Only Connect
{{short description|British quiz show}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Only Connect title.png
| genre = Quiz show
| presenter = Victoria Coren Mitchell
| theme_music_composer = Dawson Sabatini
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| num_series = 20
| num_episodes = 504As of 3 March 2025.
The number of episodes comprises:
- 449 regular episodes (20 series),
- 55 special episodes (beyond series count).
| runtime = 29 minutes
| company = Presentable (2008–13)
Parasol (2013–22)
RDF Television (2013–24){{cite news |last1=Elmes |first1=John |title=Only Connect co-producer closes amid bumper order |url=https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/bbc/only-connect-co-producer-closes-amid-bumper-order/5168369.article |access-date=31 August 2022 |work=Broadcast |publisher=Media Business Insight |date=7 March 2022 |language=en |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626025118/https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/bbc/only-connect-co-producer-closes-amid-bumper-order/5168369.article |url-status=live }}
Remarkable Entertainment (2024–)
| channel = BBC Four {{small|(2008–14)}}
BBC Two {{small|(2014–)}}
| first_aired = {{Start date|2008|09|15|df=y}}
| last_aired = present
}}
Only Connect is a British television quiz show presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell. In the series, teams compete in a tournament of finding connections between seemingly unrelated clues. The title is taken from a passage in E. M. Forster's 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted."{{cite episode |series=Only Connect |series-link=Only Connect |series-number=1 |number=2 |title=Crossworders v Birkbeck Alumni |time=0:23 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGupZhiIAZA |access-date=1 July 2020 |date=22 September 2008 |quote="Hello and welcome to Only Connect, the show that takes its title from the passage in E.M. Forster's novel Howards End: 'Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted'." |archive-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930170312/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGupZhiIAZA |url-status=live }}
History
Only Connect aired on BBC Four from 15 September 2008 to 7 July 2014, before moving to BBC Two from 1 September 2014. From 2008 until 2013 the show was recorded in Studio 1 at the ITV Cymru Wales Studios, based at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff, which have now been demolished. It moved temporarily to Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff in late 2013, before settling in Enfys Studios in Cardiff from 2014 onwards.{{cite web|url=http://www.enfys.co.uk/credits/|title=Credits|publisher=Enfys HD TV Studios|access-date=31 January 2018|archive-date=26 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226183130/https://www.enfys.co.uk/credits/|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/rest%20of%20britain.htm |title=The rest of the UK – today (more or less) |work=An incomplete history of London's television studios |first=Martin |last=Kempton |access-date=24 August 2019 |archive-date=8 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608035352/http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/rest%20of%20britain.htm |url-status=live }}
The series is regularly the most watched programme on BBC Two of the week and is typically broadcast on Mondays between Mastermind and University Challenge as part of the channel's quiz night.{{Cite web|url=https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/most-viewed-programmes/|title=Weekly top 50 shows|website=Barb|access-date=27 January 2023|archive-date=18 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018150742/https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/most-viewed-programmes/|url-status=live}}
On 1 March 2010, an interactive online version of the Connecting Walls round was put on the Only Connect website.{{cite web |title=Play Only Connect |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/onlyconnect/quiz |access-date=8 December 2011 |publisher=BBC Four |archive-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430231840/http://www.bbc.co.uk/onlyconnect/quiz/ |url-status=live }} From mid-2011, coinciding with series 5, the website took online submissions for new Connecting Walls; the online game was discontinued for series 10.
In 2020, changes had to be made to the production of the show for series 16 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and new British government requirements and guidelines on television productions. For this new series, each team now sat at their desks socially distanced with perspex screens dividing the team members and no huddled conferring permitted. For the connecting wall round, each team stood socially distanced apart, with perspex screens separating them and only the team captain permitted to use the keyboard. These changes were kept in place up to and including series 18 but discontinued for series 19.
