History Series / OnlyConnect

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Taken from a much-quoted line in E.M. Forster's ''Literature/HowardsEnd'': "Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted." Explicitly referenced at least OnceASeries.

* EvolvingCredits: The hieroglyphs replaced the Greek letters in the title sequence from Episode 4x02 onwards (the hieroglyphs were first used in 4x01, but the opening sequence retained the Greek letters so as not to spoil the surprise.)

* '''Round 1: Connections''': Teams are presented with up to four apparently random clues and must figure out what connects them within 40 seconds. Each time the team asks for the next clue, the possible score drops from a maximum of 5 to a minimum of 1, with the other team getting a chance at 1 bonus point if the first team cannot guess the answer. Generally, the fourth and final clue is set up to be one that is a giveaway for the answer. One question in the round will have pictures as its clues, and another one will be music, signified by a special sound cue. An example question (from the 2014 Sports Relief special):

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs. The style of introducing contestants with NoodleIncident-type factoids also took a few series to develop, and in the first series the teams introduced ''themselves'' rather than Victoria doing it. Also, the first series made a big deal of including red herrings to lead teams to incorrect answers (which nowadays only feature in the connecting walls) while the predominant colour of the show was green (which the opening credits, graphics and the set behind Victoria all displaying this) before being changed to blue.

* VariationsOnAThemeTune: Series finals have featured the theme tune played on a barrel organ, and sung live by an a cappella group.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs. The style of introducing contestants with NoodleIncident-type factoids also took a few series to develop, and in the first series the teams introduced ''themselves'' rather than Victoria doing it. Also, the first series made a big deal of including red herrings to lead teams to incorrect answers, which nowadays only feature in the connecting walls.

* MilestoneCelebration: In the 300th episode, the contestants all sport "300" badges and there is a running gag of a piñata being lowered next to Victoria. During the end credits she sets about it with a baton -- it flies all over the studio but fails to break.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs. The style of introducing contestants with NoodleIncident-type factoids also took a few series to develop, and in the first series the teams introduced ''themselves'' rather than Victoria doing it. Also, the first series made a big deal of including red herrings to lead teams to incorrect answers. Nowadays, these only feature in the connecting walls; otherwise, not only do the question setters not attempt to lead the teams astray, but if they do so accidentally, as long as the team has made an honest and sensible attempt to solve the puzzle, they'll generally be awarded the points anyway.

** In the first two rounds, it's not uncommon for the first two clues in a question to suggest a spurious connection that will be utterly demolished by the third clue, to catch out teams who try to answer early.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: It's possible for teams to get credited for an unintentionally valid sequence, or an unintentionally correct Missing Vowels answer.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs. The style of introducing contestants with NoodleIncident-type factoids also took a few series to develop, and in the first series the teams introduced ''themselves'' rather than Victoria doing it.

** Similarly, in a 2018 episode, the first three categories in that round are "[[Series/{{Rainbow}} "Rod", "Jane" and "Freddie"]] (and the fourth is "Lists of three").

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs. The style of introducing contestants with NoodleInicident-type factoids also took a few series to develop, and in the first series the teams introduced ''themselves'' rather than Victoria doing it.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three series featured greek letters rather than egyptian hieroglyphs.

* PaperThinDisguise: Victoria insists that question editor David McGaughey looks exactly like the other question editor, Mr. Waley-Cohen, with the exception of his cowboy hat, ginger sideburns, and Texas accent, and always arrives in the studio just after Mr. Waley-Cohen has left.

** Throughout season 14, Victoria repeatedly implies that the two question editors, David McGaughey and Mr. Waley-Cohen, are the same person in a PaperThinDisguise.

* '''Round 3: Connecting Wall''': Teams are presented with sixteen jumbled up clues and must sort them into four connected groups of four in a two-and-a-half minute time limit. There is only one correct solution to the Wall, and peppered amongst the clues are several {{Red Herring}}s that may fit into another category, or even a whole set of clues that are part of a whole Red Herring category that is not part of the correct solution. Once the teams correctly sort two groups, they only have three chances to sort the other two.

* [=Corpsing=]: The Music/OneDirection [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-v29pf4Dow incident]].

** Throughput season 14, Victoria repeatedly implies that the two question editors, David McGaughey and Mr. Waley-Cohen, are the same person in a PaperThinDisguise.

** Victoria herself has appeared in a few clues: "People named Victoria", "People whose names are capital cities", the sequence { 6 → Connecticut → Heraldic gold → [[spoiler:(e.g.) Iowa]] } ([[spoiler:spells out "VICTORIA"]]), and when "OC trivia" was used as an anagram as part of a cryptic crossword clue (the connection was that all four clues had "Victoria" as their answers).

-->'''David''': Oh ''Brilliant(!)''