Snake Charmers v Extras Only Connect

What do ghosts eat?

Well, the ancient Greeks believed that the ghosts of their dead roamed

for an eternity, consuming fields of the grey-white flower asphodel.

Conversely, in Taoist parts of Asia,

relatives lay out gifts of rice and bread

for the spirits of their loved ones.

Meanwhile, in the modern Western tradition,

ghosts eat mainly goul-ash, dreaded wheat and spook-ghetti.

So it all depends on your culture.

Quizzing tonight, on my right...

Thomas Rychlik,

a software engineer who sings in a choir and enjoys fire dancing.

Kate Pfeffer, an English graduate

with a passion for interesting zoological facts.

And their captain, John Howe,

a PhD student who owns a significant collection of empty port bottles.

United by a soft spot for serpents,

they are the Snake Charmers.

Are you all snake owners? Do they make nice pets?

No, Kate's the only one

who's a snake...who has a pet snake,

but Tom and Kate bonded

over building a snake box

that I have driven Kate to get from the shop,

so it's an important part of the lives of the three of us.

A heart-warming tale.

Welcome to the show.

You are playing against tonight, on my left...

Vikram Vasu,

a financial services professional with a passion for London Transport

who enjoys watching time-lapse videos of London bus routes.

Shrikant Narasimhan, an analytics

consultant who once played the part

of a cynical, middle-aged tea vendor on a train.

And their captain, Vinod Ganesh,

a financial analyst who used

a series of ten quiz questions to propose to his wife.

All experienced background actors,

they are the Extras.

Front of stage tonight - how are the nerves getting to you?

We're just glad there is a lot of water on the table.

Well, good luck.

You won the toss, Snake Charmers,

but in your first fiendish move,

you decided to put your opponents

in first. So, Extras,

please choose an Egyptian hieroglyph.

We'd like the Twisted Flax, please.

The Twisted Flax will be the first question of tonight's show.

What is the connection between four apparently random clues?

Shout "next" when you want another one.

Here's a first.

Bubble. Types of wrap.

Types of bath. Types of tea.

Next.

-Indemnity.

-Double, double!

-What does "double" mean?

Double indemnity.

-What is a double bubble, you know?

-It's something.

OK. You want to go for another one?

Next.

Yes, that's it.

All of these can be prefixed by the word "double".

Absolutely right. You didn't need

to see the last one, entendre.

Can you think of a good double entendre, or shall I give you one?

I'm just joking.

They can all be preceded by double.

Double Dutch. Double bubble -

that's the sort of way being paid double time.

Double indemnity.

Double dating, we could've had,

which my screen tells me

is an awkward social convention.

I think that's the question writer

speaking from experience there.

Well done. Coming in after

three clues, you get two points.

Snake Charmers, what would you like?

Well, as we are the Snake Charmers, could we have Two Reeds, please?

That makes perfect sense. Two Reeds for you.

What is the connection between these clues? Here's the first.

Ties from Nottinghamshire.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

The second Mrs Lineker from Buckinghamshire.

Is it going to be all the same thing?

His wife, I don't know what she's called.

-We have to go next, I think.

-Yep.

-Next, please.

SHE WHISPERS

Harts, harts!

-Hearts?

-Deer are harts.

-Oh, cos is it...?

-Oh, and knots.

-Knots from Nottinghamshire. Right.

-Bucks. Yep.

-OK.

So they are all something from something that sounds the same.

So deer from Hertfordshire are harts from Herts.

Ties from Nottinghamshire are knots from Notts.

And things like that.

You're obviously right and I'm going

to give you two points as well.

You didn't need to see the last clue.

What it is, is they are

county abbreviations

and a clue to a synonym for that. So ties could be called knots,

like Notts, the abbreviation for Nottinghamshire.

Gary Lineker's second wife, Danielle Bux, from Bucks.

And deer are harts.

And a wild cat from Lincolnshire would be?

-A lynx.

-Lynx, of course.

So well spotted - a word question -

and you get two points as well.

Back to you, Extras. What would you like?

