Scribes vs Wordsmiths Only Connect

If ignorance is bliss, prepare to meet some unhappy people.

Ignorant they're not,

these teams have made it all away to the Only Connect semifinal.

They know they're just one step away from the final, but then

so does anyone who's heard the word "semifinal" before,

so good luck, all.

I know whoever loses tonight will have a very bitter taste

in the mouth and that's what happens

when you try to console yourself with a BBC sandwich!

In contention, on my right,

Holly Pattenden, a strategy analyst

and Oxford classics graduate with a passion for the works of Homer and

a love of the Mediterranean,

Gareth Price, a magazine editor

and history buff who loves Formula 1 racing

and attending classic motor shows,

and their captain, Dom Tait,

an associate editor

and indie music enthusiast and who has snorkelled with

a manatee and been attacked by a tarantula.

That was just in his first heat!

All fans of the written word,

they are Scribes.

Dom, you've beaten the Ciphers and the TEFL Teachers so far,

how are you feeling about your semifinal opposition?

Er, I think they're quite daunting.

I think they clearly very good and it's going to be very

tough to beat them, but we like

a challenge, so we'll go for it.

You are meeting on my left,

Brian Pendreigh, a journalist

and vertigo sufferer,

whose wedding was MC'ed by Andrew Marr,

Chris Brewis, a journalist

and Sunderland FC supporter,

who wrote to the Football Federation

to suggest a change to the rules of the game,

which they adopted just 20 years later,

and their captain, Dave Taylor,

a retired transport manager,

who has donated blood 94 times and once represented Germany in

the European Quizzing Championships because they were short of players.

They enjoy putting pen to paper,

they are the Wordsmiths.

Dave, you've beaten the Educators and the Wintonians to get

to the semifinal, what is your strategy tonight?

Er, hopefully, having a massive lead going into the Missing Vowels Round,

because we're hopeless at it.

Is there any area of general knowledge

you're hoping won't come up?

Anything to do with music

after 1970-ish and...

OK, you said that during your heat.

You still haven't learnt

about music after 1970,

even though you're in the semifinal?

No, no, and also computer games

and anything to do with the kids nowadays.

LAUGHTER

Well, that rules out most things. Let's play the quiz.

In Round One, teams,

I just want to know what's

the connection between

four apparently random clues.

All right, Scribes,

you've been put in first,

what are you going to go for?

We're going to go for Lion, please.

All right, what is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

OK, lift hill ABOVE 200 feet, I presume that means.

Next, please.

Is this what the... Is this what the standard should be? Next, please.

Oooh, that's... Is this when it becomes hyper? Hyperinflation...

-Hypertension.

-Hypertension, so, yeah, shall I go for that? OK.

BELL RINGS

-Is that when they become hyper?

-It absolutely is!

And that first clue, that's a roller coaster

when it's got a lift hill of 200 foot or more,

that's a hyper coaster.

You didn't need the last one, speed, going to hypersonic.

Hyper is the connection, well done to you. Off the blocks.

Wordsmiths, it's your turn.

The Eye of Horus, please.

All right, time for you to find a connection.

Here's the first clue.

Vice president. He shot someone.

-Next one.

-Next one, please.

-Is this the one, the something that made history?

-Yes.

-The shot that made history.

-We'll go on. Say next.

Next one, please.

Yeah.

Shots that made history.

Yeah, history.

Shots that were heard around the world or made history.

They're all shots that made history or were heard round the world.

That's exactly

what they are described as -

shots heard round the world.

Dick Cheney, what did he do in 2006?

I think he shot somebody on a hunting expedition by accident,

I'm led to believe.

Yes, well, so he claims.

He shot a 78-year-old lawyer, we hope it was an accident.

Bobby Thomson, what was that?

I think it was in World Series that...

Was it the Boston Red Sox...?

He won the National League Pennant

for the New York Giants in a baseball game.

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started the First World War,

and you didn't need to see

start of the American Revolution, that's from a poem

by Emerson in 1837.

So well before 1970 and in your comfort zone.

Shots heard around the world - well done for the points.

And back to you, Scribes.

Horned Viper, please.

OK, the music question.

What's the connection between these lovely sounding clues?

Here's the first.

CLASSICAL PIANO MUSIC

Next, please.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-The Theme From Thomas Tallis.

-The Theme From Thomas Tallis.

Fantasia on A Theme From Thomas Tallis.

-Fantasia on A Theme From Thomas Tallis.

-By Vaughan Williams.

-OK.

Next, please.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-It's Rachmaninov. He's a Classic FM sort of top choices...

-Ten seconds.

Next, please.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-What's that?

