Q... (TV series)

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Q...
Logo c. 1969
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Spike Milligan Neil Shand
Starring	Spike Milligan
Opening theme	"The Q5 Piano Tune" by Spike Milligan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	38 (4 missing)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC
Release	24 March 1969 (1969-03-24) – 25 October 1982 (1982-10-25)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Q... is a surreal television comedy sketch show written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand, and starring Spike Milligan with supporting players, usually including Julia Breck, John Bluthal, Bob Todd, and John Wells. The show ran from 1969 to 1982 on BBC2. There were six series in all, the first five numbered from Q5 to Q9, and a final series titled There's a Lot of It About. The first and third series ran for seven episodes, and the others for six episodes, each of which was 30 minutes long.

Various reasons have been suggested for the title. One possibility is that it was inspired by the project to construct the Cunard liner QE2, launched in September 1967, which was previously codenamed Q4. Another theory is that Milligan was inspired by the BBC 6-point technical quality scale of the time, where "Q5" was severe degradation to picture or sound, and "Q6" was complete loss of sound or vision. This was extended by some engineering departments to a 9-point scale, finishing at "Q9". According to Milligan's autobiography, the final series was renamed There's a Lot of It About after the BBC felt the public might find Q10 too confusing.^{[citation needed]}