-We'd like the Eye of Horus, please.

-The Eye of Horus.

Everyone listening out for the

jingle of the music question.

Not yet. What is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

-Do you know anything for names of a place?

-No.

Next, please.

Bronze bread.

Golden... Golden apple.

Next, please.

Maybe it's something like colours or something.

It's too obvious.

Large white apple, what could a large white apple be?

Some kind of noble? Some kind of statue?

Next, please.

Hereford horseradish.

HE WHISPERS

Two seconds.

All of these things are not actually what they are.

So large white apple is not an apple.

Bronze bread is not actually bread.

-That's the connection.

-Not the answer, I'm afraid.

So, Snake Charmers, you have the chance for a bonus point.

Are they all carrots?

They are not all carrots.

Now, Extras, you're right,

they don't really exist,

but what they are is something else,

and this is a very nice, cryptic Only Connect question.

At the top is a breed of animal -

the Large White pig, the Bronze turkey,

Suffolk is the kind of sheep, Hereford - a cow.

Underneath, a sauce with which you might eat it.

It's not a question for vegans,

I'll be honest with you.

It's not for vegans. The question writer here,

bloodthirsty, he's thinking

that Large White might be delicious

with apple sauce,

Bronze turkey with bread sauce,

Suffolk sheep or lamb with mint sauce

and Hereford with horseradish.

No bonus, then, Snake Charmers,

but you may choose a hieroglyph.

-Can we have Lion, please?

-You absolutely could.

JINGLE There it is.

The music question. You will be hearing the clues.

What connects them? The first one is coming in now.

# Back since the days of old Methuselah

# Everyone loves the big bamboozler... #

-Razzle Dazzle.

-Next, please.

YODELING

Is this...?

Is this the Tralalala song?

No, it's not.

OK. Next, please.

# Wop bop a-loo, bop a-lop ba ba!

# I've got a girl named Sue... #

-Oh, it's...

-Yeah, the...

-Yeah.

-# She knows just what to do. #

They have two-word titles

where they've just changed the first letter

of the first word to get the second word.

So, like Razzle Dazzle, Tutti Frutti, they rhyme.

I'll accept it - they do change it in Tutti Frutti,

but they change it for two letters, don't they? T to an FR.

But rhyming titles. What did we hear?

We heard Razzle Dazzle and Tutti Frutti,

and something else is the second one.

You don't know the great Dutch

prog rock number Hocus Pocus?

No, strangely!

That's what that was.

They all rhyme, and they do change the first letter

in the third case to two letters,

but well done.

We don't often get an early buzz on the music question. Well quizzed.

Back to you, Extras, for a choice.

-We'd like to go with Water, please.

-Water, OK.

What is the connection between these clues? Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

THEY WHISPER

-Manuel. Or something else?

-Yeah, Manuel.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Fawlty Towers?

-Yes!

-Is that a...?

-Yeah.

Characters in Fawlty Towers.

Good brave early buzz.

They share their names with

the staff of the great hotel

Fawlty Towers. Very well done.

-Talk me through the clues.

-The first one is Manuel Noriega.

-Mm-hm.

-And the second one is Polly Toynbee.

-Who are these people?

-Manuel Noriega, I think, was the dictator in Panama.

-That's right.

-And Polly Toynbee...

-Guardian columnist.

Guardian columnist, that's right.

What about the clues you didn't need to see?

-Last one is Basil Rathbone.

-That's right.

-Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes in many films.

-Yeah.

-And you know clue three?

-Sybil?

It's Dame Sybil Thorndike,

the actress, yes. Very well done.

Three points for the early buzz.

Back on you, Snake Charmers,

for the last question of the round.

It will be the Horned Viper, and it is the picture question.

What connects these picture clues? Here's the first.

Next, please.

-That's Hugh Dennis.

-Hugh Dennis, Merkel...

Angela, Hugh...

Next, please.

That's Theresa, Theresa May,

so we've got Dennis May...

No. Or Angela Hugh...

Theresa... Are they characters from something?

-Go next?

-Yeah.

-Next, please.