-Three seconds.

BELL RINGS

-Er, are they all specifically for young people?

-No, they're not.

Wouldn't it be lovely if they were?

All young people should be listening to that sort of thing -

that is not the specific connection so let me

go to the young people on my left.

They're all bits of music that the tune is by another composer

and other composers have used that tune

-to do their own variations or...

-I'll accept it.

They're written on the theme of another composer.

Do you know any of the particular ones you heard?

The second one was a Rhapsody on The Theme Of Thomas Tallis

by Vaughan Williams.

It is Fantasia on The Theme Of Thomas Tallis,

that's Vaughan Williams.

And the Rachmaninov on the Theme Of Paganini was third.

That beautiful third piece was that, indeed.

And the fourth one is the Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra

which is Benjamin Britten on a Theme Of Purcell.

Brilliant!

I think the first one probably sounded like

-it was Beethoven, but I don't know what the...

-Oh, just one more

piece of information.

It was Beethoven's...

I'll work on the fact

that it's a bit by Handel?

..Diabelli Variations,

but a really brilliant answer.

Pieces written on the theme of another composer, well done.

You get a bonus point and the chance

to choose your own question.

-Twisted Flax, please.

-Twisted Flax.

How twisted is the connection going to be here?

Here's your first clue.

Thomas Hardy.

It might be where he was born

or something or a place he's made up.

Next, please.

-Hampton Court, Jane Seymour.

-Might be where she was married...

-Could be.

-..or buried.

The next one, please.

It's where hearts are kept.

It's where hearts are kept, yeah.

BELL RINGS

-Places where people's hearts are buried.

-Exactly right -

the locations of buried hearts,

people whose bodies are buried elsewhere.

-Thomas Hardy's ashes are where?

-Westminster Abbey?

They're in Westminster Abbey, but his heart at Stinsford.

Jane Seymour's buried at Windsor with Henry VIII

but her heart's at Hampton Court. Robert the Bruce, Melrose Abbey,

and you didn't need t see Chopin, whose heart is in Warsaw,

preserved in Cognac.

His heart like my own liver.

Their hearts are buried there. Well done.

-Scribes, back to you.

-Two reeds, please.

Two reeds, what's the connection here? First clue coming up now.

Next, please.

-Is it an elephant?

-Do you know anything about lockstitch?

-It's a Singer.

-Singer?

-Patent or something.

-Singer? OK, next, please.

Benzene ring. Do you know anything about that through work?

Next, please.

By Coleridge.

-OK, what next?

-10 seconds.

-Circular formation.

-Circular formation?

Three seconds.

BELL

Circular formations.

They are not. I am just looking at them.

They are not all circular formations.

So there's a possible bonus again for you, Wordsmiths.

They were all thought up while a person asleep or in a dream?

All of them inspired by dreams.

Yes, Benzene Ring is a circular formation.

That was dreamed up in a dream of a snake grasping its own tail.

The other ones, Yesterday, written by Paul McCartney after a dream.

-Do you know what he originally called it?

-Scrambled Eggs.

Scrambled Eggs. Scrambled Eggs it was called.

And the Lockstitch sewing machine, Elias Howe dreamed about...

what do you think he dreamt about?

-Sewing?

-No, it wasn't. It was being chased by warriors with spears.

Gave him the idea for that.

And Kubla Khan you perhaps know was written by Coleridge

after an opium dream.

-He was interrupted by...

-His landlady? No idea.

-It wasn't his landlady, who was it?

-ALL: A man from Porlock.

A person from Porlock so they say.

The evil person from Porlock who interrupted that great dream.

So, once again, Wordsmiths, you get the bonus.

And you're going to get the last question, Water.

These are of course picture clues. What's the connection?

Here's the first.

-Next.

-Some sort of flower. Next, please.

Is that not, sort of, the going... Next, please.

Er, that's a snake, isn't it?

Rubik's snake?

-Next.

-Next, please.

A sort of Van de Graaff generator or something like that.

Ten seconds.

Weather?

Three seconds.

-It's something...

-Rainbows.

Not the answer I'm afraid so you've got a bonus chance now, Scribes.

Prefaced by nationalities?

That's not it either,

although it is to do with the name.

They are all known as

a Jacob's ladder.

That little plant of the Polemonium genus

and crepuscular rays, there's a folk-toy there

and a high voltage electrical arc, all known as Jacob's ladder.

At the end of round one the Scribes have got two points.

The Wordsmiths are ahead with six.

Round Two is the sequences round.

Scribes, you'll go first again.

I want to know

what's fourth in a sequence.

Which hieroglyph will you choose?

Eye of Horus, please.

