Topic: Only Connect (BBC4)

[Garfield And Friends]

Personally, it takes me about an hour to write each one, then about another hour to verify the sources. All the questions get sent to the same verifiers who do University Challenge.

David, I have an excellent suggestion for future editions of Only Connect: Have the losing team 'gunged' (a la Saturday morning kids' shows). Great, eh? Either that, or force the losers to eat grubs (like outdoor survival person Bear Grylls). Then the whole family could enjoy it!

Please forward my suggestion to the producers. Ta!

[Pseudopath]

This is undoubtedly way too easy for OC-connoisseurs, but it's worth a stab:

Corbel	Still	Pasture	Ogee
Plaskett	Baja	Fortified	Dog
Musk	Barnard	Bell	Sparkling
Aromatized	Bessel	Luyten	Lancet

EDIT: Changed 'Natural' to 'Still' (the original term is valid, but you'll have a better chance of Googling the answer with 'Still')

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

Always a bit crap at the wall (bring on the wall!) when I'm watching, but - mad props to Google - I think I've got it:



(L-R) Lutyen, Bessel, Plaskett and Barnard were all astronomers.




Still, Sparkling, Aromatized and Fortified can all go before 'water'.




Bell, Lancet, Corbel and Ogee are all arch shapes.




Pasture, Dog, Baja and Musk are all types of rose.


What do I win?

[Uncle TechTip]

A warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

With the 'link four things' round, do they still all go into a mysterious dark room to play it? That made me chuckle. What's the reason for that, something to do with camera angles?

[Pseudopath]

Oh, bad luck. I was actually thinking of still, sparkling, fortified and aromatized wine. I'm afraid you go home empty-handed*

^{*other than the nagging thought that you'd managed to identify the other 12 answers and would have got the other 4 right through process of elimination. Perhaps I should have called my game Only Correct.}

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

I'm no Jesus, but I think that water and wine are interchangeable on this one. I certainly got Google results for water + all of them (see images). So that's not so much a red herring as an ILLEGITIMATELY AMBIGUOUS ANSWER.

I'm telling davidbod on you. And I wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Coren wanted to punish you in some way.

[Pseudopath]

I'm no Jesus, but I think that water and wine are interchangeable on this one. I certainly got Google results for water + all of them (see images). So that's not so much a red herring as an ILLEGITIMATELY AMBIGUOUS ANSWER.

Oh, go on then.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Coren wanted to punish you in some way.

"You just broke the wank bank".

[Steve Lampkins]

My favourite Missing Vowels round was the 'French phrases commonly used in English' round, where D JV came twice.

[ozziechef]

I present Only Connect:

Round 1 - What's the connection:

Kimbolton, Tower of London, Chelsea Old Manor, Sudeley Castle

Round 2: What's next

Turtle Doves, French Hen, Gold rings, ?????

Round 3 - The Grid

FORD          SHEEP         BOOTH       TULL
RADLEY       COMEDY      BEAUTY      PARSONS
RUBY          HAND          FINCH         VILLAIN
FERDINAND  CALPURNIA   ROBINSON   HEEP

Round 4 - Missing Vowels

BBC Comedy Series

KPN GPPPRN CS
TR RYN DJN
TH TH NBLL N
RDD WRF

News Readers/Broadcasters

NCHL SWTCHLL
PT RSSS NS
JNS NW
MNHL MS

[joeyzaza]

If the answer to round 2 is "Swans-a swimming" (prime numbers / 12 days of Christmas), then it's quite nifty, but would almost certainly inspire the wrong answer after the 2nd clue was revealed, and is therefore naughty.

[ozziechef]

You're right, perhaps the clue should be Pipers, Swans, Rings, ?????

[joeyzaza]

You're right, perhaps the clue should be Pipers, Swans, Rings, ?????

Hmmm, it's still a little ambiguous. As well as the descending primes (11, 7, 5, 3) sequence, I also see a "keep halving the gap between each subsequent number" (11, 7, 5, 4) sequence.

Sadly, I think you'd need there to be a "13 somethings somethinging" line in the song in order for there to be an unambiguous prime sequence that you could use (13, 11, 7, ???). Which is a shame, as I very much like the concept.

[SOTS]

I've played poker with Victoria. Rearrange that sentence into something much dirtier sounding.

Is she a complete bitch, Rudi? The lads downstairs that I watch Only Connect with every week seem to think she is.