-Austens.

-Austen...

KATE WHISPERS

-What?

-THEY WHISPER

Two seconds.

The Mitford sisters.

I like it. I mean, often the

connection is the Mitford sisters,

but sadly for you, not in this case.

Extras, you've the chance of a bonus point.

We will go the Bronte sisters.

Well, that's not it either, though

the fourth clue is the Bronte sisters. No.

Now, I think you probably do know

the answer to this,

it's just a case of finding it.

It is just the lateral thinking.

They are the children of clergy.

All of them had parents in the clergy.

Angela Merkel, a Protestant pastor was her father.

Hugh Dennis' father was a bishop.

They say that quite often

about Hugh Dennis' father.

Theresa May, of course, clergyman's daughter. And the Brontes...

Patrick Bronte was the perpetual

curate of Haworth for 41 years.

So not that perpetual.

Do you know how Charlotte Bronte

spent her first earnings?

-Was it on a pet snake?

-It was not.

-It was on dentistry.

-Oh!

I considered spending

my first earnings on dentistry,

but as you can see, I chose not to.

That means, at the end of Round One,

the Snake Charmers have four points,

the Extras have five.

Onto Round Two, the sequences round.

This time, the teams may see a maximum of three clues,

because I want to know what would come fourth in a sequence.

Extras, you'll be going first again.

Please choose a hieroglyph.

We'll go with the Twisted Flax.

The Twisted Flax. OK.

These clues will come in a sequence,

you need to work out the sequence

and then tell me what would come fourth.

And the first one is coming in now.

Single Olympic winners, probably.

-Let's see where they go with it.

-We'll wait for the next one.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

Nicole Cooke.

So it is something from 2012. No, 2016.

Owain.

-2016, obviously.

-2016.

-Individual goals.

No, it could be the other cyclist.

No, Laura something whose husband is...

Next, please.

-So 2016.

-Two seconds.

Oh, I'm afraid the clock's run down. The time is up.

So bonus chance for you again,

Snake Charmers.

2016, Jason Kenny.

That's not it.

-What do you think the sequence is?

-Most medals won by...

A British, a Team GB athlete in a single Olympics.

It's not most medals,

it's the first medals.

These are the people who won

the first gold medals for Team GB

at those Olympic Games.

Chris Hoy and Nicole Cooke, cyclists.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning,

that wasn't actually cycling.

-Do you know the sport?

-Rowing.

It was the rowing, the women's pair. That's absolutely right.

Adam Peaty, the 100m breast stroke

was our first medal in 2016.

Which question would you like for yourselves?

-Could we have Eye of Horus, please?

-You certainly could.

What would come fourth in this sequence? Here's the first.

-That's Madagascar, I think.

-Yeah, and four.

Four.

Next.

-Three.

-Madagascar...

It's number of syllables and the name of islands.

New Zealand.

So... What's an island nation that's one syllable?

There's got to be something. Um...

Or else they wouldn't make the question.

-I can't think of one.

-Just say...

Yeah, if you can't think of one.

A one on a picture of an island nation

with one syllable in its name.

Now, because

this is your opening heat...

..I am going to give it to you.

And I'll tell you why.

You have made the question

more specific than you needed to.

It doesn't need to be an island.

I know you know what the sequence is,

but the sequence is just

syllables in country names.

You have correctly identified

Madagascar for four syllables,

New Zealand for three.

At clue three, we had Poland

for two syllables, so actually

it could have been any country.

If you can tell me a country whose name is one syllable...

-France.

-France. Chad. Spain.

Or, my screen tells me,

Laos or Wales.

But, yes, it's one syllable country name.

But because you spotted the sequence

and refined it too far,

the extra cleverness

gets you the points. Well done.

Extras, back to you for a choice.

We'd like to go for the Water, please.

The Water question, OK. What would come fourth in this sequence?

Here's the first.

Largest red.

THEY WHISPER

OK. Next, please.

Second largest, mauve-purple.

-Something fourth largest, obviously.

-Yeah.

Any guesses?

Next, please.

