Only Connect viewers baffled by brutal connecting wall as Keyboard Worriers struggle

Only Connect viewers were left stumped by what some described as one of the hardest connecting walls in the show’s history after the Keyboard Worriers struggled to solve their puzzle on Monday’s episode.

Hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell, the latest instalment saw the Jive Bunnies go head-to-head with the Keyboard Worriers.

The contrast between the two connecting walls quickly caught viewers’ attention. While the Jive Bunnies successfully completed their wall, the Keyboard Worriers were unable to find all four connections before their 2.5-minute time limit expired.

Jive Bunnies solve their wall

The Jive Bunnies managed to identify all four groups on their wall. The answers were brands of tyres, wrestlers, locations in Japan and dog breeds.

The Keyboard Worriers faced a considerably tougher challenge, according to viewers watching at home.

They had two and a half minutes to identify the four groups, but the clock ran out before they could complete the wall.

As the time expired, Victoria Coren Mitchell told them: “Oh no the time is up and the wall has frozen, I’m sorry what a horrid one. But I think you are going to know some of the connections.”

The team had managed to identify one group: string, bow, kipper and ascot, which are all types of ties.

They also spotted Sween, Carrickfergus, Gwrych and Corfe as castles in Britain.

The remaining two groups were Dickie, WH, Greg and Windsor, all famous Davieses, and dirt, beans, skinny and gen, which are slang terms for information or gossip.

“You did give me two connections, so you get two points,” Victoria told the team.

But the difficulty of the wall prompted a wave of reaction from viewers on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Horrible wall, that #onlyconnect.”

“Brutal wall. #onlyconnect.”

“Never seen a team get none of the connections #onlyconnect.”

Another viewer wrote: “That wall was HORRID #onlyconnect.”

One commenter described the two walls as a “shocking mismatch on difficulty”, arguing that the first appeared simple while the second was exceptionally difficult. They also questioned clues including Sween, skinny, regal and WH.

Another viewer said the walls were “ludicrously unbalanced”, while a further comment described it as the hardest connecting board they had seen on the programme.

Despite the difficult wall, the Keyboard Worriers ultimately came out on top. They finished the episode with 21 points, beating the Jive Bunnies on 19.

Viewers also questioned a TV and film question

The connecting wall was not the only recent Only Connect puzzle to spark debate among viewers.

Last month, viewers questioned a TV and film question during an episode in which the 5ks took on the Grapevines.

Shortly into the episode, Fiona Titcombe from the 5ks selected The Horned Viper. Victoria then asked: “Okay. What comes fourth in this sequence? Here is the first…”

The first clue was Charlie’s Angels.

Team member James Haughton quickly observed: “Charlie’s Angels. So there were three of them.”

When James asked for the next clue, the team was given Girls.

“So four girls. So there were four lead characters there, in Girls?” James said.

Thomas Carey suggested: “So, like, Friends, I guess, because there’s six of them…”

James agreed that Friends could fit the sequence.

“Yeah I guess that works. Could be a show with six women as the main characters.”

“Well, I mean, if you can think of it,” Thomas replied.

James settled on the answer, saying: “Yeah Friends works. Girls refers to four. Yeah we’ll go with that.”

After pressing the buzzer, he explained to Victoria: “We will go with Friends because the show’s title refers to six people.”

Victoria confirmed that the answer was acceptable before asking the team to explain the sequence.

James explained that Charlie’s Angels had three titular characters, Girls had four, and Thunderbirds had five, meaning the sequence was increasing in size.

Victoria confirmed that they had the right idea.

She also acknowledged a possible objection from viewers, saying she could imagine some people pointing out that Charlie himself might make the number in Charlie’s Angels appear to be four.

However, she explained that there were three Angels, while Lena Dunham’s Girls had four girls.

She then moved on to Thunderbirds, pointing out the five pilots.

When Victoria asked who they were, James confidently answered: “Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John?”

The answer prompted further discussion among viewers on X, formerly known as Twitter. Many said they were not convinced that Thunderbirds worked as part of the sequence and explained why they felt the answer was problematic.

Only Connect airs Mondays on BBC Two and is available to stream on iPlayer.