In June 2023, The New York Times introduced a daily word game called Connections. Several figures associated with Only Connect commented on its similarity to the Connecting Wall in the programme.{{cite news |last1=Abdul |first1=Geneva |date=15 June 2023 |title=What connects Only Connect and New York Times? Game's similarity puzzles host |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/15/connections-new-york-times-puzzle-only-connect-victoria-coren-mitchell |access-date=1 September 2023 |archive-date=31 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831174328/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/15/connections-new-york-times-puzzle-only-connect-victoria-coren-mitchell |url-status=live }}
Format
{{image frame|content={{aligned table|cols=3|colstyle=vertical-align:middle|
in hieroglyphs}}
Only Connect is deliberately difficult,{{cite web |title=Sunderland quiz captain takes on TV's Only Connect |url=https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/sunderland-quiz-captain-takes-on-tv-s-only-connect-1-5922983 |newspaper=Sunderland Echo |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=25 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162549/https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/sunderland-quiz-captain-takes-on-tv-s-only-connect-1-5922983 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Victoria Coren Mitchell on nerd pride and finding Only Connect's niche |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-05/victoria-coren-mitchell-on-nerd-pride-and-finding-only-connects-niche/ |newspaper=Radio Times |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=18 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118003542/https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-05/victoria-coren-mitchell-on-nerd-pride-and-finding-only-connects-niche/ |url-status=live }} and its contestants are often characterized – including within the show itself – as nerdy or geeky.{{cite web |last1=Butter |first1=Susannah |date=30 October 2018 |title=Only Connect: Warmth and humour make whip-smart Victoria Coren-Mitchell queen of the quizzes |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/only-connect-warmth-and-humour-make-whipsmart-victoria-corenmitchell-queen-of-the-quizzes-a3974731.html |newspaper=Evening Standard |location=London |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=11 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311212805/https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/only-connect-warmth-and-humour-make-whipsmart-victoria-corenmitchell-queen-of-the-quizzes-a3974731.html |url-status=live }} Teams are encouraged to take names which reflect specialist interests or hobbies, such as the 'LARPers' or 'Francophiles'. The show's questions will cover any topic, and many may require knowledge of both arcane subject areas and popular culture. Questions may also be self-referential, or based on linguistic or numeric tricks, rather than requiring any particular factual knowledge.{{cite web |title=Only Connect: If you think answering the questions is hard, try setting them |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/sep/07/only-connect-quiz-questions |newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 September 2010 |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=18 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118003541/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/sep/07/only-connect-quiz-questions |url-status=live }} When presented with the clues, contestants are not told the type of the connection, and as such part of the gameplay involves establishing whether the connection is thematic, linguistic, factual, mathematical, etc.
Coren Mitchell's presenting includes very dry, sarcastic humour, which may include a gentle mocking of herself, the contestants, the viewers, the show's production team, celebrities, or other popular quizzes.{{cite news|work=Evening Standard|location=London|author=Vicky Frost|title=Only Connect: The quiz queen baffles us again in this infuriating and irresistible finale|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/only-connect-bbc-two-review-a4401736.html|date=30 March 2020|access-date=8 December 2020|archive-date=19 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419112545/https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/only-connect-bbc-two-review-a4401736.html|url-status=live}} On occasion Coren Mitchell will wear a wig or costume (such as a carnival mask or a complete pilgrim outfit), and no reference will be made to her appearance.{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Sylvie |date=2021-09-23 |title=Victoria Coren Mitchell's hair transformation but fans are saying the same thing |url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/celebs/channel-4-taskmaster-victoria-coren-21654193 |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=MyLondon |language=en |archive-date=30 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930070645/https://www.mylondon.news/news/celebs/channel-4-taskmaster-victoria-coren-21654193 |url-status=live }}
Each programme has two teams of three people competing in four rounds of gameplay. Before the show, a coin toss is conducted to determine the order of play, with the winner deciding to either play first in Rounds 1 and 2, or pass to their opponent and play first in Round 3. In the first three series, clues in Rounds 1 and 2 and the connecting walls in Round 3 were identified by Greek letters. In series 4 Coren Mitchell announced that this idea had been dropped, ostensibly due to viewer complaints that it was too pretentious. Henceforth Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (two reeds, lion, twisted flax, horned viper, water, and the eye of Horus) would be used instead. The show's opening sequence displayed Greek letters in the first episode of Series 4, but these were replaced with the hieroglyphs in subsequent episodes.