Second smallest, orange brown.

Is this snooker... Snooker balls?

-They aren't different sizes. What else is different sizes?

-Planets.

Planets?

These are the colours in which the planets...

I want to know what comes fourth

in the sequence.

Yellow. Fourth... Smallest, yellow.

I can't accept it, I'm afraid,

so another bonus chance for you,

Snake Charmers.

-Smallest, white.

-Not it.

Smallest, turquoise-blue.

I might have taken green.

This is a question about banknotes.

It's the colours of current banknotes in England and Wales,

the largest, the £50 note, red.

The second largest, mauve-purple,

£20 note. A tenner, orange brown.

And I wanted to hear smallest,

turquoise-blue for the £5 note.

So nobody spotted that one.

Snake charmers, your own question.

-Can we have Two Reeds, please?

-You certainly can.

What would come fourth in this sequence? Here's the first.

8: tune. Like octave?

-An octave tune? I'll go next.

-Yeah.

Next, please.

Erm...

Oh! No, it's planets.

Because it's Neptune, Uranus

and then Saturn, Jupiter.

So they're missing the first...

It's either the last four letters or...

Oh, no, it's the last four letters,

so it's going to be

i-t-e-r.

Are we happy?

-Yeah, I'm happy.

-Mm-hm.

BELL

5: iter.

Is the right answer. Very well done.

What's happening here?

We are going in words

with the planets from Neptune,

but only showing

the last four letters.

Last four letters of planets

moving towards the sun.

I mean, quite clearly the question writer has come up with this

because he wanted to put the word "anus" on-screen.

This is what you need to know about our question writers.

They are the kind of people

that in their 40s still type

8-0-0-8-5 into a calculator

because it says "boobs."

I mean, they are so delighted

that those clues have come up quite...

You know, it's simply planets! Don't write in.

It's simply the names of planets

with the first letters taken off

moving towards the sun.

A rigorously intellectual question.

Very well spotted over there.

Back to you, Extras, for a choice.

-Er... We'd like to go for the Lion, please.

-OK, the Lion is all yours.

What would come fourth

in this sequence? Here's the first.

25%...

-In its bag.

-Hmm?

-You'd use a bag.

-What?

-You normally use a bag.

Next, please.

ABBA: 50%...

The number of letters that are common? B-B-B?

-The word A. 100%.

-Two As.

-Yes.

-BELL

-The word... 100 and...

-No.

-Yes!

-100% A.

-Hello?

-Er...

-Letter.

-The letter A. 100%.

Colon 100%.

And why would that be?

-The percentage...

-Percentage of As

in the name of the band.

I'm afraid that is not

mathematically correct because there are seven letters in Garbage.

It's not the answer. I was thinking

whether I could give it to you,

but 25% of the letters

in Garbage aren't As,

so I must show the third

in the sequence

to the Snake Charmers

for a possible bonus.

Er... The Beatles: 100%.

Not the answer, I'm afraid.

Why do you say that?

It's the proportion of...

It's four-piece bands

and it's the proportion that's either men or women

And I wasn't sure which way to go.

What do you know about the make up of The Corrs?

Er... Not very much...

-I see.

-..as it turns out.

Well, you're right, but it's women.

You guessed the wrong way.

The Corrs are Andrea, Caroline,

Sharon and Jim. So 75% female.

Garbage, one female member.

ABBA - two, of course.

So we need a four-piece band,

100% female.

We went with Little Mix

who won The X factor. Unlucky.

So, you don't get the bonus, but you do get the last question,

the Horned Viper waiting there at the end again

coiled up in the laundry basket waiting for you.

What would come fourth in this sequence? Here's the first.

-Science.

-It could be anything.

Next.

-STEM?

-Yeah.

-What's M?

-Mathematics.

You did it, Tom!

BELL

-Mathematics.

-Is the right answer.

And what's happening in this sequence?

It's the STEM subjects.

That's absolutely right.

Science, technology, engineering mathematics - the STEM subjects.

Very well done.

And that means at the end of Round Two, the Extras have five points.

