank cream
- Danny Wallace: A giant balloon for transportation
- 089 - s15e02 - 2020-09-14
-
Helen Fielding: The African plant Welwitschia mirabilis
- Ainsley Harriott: The Victoria Falls
- Suzi Ruffell: A Dutch upright bicycle
- 090 - s15e03 - 2020-09-21
-
Roopa Farooki: A virtual patient
- Eddie Izzard: The centre of the universe
- Miranda Lowe: A moon jellyfish
- 091 - s15e04 - 2020-09-28
-
Ian Hislop: All the printed material in the world
- Josh Widdicombe: Bowerman's Nose
- Eugenia Cheng: An equals sign
- 092 - s15e05 - 2020-10-05
-
Jo Frost: A bottle of Mount Gay Rum
- Ken Cheng: The Starship Enterprise
- Theo Fennell: The perfect after dinner singsong
- 093 - s15e06 - 2020-10-12
-
Hannah Gadsby: A tardigrade
- Sarah Beynon: A wildflower meadow
- Ade Adepitan: A headtorch
- 094 - s15eSP - New Year Special
- Curators Alice Levine,
Sally Phillips
and Dan Schreiber
- Series 16 - Curator Holly Walsh
- This series seems to be recorded with all the participants remote from each other, and there is no audience
- 095 - s16e01 - 2021-10-18
-
Jamie MacDonald: A Blue Badge
- Jennifer Higgie: A Self Portrait of Catharina van Hemessen
- Francis Hamel: Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights
- 096 - s16e02 - 2021-10-25
-
Evelyn Mok: Dragon Gate in Sweden
- Alun Withey (historian): A mechanical beard
- Allan Scott: The Biggles books
- 097 - s16e03 - 2021-11-01
-
Jon Culshaw: The view from the surface of an alien planet
- Rosie Jones: The missing piece of the jigsaw
- Elisabeth Robinson: The high seas
- 098 - s16e04 - 2021-11-08
-
Mary Roach: NASA's faecal simulant
- Griff Rhys Jones: The River Lea
- Lemn Sissay: A button which when pressed tells you your talent
- 099 - s16e05 - 2021-11-15
-
Catherine Bohart: A perfect soft-boiled egg
- Elizabeth Day: A red apple and a discarded hair extension, referencing The Real Housewives of New York
- Bruce Dickinson: A bible with a history
- 100 - s16e06 - 2021-11-22
-
Daliso Chaponda: A church of laughter
- Sabrina Cohen-Hatton: A pack of Xoloitzcuintle dogs
- Kevin Fong: The sunrise after a night shift
- Series 17 - Curator Anna Ptaszynski
- This series seems to be recorded with all the participants remote from each other, and there is no audience
- 101 - s17e01 - 2023-02-20
-
Chris McCausland: The vinyl record
- Bill Liao: Drosophila melanogaster, a common fruit fly
- Miriam Margolyes: Charles Dickens
- 102 - s17e02 - 2023-02-27
-
Rosie Holt: The unwritten part of the poem Kubla Khan
- Professor Carlo Ravelli: A white hole
- Olivia Potts: A jar of marmalade
- 103 - s17e03 - 2023-03-06
-
Steve Nallon: The human larynx
- Polly Morgan: A hognose snake in a Tupperware box
- Randall Munroe: 10 to the power of 39 litres of soup
- 104 - s17e04 - 2023-03-13
-
Hannah Rose Thomas: Getting lost
- Alasdair Beckett-King: The Red Book of Appin
- Dame Sarah Storey: A map of the world
- 105 - s17e05 - 2023-03-20
-
Alfie Moore: A CHIS (Covert Human Intelligence Source)
- Dr Jessica Wade: A Raman spectrometer
- Isabel Hardman: A bee orchid
- 106 - s17e06 - 2023-03-27
-
Sikisa Bostwick-Barnes: A Gameboy Colour
- Bridget Nicholls: A termite mound
- Levison Wood: A megalodon tooth