How does Only Connect work as the Victoria Coren Mitchell quiz show returns?

Victoria Coren Mitchell is back at the helm of Only Connect (Picture: BBC)

Monday nights are about to get a bit more quizzical as Only Connect returns for its latest series on BBC Two.

As per usual, Victoria Coren Mitchell will be in charge as the teams attempt to outdo each other in trying to crack some fiendishly difficult clues to connected words or phrases, in a bid to move to the next round.

The show – which began life on BBC Four – is now in its 17th series and is as popular as ever – but if you’ve never seen it before, or you’re still confused by the whole thing, just how does it work exactly?

Allow us to explain…

How does Only Connect work?

Only Connect sees teams of four having to guess the connection between four given words or phrases – which are usually fairly cryptic – across a series of rounds.

Round One

In the first round they are given the four words or phrases one by one, and have 40 seconds to figure out the connection between them. They are initially given one clue, and can request the others at any time in the 40 seconds.

The team will receive five points if they guess the connection after only one clue is revealed, three points for two clues, two points if they guess it after three clues and only one point if all four clues are revealed.

Round Two

In round two, the sets of clues are now sequences, and teams have to guess what the fourth word or phrase in the sequence is based on those they have been given. They can score points for correctly guessing the answer, even if they incorrectly guess the connecting theme of the sequence.

In both rounds, if the team guesses incorrectly in the allotted time, the other team can also make a guess, scoring a bonus point if they get the answer right.

Round Three

The third round is when it gets complicated, as the teams face a ‘connecting wall’ of 16 words of phrases, each of which consist of four groups of four connecting words or phrases.

The contestants have two minutes and 30 seconds to guess the first two groups, and can make as many guesses as they like at this stage – but once they have identified those they only have three guesses to try and deduce the others. And, of course, red herrings can appear on the board, making it even tougher.

There are bonus points up for grabs for any team that correctly identifies all four groups – but unlike previous rounds the other team cannot take a guess at each other’s walls.

Round Four

Victoria has hosted the show since it began on BBC Four (Picture: BBC)

Finally, round four is a quickfire round – with teams buzzing in, as they face a series of word puzzles with the vowels removed.

In this instance the category of each of the connected answers is given, and each correct answer scores each team one point – although it gets harder in the quarter-final, when they can lose points for wrong answers given.

Only Connect begins on BBC Two on Monday night at 8pm.

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