The Snake Charmers have 13.

Time for the Connecting Wall now.

16 jumbled up clues that the teams need to sort

into four connected groups of four.

You'll be going first this time, Snake Charmers.

Would you like Lion or Water?

-Could we have Lion, please?

-Yes, you could.

You've got two and a half minutes to solve the Lion wall starting now.

OK, so there are crested penguins.

-Oh, we've got characters from Buffy.

-Oh, yes, of course!

-Xander, Willow...

-Spike, Giles, Angel.

-Yep.

-Finally, Buffy comes up!

-There is also...

Bearded Dragon, crested dragon... Oh, setter, Searle...

So, what are the penguins?

-Are they penguins?

-I don't know. They're somethings.

Er... There's also Gerald Scarfe. Is that his name?

The cartoonist who did The Wall.

You get a red setter...

A weeping willow.

Oh, bearded tit, willow tits,

-bluetit, crested tits.

-Yup.

Three lives now. Choose with care.

Searle... Searle is a name of someone.

There are names here.

Brookes, Scarfe, Searle...

Soft block?

Soft block, it sounds like a way of doing something.

Erm...

Kitchen tidy...

Dig in...

Red setter?

What's Libero? Do we know?

Is that...? Oh, is that an app?

-Is Libero an app?

-Could be.

-Could be.

Anagrams or anything?

-Erm...

-Soft block could be an anagram.

Hmm... No, it's not.

I'm fairly sure it's not.

Could be an anagram, make it interesting.

I think these two are...

-Oh, these three I think are all cartoonists.

-OK.

So Libero is probably the last one.

-Probably.

-Setter, Dig...

Although it could be Setter.

I mean, we've got three lives, don't we? So...

You've got a minute left.

Let's go for them.

-OK, I'm going to try them.

-Yeah.

One more life.

-Erm...

-Shall we try Scarfe with the others then?

So that's our last...

So...

Shall we try it without...? Did we try it without Libero?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Erm... I think... So...

Just go for what you think.

Erm...

-Hey!

-Brilliant!

-You've solved the Wall.

Very well done.

So that's four points for the groups

and I'll give you more points for the connections.

The first blue group - Xander or Ex-ander, Giles, Angel, Spike.

These are all characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Apparently so. You said, "At last, Buffy comes up!"

It's the only thing I know so much about.

It's, like, my provisional Mastermind category.

Well, I'm delighted to be of service there.

And the green group - crested, blue, willow, bearded.

These are all tits.

It's absolutely Christmas in the question setters' department.

They are delighted. They are all tits.

Crested, blue, willow and bearded. Well done.

And the next group - Soft block, Dig, Libero, Setter.

Crosswords?

-They are terms in volleyball.

-Oh.

They don't play volleyball in Buffy. That must be it.

And the turquoise group at the end there -

Brookes, Scarfe, Tidy, Searle.

I believe these are all cartoonists.

They are cartoonists.

Peter Brookes in The Times, Gerald Scarfe,

the great Bill Tidy you weren't sure about,

And Ronald Searle. He did the St Trinian's drawings.

All cartoonists. So, that is four points for the groups,

three more for the connections. That is a total of seven.

Let's bring the Extras in now, give them the other Connecting Wall

and see what they can do about solving it.

You'll be getting the Water wall.

You have two and a half minutes to solve it starting now.

-Pocket, lozenge...

-Type of cut?

Like brilliant diamond. All these are cuts of diamond.

-Lozenge is maybe one.

-Antwerp Rose.

OK, black spot, baize... Snooker terms.

-Snooker terms.

-Pocket.

-Pocket.

-And... Cushion?

-Cushion.

Try something else.

OK, these are all Dickens characters.

Magwitch, Miss Havisham...

-Canker.

-And?

-Pip.

-OK.

-Anyone else?

-D, maybe?

-D?

-D.

Leave Canker out.

-OK, let's try the snooker again, yeah?

-Magwitch, Canker...

-Let's...

Pocket, cushion, black spot and D.

And D?

OK, leave pocket out.

