Only Connect’s missing vowels puzzles leave viewers baffled — can you solve them?

Few quiz shows can make a string of missing vowels look quite as intimidating as Only Connect.

The BBC Two quiz, hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell, has built a reputation for fiendishly difficult questions that require much more than straightforward general knowledge. Contestants are expected to spot connections, recognise patterns and think laterally, often with only a handful of letters to work with.

One of the show’s most demanding challenges is the Missing Vowels round. Teams are given words or phrases with the vowels removed and must work out the original answers from the remaining consonants.

And sometimes, even the contestants have a hard time seeing what is hiding in front of them.

Can you solve these missing vowels clues?

In Series 15, Episode 5, the final round came with the category Things that are Happening right now.

The four clues were:

• C NZC R
• TW NTYF RS TCNT RY
• CL MTC HNG
• MS SN GV WL SR ND

At first glance, they look almost impossible.

But once the vowels are restored, the answers are:

• Cenozoic Era
• Twenty-First Century
• Climate Change
• Missing Vowels Round

The final answer contains a particularly clever trick: Missing Vowels Round was itself happening right then, because the contestants were playing it.

The self-referential joke is typical of Only Connect. The programme has previously used the format itself as an answer, and its question writers are known for building those kinds of in-jokes into the puzzles.

So, how did you do?

If you want to try before looking at the answers, write each sequence down and experiment with different vowels. Sometimes saying the resulting word aloud is enough to make the answer click.

Another missing vowels challenge

There is an even more daunting example from Series 12, Episode 37, where the category was Five words in alphabetical order.

The clues were:

• BGB GBGB GBG
• PTTN GPTT NGPT TNGPT TNGP TTNG
• MSS SMS SSM SS SMS SSM SSS
• LS TL ST LST LS TL ST

The answers are:

• BAG BEG BIG BOG BUG
• PATTING PETTING PITTING POTTING PUTTING
• MASSES MESSES MISSES MOSSES MUSSES
• LAST LEST LIST LOST LUST

The challenge is made harder by the fact that each line contains several words following the same alphabetical pattern. With so many consonants and so few clues, identifying the first word is only the beginning.

It is the sort of question that can seem completely opaque until the pattern suddenly becomes obvious.

When even Victoria Coren Mitchell called a question “ungettable”

Only Connect has produced plenty of puzzles that have tested the limits of what viewers can reasonably be expected to work out.

One of the most memorable examples came in a question that Victoria Coren Mitchell herself described as her least favourite question in the whole series.

The episode featured teams The Golfers and The Jukeboxers, who were asked to identify the connection between a series of clues.

The first two clues were mathematical diagrams that represented 20 acres and 43 acres. The third was a photograph of a combine harvester.

The Jukeboxers then buzzed in and correctly predicted that the fourth clue would be a key.

The connection was a song by The Wurzels, The Combine Harvester. Its lyrics include the line:

“I got 20 acres, and you got 43 / Now I got a brand new combine harvester and I’ll give you the key.”

The answer was therefore The Wurzels, with all four clues pointing towards the song.

The solution clearly impressed the contestants’ ability to make the leap, but Coren Mitchell was far less convinced by the question itself.

She called it “ungettable” and questioned why anyone would think to convert the square-foot measurements into acres, connect those numbers with the combine harvester and then somehow know that the final clue should be a key.

Her reaction became almost as memorable as the question itself.

 

The show’s puzzles can be difficult for very different reasons

That is part of what makes Only Connect unusual. A question can be difficult because it requires specialist knowledge, because the pattern is deliberately obscure, or simply because the connection is so unexpected that contestants have to take a huge mental leap.

The Missing Vowels round is a particularly good example because the clues strip away much of the information normally available in a word.

Take:

BGB GBGB GBG

There is very little to work with until the category and pattern begin to narrow the possibilities. Once the answer BAG BEG BIG BOG BUG emerges, however, the logic becomes clear.

The same principle applies to:

PTTN GPTT NGPT TNGPT TNGP TTNG

which becomes:

PATTING PETTING PITTING POTTING PUTTING

And:

MSS SMS SSM SS SMS SSM SSS

becomes:

MASSES MESSES MISSES MOSSES MUSSES

Finally:

LS TL ST LST LS TL ST

becomes:

LAST LEST LIST LOST LUST

These questions reward patience as much as knowledge. They are designed to make viewers search for a pattern rather than simply recall a fact.

The appeal of Only Connect’s hardest questions

The reputation of Only Connect comes from precisely this mixture of knowledge and lateral thinking. The show regularly asks contestants to connect apparently unrelated clues, with the difficulty often coming from the unexpected route to the answer.

Its Missing Vowels round takes that idea and strips it down even further: familiar words are reduced to bare consonants, leaving contestants to reconstruct them from context.

That can produce some satisfying moments when a seemingly impossible clue suddenly falls into place.

And occasionally, the puzzle is so difficult that even Victoria Coren Mitchell is prepared to admit that she thinks it has gone too far.

For viewers at home, that creates an additional challenge. You can pause, stare at the letters and try to beat the contestants to the answer.

Sometimes you might even succeed.

So, did you get them?

The first set was:

• C NZC R → Cenozoic Era
• TW NTYF RS TCNT RY → Twenty-First Century
• CL MTC HNG → Climate Change
• MS SN GV WL SR ND → Missing Vowels Round

And the second set was:

• BGB GBGB GBG → BAG BEG BIG BOG BUG
• PTTN GPTT NGPT TNGPT TNGP TTNG → PATTING PETTING PITTING POTTING PUTTING
• MSS SMS SSM SS SMS SSM SSS → MASSES MESSES MISSES MOSSES MUSSES
• LS TL ST LST LS TL ST → LAST LEST LIST LOST LUST

If you managed to solve most of them without peeking, you may have the sort of lateral-thinking skills that Only Connect demands.

And if you didn’t, you’re certainly not alone.

Only Connect airs on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer. The programme continues to challenge contestants with connections that can look completely nonsensical until the answer finally clicks into place.