Series 1–6 had a straight round-robin "knockout" format, which was then modified to a double-elimination tournament. Coren Mitchell sometimes joked in the programme that even she did not fully understand how it works and, especially in Series 12–13, it felt like the gameplay never ends and contestants "play and play and play…" Series 12–13 shifted to a format identical to University Challenge, with a knockout first round combined with a repechage for the best performing losers and double-elimination quarter-finals. The number of competing teams has fluctuated: 16 in series 1, 3–6, 10–11, and from 14 onwards; 8 teams in series 2, 8 and 9; and 24 in series 12–13. The difficulty of questions generally increases by each round.
= Round 1: Connections =
Teams are given up to four clues and must try to figure out the connection between them within 40 seconds. The team is initially shown one clue, and may request the remaining three clues at any time within the 40 seconds (they are not automatically shown). The team may press their buzzer to guess after the first clue for 5 points, the second for 3, the third for 2, or the fourth for 1. If the team guesses incorrectly, fails to answer after buzzing in a timely manner, or fails to buzz within the time allotted, the opposing team is shown any remaining clues and can answer for a bonus point. Play then alternates until each team has played three sets of clues. Typically, one of the six puzzles involves pictures, and another uses pieces of music, both classical and contemporary, but teams have no way of identifying these questions before making their choices. Sound or Music questions are generally considered among the toughest questions in the quiz, and a team's dismay upon realising they have chosen the sound or music question is a frequent source of humour on the programme.
= Round 2: Sequences =
In this round, each set of four clues forms a sequence. Teams may see a maximum of three clues, and must determine what would come fourth in the sequence within the 40 second time limit. As with the first round, teams score points dependent on the number of clues seen and if they fail to guess correctly, it is thrown over to the other team, who can see any remaining clues and answer for a bonus point. Some sequences can have multiple acceptable answers (for example, if the sequence is sources of Vitamins A, B, C, and D, any source of Vitamin D would be an accepted answer), while others may only have one. Teams can score points without correctly identifying what the sequence is, but may be required to do so if the sequence is very specific or if they are providing a correct alternative sequence incorporating the three provided clues. As in the previous round, one set of clues involves pictures, with teams describing the fourth picture in the sequence, and starting from the quarterfinals of Series 10, there is occasionally a sequence made by three music clips, with contestants supplying the title or artist/s of the fourth unplayed music clip.
For example, sequential clues of "Anger", "Bargaining" and "Depression" would be correctly followed by "Acceptance", these being the 2nd to 5th stages of the Kübler-Ross model of grief.
= Round 3: Connecting Wall =
{{multiple images
|total_width = 300
|perrow = 1
|image1 = Only Connect Round3 Unsolved.png
|alt1 = A four by four grid of 16 words: Love, Ace, Crab, Puck, Squash Ball, Deuce, Goose-Egg, Cowboy, Zip, Buttress, Bullet, Fox, Elastic Band, Nil, Fish, Condom
|image2 = Only Connect Round3 Solved.png
|alt2 = Four groups of four words categorized as follows: "Terms for Zero": Love, Goose-Egg, Zip, Nil. "Poker Terms": Crab, Deuce, Bullet, Cowboy. "Flying [blank]": Ace Buttress, Fish, Fox. "Things made of rubber": Elastic Band, Squash Ball, Puck, Condom.
|footer = An example jumbled "Connecting Wall" puzzle and its solution.
}}
Each team receives a wall of 16 clues and are given 2 minutes and 30 seconds to sort them into four groups of four connected items. The puzzles are designed to include red herrings and to suggest more connections than actually exist, as some clues appear to fit into more than one category, but there is only one perfect solution for each wall. Teams create groups one at a time by tapping on four tiles on the touchscreen, and can make unlimited guesses before finding two complete groups. Once two groups have been identified, teams are only given three chances to identify the remaining two groups before the wall freezes, even if there is time remaining on the clock.