Leave cushion out.

Leave black spot out.

No. Baulk? Canker?

What else could canker be?

Some kind of nut or something like that?

A seed? A pip is a seed.

Yes, canker. No, unselect.

D seed, rust seed, baulk...

What could rust be?

OK, say something.

Rust is some kind of...

OK, this we have to get. Black spot, baize, cushion...

-Black spot, D...

-You've got a minute left.

Black spot, D...

Pocket and cushion.

-That's what we tried first.

-OK...

-Pip...

-Rust, baulk, pocket, baize.

Let's try it with canker.

-These can't be anything, these two can't be anything else.

-Pip...

Pip can be a seed or something else.

30 seconds.

Rust... Rust, baize...

-Hmm?

-Rust, baize...

You can put sea in front?

-Pocket.

-Rust?

Canker and pocket.

HE SIGHS

Black spot.

-10 seconds.

-Canker.

What else haven't I tried?

Oh, that's it. The time's up.

So close!

But you found a group, that's great,

and I'll give you another point if you tell me the connection.

Lozenge, Antwerp Rose, brilliant, princess.

-All these are cuts of diamond.

-They're cuts of diamond.

You got that very quickly. And you can still get points

for the connections in the groups you didn't find,

so let's resolve the wall.

There it is.

Pocket, Miss Haversham, Pip, Magwitch.

These are all characters from Charles Dickens novels.

They are. Can you be more specific?

-Great Expectations.

-They're all from Great Expectations.

The problem with Dickens is anything...

I mean, Canker, Black Spot, Baize, they could all be characters.

But it's Pocket, Herbert Pocket from Great Expectations.

And the next one - cushion, baulk, D, baize.

These are all terms from billiards or snooker.

Those are the snooker terms.

And the last group - rust, black spot, crown gall, canker.

-Erm...

-Rusty?

-Types of erosion?

Types of erosion of material.

They're... Yes, what sort of material?

-Plant material.

-Plants, exactly.

They're erosion or diseases that can befall plants.

That's the one you didn't spot, but you were so close with the Dickens.

Pocket was the problem. But well done, because you found a group

and the full four points for the connections.

That is a total of five.

Let's have a look at the scores going into the final round.

The Extras have 10 points.

The Snake Charmers have 20.

So, a bit of ground to make up that it can be done in Round Four

where points are taken away as well as given.

This is the Missing Vowels Round.

Fingers on buzzers, teams.

I can tell you that the first group are all...

things that are worth two points.

Answers worth one point.

Don't know this one.

It's a safety in American football.

Next clue.

BELL Snake Charmers?

Er...

No, I'm afraid not. You lose a point.

-Extras, do you know?

-Double letter score in Scrabble.

No, you're close.

It's D tile in Scrabble.

Next clue.

BELL Snake Charmers.

-Conversion in rugby union.

-Correct.

BELL Snake Charmers.

-15 in Cribbage.

-Correct.

Next category - they played the same character.

BELL Snake Charmers.

Richard Harris and Michael Gambon.

Played Albus Dumbledore, correct.

BELL Snake Charmers.

Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.

Played Willy Wonka, correct.

BELL Extras.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway.

Played Catwoman, correct.

BELL Extras.

Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

Correct, Vito Corleone.

Next category - long-running BBC Radio shows.

BELL Snake Charmers.

-The World At One.

-Correct.

BELL Snake Charmers.

-Any Answers?

-Correct.

BELL Snake Charmers.

-PM.

-Well done.

END OF ROUND JINGLE

And that's it.

It's the end of the quiz and I can tell you that the winners

and through to the next round

with 26 points

are the Snake Charmers.

In second place, Extras,

you have 12 points.

Now, I think that may not be enough to get you into our

highest-scoring losers, but if not,

thank you so much for playing.

It was absolutely lovely to meet you.

And well done to you,

through to the next round.

So, that's it, and I leave you with the thought that tonight's show

is not yet long enough for the slot.

It's still not long enough.

It's still not long enough.

It's STILL not long enough.

It's long enough, goodbye!