OK. First clue in a sequence coming up now.

Next, please.

The...er...the Thunderbird-type...

-Was it Stingray?

-OK.

Next, please.

-So.

-What's the order here?

It's something to do with Joe 90 or Captain Scarlet.

OK. Do you happen to know then, what the name is?

-I couldn't tell you.

-Ah, that might be a bit of a problem.

-10 seconds.

-OK.

-Captain Scarlet's organisation?

-Isn't it Thunderbirds?

-No, that's the third one.

-Three seconds.

BELL

Uh...SMERSH..

That is not the answer, I'm afraid.

There is a bonus chance for the Wordsmiths.

The Gerry Anderson show is working for...

it's Joe 90 but you're going to want his organisation.

Yeah, you gave me the name of an organisation and you told me

the Gerry Anderson Shows.

-The organisation I'm looking for is Spectrum.

-Spectrum.

Organisations that the hero works for in successive series.

World Space Patrol from which show?

-Fireball XL5?

-Yes, it is. World Aquanauts Security Patrol from...?

-Stingray.

-Stingray. Known as WASP. International Rescue is of course?

-Thunderbirds.

-Thunderbirds. And Spectrum is from?

Captain Scarlet?

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Very good.

General Gerry Anderson knowledge, but I didn't get the name.

-Back to you, Wordsmiths, choose a question.

-Horned Viper, please.

All right. What is the fourth in this sequence?

First clue coming up...now.

-Number four, payment for members.

-Next.

-Next, please.

What's that? Something to do with Parliament.

Changes of Parliament.

Payment for members will be most recent.

That's what they brought in for the Great Reform Bill?

Next, please.

Universal suffrage? One, universal suffrage? Votes for women?

THEY MUTTER BETWEEN THEMSELVES

-I think we'll try that.

-Yeah.

-Universal suffrage.

-Three seconds.

BELL

Number one, universal suffrage.

Have another go.

-Votes for women.

-I'm afraid that's not the answer.

There's a bonus chance for Scribes.

OK, number one, age restriction.

That 's not it either.

You'll forgive me, Wordsmiths,

for not giving universal suffrage, it was votes for every man.

Never mind the women, they'll have the tea ready

when you get back from the polling booth!

This was the Chartists.

The people's Charter of 1838 and their first requirement

votes for every man.

Not universal. So no points there.

-Back to you, Scribes, to choose a question.

-Two reeds, please.

Two reeds. What's the fourth in the sequence?

I can tell you, they're going to be picture clues

so what would you expect to see in the fourth picture?

Here's the first.

-Catamaran.

-Double-breasted boat, isn't it? Next, please.

A banana so, skin. Yellow connection?

-What links catamaran and banana?

-Banana boat?

Are they just, are they just words with decreasingly few,

all A's but decreasingly few?

Better go. Next, please.

-Macaw, could be Macaw.

-Something with one A in it.

-Word with one A in it.

-Yeah, OK, yeah. A word with one A in it.

BELL

Cat.

We went with hat. But very good.

You should have come in after two clues.

-Can you explain your thinking?

-Catamaran has four A's in it.

Banana has three A's in it. And Macaw has two A's in it.

So you wanted something with one A in it.

And specifically alternate letter A's.

There's a consonant, an A, a consonant, an A.

You may not have spotted that but cat does fit in the sequence

so very well done.

Wordsmiths, what's it to be?

Twisted flax, please.

All right. What would you expect to see as the fourth?

It's something's tower.

-Name, name, keep going.

-Next, please.

It's a number of something?

-A board game, is it?

-Next, please.

-18.

-Liver bird. There's two of them.

Is it one?

These are symbols of football teams.

So that's Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool.

What would come after that?

Five seconds.

-Two seconds.

-BELL

-19 and what's that?

-Red Devil.

-Red devil.

I'll accept it.

And what's the reason?

It's the number of times they've won the league.

I'll leave it to my football correspondent.

Number nine, Everton, the Prince Rupert's Tower

is a symbol of Everton who've won the league nine times.

A Cannon is the symbol of Arsenal who've won it 13 times.

The Liver bird's a symbol of Liverpool who won 18 times.

And Manchester United are the Red Devils have won it 19 times.

Red devil or Ship also on the badge. Manchester United.

It's 19 as we record it, no doubt they've won 12 more.

Number of titles won by Manchester United

as represented by Red devil.

Well done. And back to you, Scribes.

Er, Lion, please.

-OK, what's the fourth in this sequence?

-Here's the first.

THEY CONFER

-No, you're absolutely right.

-That could be a US president.

-Oh, oh!

Adam...OK, next, please.

Yeah, OK.