Once all groups are found, time has expired, or all three lives are depleted, the team scores 1 point for each group found within 2 minutes 30 seconds, and any groups not found are shown. The team then scores 1 point for correctly identifying the connections in each group, including the groups they failed to find. If a team finds all four groups and correctly identifies all four connections, they are awarded 2 bonus points, for a maximum total of 10 points.
Unlike the previous rounds, the Connecting Walls are played in a separate room to the main studio with only one team playing at a time. The opposing team does not have the opportunity to score points from their opponents' wall or even to see what that wall is, as often the second wall will have a similar connection to the first, that the teams are oblivious to but may be easier for viewers to spot.
= Round 4: Missing Vowels =
In a final buzzer round, the teams are presented with a series of word puzzles. The category of the puzzles is given before they are displayed, and each category contains a maximum of four puzzles. Each puzzle is a word or phrase with the vowels removed and the spaces shifted to disguise the original words. For example, in a category of "Booker Prize-winning novels", a puzzle of "VR NNGDLT TL" would be correctly answered as "Vernon God Little".
Teams answer simultaneously using buzzers, and score 1 point for each puzzle they solve. Initially there was no penalty for guessing incorrectly on this round, but starting with the quarter-finals in Series 1, teams have faced a penalty of 1 point for each incorrect answer. Additionally, if the team that buzzes provides an incorrect answer (even by a single letter) or fails to answer quickly, the opposing team is given an opportunity to answer for a bonus point.
The round lasts for between 90 seconds and three minutes. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. If teams are tied, then a single sudden-death puzzle is given to the captains of each team. If a captain buzzes in first and gives the correct answer then their team wins, but an incorrect answer gives the win to the other team. Although no category is officially given, they make reference to their own role as sudden-death questions. Examples are "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish", "To the Victor, the Spoils" and "Winner Stays On".
Champions and runners-up
| class=wikitable |
| width=40|Series
!width=500|Champions !width=500|Runners-up |
|---|
| 1
|align=center|Crossworders |align=center|Lapsed Psychologists |
| 2
|align=center|Rugby Boys |align=center|Cambridge Quiz Society |
| 3
|align=center|Gamblers |align=center|Strategists |
| 4
|align=center|Epicureans |align=center|Radio Addicts |
| 5
|align=center|Analysts |align=center|Antiquarians |
| 6
|align=center|Scribes |align=center|Draughtsmen |
| 7
|align=center|Francophiles |align=center|Celts |
| 8
|align=center|Board Gamers |align=center|Bakers |
| 9
|align=center|Europhiles |align=center|Relatives |
| 10
|align=center|Orienteers |align=center|Chessmen |
| 11
|align=center|String Section |align=center|Wayfarers |
| 12
|align=center|Verbivores |align=center|Cosmopolitans |
| 13
|align=center|Escapologists |align=center|Belgophiles |
| 14
|align=center|Dicers |align=center|Time Ladies |
| 15
|align=center|007s |align=center|Suits |
| 16
|align=center|Puzzle Hunters |align=center|Dungeon Masters |
| 17
|align=center|Data Wizards |align=center|Golfers |
| 18
|align=center|Strigiformes |align=center|Crustaceans |
| 19
|align=center|Thrifters |align=center|Also Rans |
| 20
|align=center|Four Opinions |align=center|Tea Totallers |
Transmissions
= Series =
= Specials =
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
Notes
{{reflist|group=note}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{BBC programme}}
- {{IMDb title|id=1294009|title=Only Connect}}
- {{epguides|OnlyConnect}}
- {{UKGameshow|Only_Connect_(2)}}
{{Media in Cardiff}}
Category:2008 British television series debuts
Category:2000s British game shows
Category:2010s British game shows
Category:2020s British game shows
Category:BBC television game shows