Could You Solve Only Connect’s Devilishly Tricky Oasis Question?
Even knowing your Oasis songs might not be enough to crack one particularly devious question on the BBC’s Only Connect.
The quiz is designed to push contestants well beyond the level of a conventional general-knowledge show. Originally a BBC4 programme before moving to BBC2, Only Connect has built its reputation around deliberately challenging puzzles — and even its name comes from E.M. Forster’s Howards End.
Hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell, the format asks teams to identify the connection between four apparently unrelated clues. Contestants first choose a hieroglyph from the board before being presented with the clues.
And even knowing what those hieroglyphs are called can feel like part of the test. Ask for “the one that looks like a friendship bracelet” instead of “twisted flax,” for example, and you are likely to attract some merciless teasing.
An Oasis Puzzle With A Twist
On December 12, 2016, the Part-Time Poets and the Surrealists faced a particularly unusual set of clues involving Oasis and other performers.
Selected from behind the water hieroglyph, the clues were:
- Liam Gallagher (guitar): “Roll With It”
- A ventriloquist’s dummy (vocals): “Lonely This Christmas”
- John Peel (mandolin): “Maggie May”
- Nobody (nothing): first 1:20 of “Martha’s Harbour”
At first, the four clues appear to have almost nothing in common. The instruments, performers and songs seem deliberately mismatched, leaving the teams with the difficult task of finding the hidden connection.
It took the contestants some time to work it out — so viewers who were equally stumped could be forgiven.
There was, however, one crucial hint: the answer involved an old BBC television show.
Can You See The Connection?
The solution was connected to Top Of The Pops, the BBC music programme that has since ended.
The four clues all referred to performances in which the artists mimed to the songs listed.
That included Liam Gallagher performing “Roll With It” with guitar, the ventriloquist’s dummy handling vocals for “Lonely This Christmas”, and John Peel playing mandolin on “Maggie May”.
The final clue was particularly unfortunate. All About Eve apparently had not intended to mime their performance of “Martha’s Harbour”. According to Coren Mitchell, the band could not hear their backing track come in, leaving them with little choice but to mime.
The unusual connection turned what initially looked like four completely random clues into a distinctly Only Connect puzzle — one that rewarded contestants for looking beyond the obvious links between the names and songs.
The full episode of Only Connect featuring the Part-Time Poets and Surrealists is available on BBC iPlayer.