Oh, Lord!

After...so it's coming...

Er, next please.

So, it's the ones who shared surnames

and what's the relation of the next one,

and therefore it is Bush and it is Son. Is that correct?

Is there anyone in between that we've missed out?

-Ten seconds.

-I think it'll be Bush, son.

-Yeah.

Bush, son.

..is the correct answer. And why is that?

These are the presidents where there's been two of the name

and they've been related, so there was John Adams, John Quincy Adams

and then Benjamin Harrison and William Henry Harrison.

-Quite right.

-And Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt,

and then, of course, George HW and George W Bush.

That's right, the younger Bush, the son of the previous,

was the next president with the same surname. Well done.

One question remains for you, Wordsmiths. Water.

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

THEY CONFER

Next, please.

Five, six...next.

Next, please.

Ten seconds.

07, 06...

Three seconds.

07/06, 2354.

That is not the answer. Scribes, d'you want to have a go for a bonus?

-I would have been gutted if they'd guessed that.

-Good luck.

Erm, 05/07, 2435.

I'm getting a sense that you both know what the connection is.

What's the connection?

-I don't know.

-No idea?

-Not at first hand, no.

Oh, well, what you said actually subscribed to it,

but it wasn't next in the sequence.

They are dates with no repeated digit,

dates where no one digit comes up twice,

and the next along would be the very next day, 18/06, 2345.

Dates where you only get the digits once, going forwards through time.

At the end of Round Two,

the Scribes are up to six points,

the Wordsmiths are ahead with eight.

We were worried that wasn't difficult enough,

so we've multiplied everything by four.

It's time for the Connecting Wall.

Wordsmiths, your turn to go first this time,

and you have a choice, Lion or Water?

Water, please.

OK, you have two and a half minutes to solve the Water Wall,

starting now.

-What do you say?

-Jim Dale.

-Well, we've got Carry On characters.

-Four-in-hand. Hansom. Gig.

-Hansom...

Four-in-hand, Hansom...

Stanhope, Gig...

We've also got Carry On characters. Windsor, James, Jack...

-Places in the Isle of Man.

-Four-in-hand...

-Ah, Peel.

-There's Connor.

Douglas, Castletown...

-Ramsey.

-Right, we're down to five for Carry On.

-Connor, James, Dale, Jack, Windsor.

-What's that? Connor...

Connor, James, Jacques in the corner, Jacques in the corner.

Three strikes now, be careful.

Viscount Stanhope.

No, a gig would connect horses.

Gig, Surrey, right,

we're on Hansom, Gig, Surrey are all carriages, so's an Oriental.

-Is it? Oh, right.

-So's a Windsor, I think. What is four-in-hand?

-Pratt...

-What's Pratt?

Pratt changed his...Pratt was the name of Quentin Crisp

and also the name of Boris Karloff.

People that have changed their name?

Don't know who Stanhope is, but we know we've got carriages in there.

What's four-in-hand?

Four-in-hand's a carriage as well, unfortunately, yeah.

You're about halfway through the time.

-So, four-in-hand must be a carriage.

-What can the others be?

Surrey we know is a carriage,

could be something else.

-Oriental's a carriage.

-Pratt?

Hansom's likely to be a carriage, isn't it?

But he was an architect as well.

Is Pratt an architect? And Stanhope?

Stanhope's an architect. That one, that one, that one and that one?

-Yeah. Try it. Try it.

-Shall we try that?

-OK, two lives now.

-Right, four-in-hand must be a carriage.

Yeah, gig's going to be a carriage.

Oriental you reckon's a carriage, it's not a name. Try it.

-You've got 30 seconds.

-And Surrey?

-No, we've tried that.

Pratt, then, or Windsor.

One life remaining.

So four-in-hand, gig, Oriental, Hansom?

-Try that?

-Yeah.

We've messed it up again, never mind.

Nope, that's not it and the wall's frozen

but you found two groups, I'll give you points for the connections.

Douglas, Castletown, Ramsey, Peel.

Towns on the Isle of Man.

Yes, they are in fact the only four official towns on the Isle of Man.

Connor, James, Dale, Jacques.

People who've appeared in Carry On films.

That's right, Kenneth Connor, Sid James,

Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques from the Carry On films.

More points available for the connections

in the groups you didn't find, so let's resolve the wall.

Right, Stanhope or Stannup, Gig, Hansom, Surrey.

-Carriages.

-Types of carriages?

Any more?

-Horse-drawn carriages.

-Horse-drawn carriages.

Yes, I'd have thought Hansom was the famous one, actually.

You get the point. And the last one,

Pratt, Windsor, Oriental, Four-in-hand.