They always mention it, rather than just knocking one out like everyone here seems to be doing...

[jennifer]

I like the entirely pointless 'greek letters' for the first round, rather than just picking a number. I don't know any greek letters, not being posh, so I could only select ones I know from Animal House "Beta please" "that's gone..." "erm...squiggly @-sign thing then..."

[rudi]

Is she a complete bitch, Rudi? The lads downstairs that I watch Only Connect with every week seem to think she is.

Well I've only met her once; she was pretty much only interested in speaking to the other semi-famous people in the room and didn't mind who knew. Might have been having a bad day, who knows, but I can't say she seemed very nice, sadly. I'd love to have met her dad though...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I don't know any greek letters, not being posh knowledgeable in that area.

Fixed.

[jennifer]

Sorry Shoulders, of course you don't have to be posh to know the Greek alphabet, but I am lumping it in with Latin as 'a thing more likely to be taught at public school'.

[rudi]

And Greek schools.

[davidbod]

There is a technical reason for the Greek letters, other than being a sign saying "go away, thickies". They are neutral, scientific-like labels for the questions. Since many of our questions contain numbers, letters, symbols, colours and other natural labelling systems, it makes sense to use a label that is impossible to confuse with an actual clue.

And, after many teams being tempted in the past, someone does have the guts to ask for the "squiggly one" later in the series.

[Garfield And Friends]

And, after many teams being tempted in the past, someone does have the guts to ask for the "squiggly one" later in the series.

Use spoilers, man! Spoilers!

[Still Not George]

There is a technical reason for the Greek letters, other than being a sign saying "go away, thickies". They are neutral, scientific-like labels for the questions. Since many of our questions contain numbers, letters, symbols, colours and other natural labelling systems, it makes sense to use a label that is impossible to confuse with an actual clue.

This is awesome, thank you so much for this stuff.

[greencalx]

If you do any amount of maths post, say GCSE level - even at a rural comprehensive in the middle of nowhere - you end up knowing pretty much all of the Greek alphabet. (Though lower-case xis and zetas tend to end up looking like crotchet rests no matter how much care you take, and omicron is pretty useless as a mathematical symbol).

[davidbod]

Another secret is that the letters don't really appear in Greek on the contestant monitors. They just say "Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma" etc. instead.

[jennifer]

There is a technical reason for the Greek letters, other than being a sign saying "go away, thickies". They are neutral, scientific-like labels for the questions. Since many of our questions contain numbers, letters, symbols, colours and other natural labelling systems, it makes sense to use a label that is impossible to confuse with an actual clue.

And, after many teams being tempted in the past, someone does have the guts to ask for the "squiggly one" later in the series.

Ahhhh... thanks for that completely reasonable and informative answer to my facetiousness. Please stay around and raise the tone of this place.

[jennifer]

If you do any amount of maths post, say GCSE level - even at a rural comprehensive in the middle of nowhere - you end up knowing pretty much all of the Greek alphabet. (Though lower-case xis and zetas tend to end up looking like crotchet rests no matter how much care you take, and omicron is pretty useless as a mathematical symbol).

I didn't. Once it became obvious I couldn't grasp arithmetic it was decided I was a lost cause and I was allowed to sit at the back with a Fey Weldon. Otherwise known as 'taking the swotty weirdo down a peg or two'.

If I'd known maths was like, letters and being allowed to use a calculator once you'd cracked times tables I would have taken an interest. *not bitter*

[ozziechef]

David,

Hove you don't mind me asking a few questions to you but I saw your entry on Wikipedia and noticed you were a games devisor on Crystal Maze.

What games did you devise? I'm guessing not the physical ones? Were you involved in any more ways than this?

Sorry for asking, I'm intrigued by the making of TV shows and would love any secrets.

[papalaz4444244]

VC's tits look fantastic tonight...

[joeyzaza]

As announced on tonight's show, there's now a playable online version of the connecting wall game:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/onlyconnect/quiz/

By (I think) completing one of them in a fast time, I appear to have unlocked this easter egg:

[JesusAndYourBush]

2010, blimey!  Woops sorry for the thread necromancy.  There's probably a more recent thread with a whimsical name that I'll never find, called summat like Vicky C's Riddle-Me-Ree!

[BlodwynPig]

They had essentially the same question on both only connect and university challenge last night.

Popular vote losing presidents.

What are the chances of that?