-I can't give you long.

-Hands in cards?

No, that's too long, I'm going to have to tell you.

They are knots used for neckties.

Knots, those ones. But you found two groups and you get three more points

for the connections, that's a total of five.

Time to bring in their opponents, the Scribes,

see how they fare with the other Connecting Wall.

Equally difficult, same basic principle.

Hello, Scribes. You're going to get the Lion Wall.

You've got two and a half minutes to solve it, starting now.

OK, female assassins. Leon, Nikita are different types of assassin...

-These are Luc Besson films.

-Yeah, OK, Subway, Leon and Nikita.

OK, very good. Spanish bank, there are banks here, aren't there?

Santander, Yorkshire... Egg is also a type of bank.

-And Clydesdale's a bank.

-Pamplona, Salamanca, Burgos...

-Percheron is a horse and Suffolk is a horse.

-Northern Rock, Egg...

-OK, sorry, I should probably hit some, shouldn't I?

-Spanish cities...

OK, Pamplona, Salamanca and Burgos?

Three lives, now, so be careful.

Percheron is a horse, Clydesdale is a horse...

Suffolk's a horse. And Belgian is...there's a Belgian...

It's more likely to be that, cos the others are definitely banks.

OK, try the banks.

That's it, you've solved the Wall. Goodness me!

Do you think this was a particularly easy one

or you just had a good fish breakfast?

-Just our area.

-Let's find out if you know the connections.

So in the first one, Nikita, Subway, Leon, The Fifth Element.

-Luc Besson films.

-Films by Luc Besson, quite right.

What about the next one? Pamplona, Salamanca, Toledo or Burgos?

Spanish cities?

I'll take it. Anything more you'd like to tell me about them?

They've got famous bullfighters?

They probably do, the Spanish are nice like that.

What I was looking for is INLAND Spanish cities.

They probably all have bullfights, though, more's the pity.

What about the next group? Suffolk, Belgian, Clydesdale, Percheron.

-They're all types of horse.

-Any more?

Are they sort of draught horses, big ones?

Draught horses, that's exactly what they all are, well done.

And Egg, Northern, Santander, Yorkshire.

-They're banks.

-Any more?

I mean, I'm going to accept banks, but tell me more if you can.

Egg is an...was an offshoot of Prudential and was online.

Santander was part of Abbey National, I don't know.

I'm just saying bank facts.

I'll tell you what they are, depressingly,

they are British banks owned by foreign groups,

but I will take banks. Four points for finding the groups,

four more points for the connections.

An extra two points for getting it all right,

we do usually do that, it's not an exception.

That's the maximum of ten points, very well done.

Let's see how that leaves the scores going into the final round.

The Wordsmiths have got 13 points,

but the Scribes are now ahead with 16.

And if you're watching Only Connect for the first time,

my Lord, you must be baffled!

But you might be interested to hear we also have a website,

where you can play connecting walls and even write your own.

Imagine that.

All change here and may change again as we play the Missing Vowels round.

This will decide who goes into the final.

Fingers on buzzers, teams.

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

-Scribes.

-ALL: Barnardos.

-Wordsmiths?

-ActionAid.

-Scribes.

-Marie Curie Cancer Care.

-Scribes?

-Woodland Trust.

Next category...

-Scribes?

-Tetanus and Lockjaw.

Scribes?

Hansen's Disease and Leprosy.

-Scribes?

-Sorry.

-I'm afraid you lose a point.

-Wordsmiths, d'you want to have a go?

-It's Pyresis and Heartburn.

I'm afraid that's not it, but you don't lose a point.

It's Pyrosis and Heartburn. Next clue.

-Scribes?

-Pertussis and Whooping Cough.

Next category...

-Scribes?

-Apple Martin.

-Scribes?

-Suri Cruise.

Don't know this one, it's Nicolas Cage's unlucky child,

Kal-El Coppola.

Next clue.

-Scribes?

-Jermajesty Jackson.

Oh, yes. Next category...

Don't know this one, it's...

Next clue.

-Scribes?

-Tonight from West Side Story.

END OF ROUND MUSIC PLAYS

That tricky final clue was Aquarius from Hair,

but that musical sound means it's the end of the quiz

and looking at the final scores, after an excellent performance

in the series, the Wordsmiths have got 14 points but the winners,

and through to the final with 25 points, are the Scribes.

Very well done to you, you're through to the final,

and Wordsmiths, I'm pleased to say

we'll be seeing you again for the third place playoffs.

You regular viewers, please do join me next time, if you can.

If you have a social engagement I'll understand.

I'll be surprised, but I'll understand. Goodbye.

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