Only Connect has never been short of fiendish puzzles, but one of its most memorable connections began with three clues that seemed to have almost nothing in common.

In a BBC preview clip ahead of the show’s 17th series, the Beaks — Rob Cromarty, Dan Sproat-Clements and Aidan Sproat-Clements — were challenged to work out the link between “Phone driver,” “Ed Towers” and “Loin.”

Rob was quick to hit the buzzer with an unexpected theory.

“They are anagrams of your Only Connect hieroglyphs,” he told host Victoria Coren Mitchell.

He was right.

The connection was hiding in the anagrams

Victoria confirmed the team’s answer before offering them one final clue: “ET war.”

She then asked what the four anagrams represented.

The Beaks immediately responded: “Horn viper, two reeds, lion and water.”

The answer referred to the distinctive hieroglyphs used on Only Connect, with each clue rearranging into the name of one of the show’s familiar symbols.

Victoria congratulated them on spotting the connection, calling the examples “all examples of hieroglyphs used in Only Connect.”

The team had solved the puzzle with impressive speed, turning what initially looked like four completely random phrases into a recognisable pattern.

Victoria had a few more anagrams of her own

After confirming the answer, Victoria couldn’t resist adding some extra examples.

For “Horned viper,” she suggested “no perv hired”, before joking that it could also be rearranged as “hide porn rev” or “hen provider.”

It was a typically playful moment from the host, who used the additional anagrams to demonstrate just how many strange combinations can be created from the names of the show’s hieroglyphs.

The original puzzle appeared in the Series 13 episode Detectives v Beaks, which aired on BBC Two on March 12, 2018. The question set included Phone driver, Ed Towers, Loin and ET War, with the connection being “anagrams of hieroglyphs.”

When was the new series returning?

The preview was released ahead of the 17th series of Only Connect, which consisted of 28 episodes.

The series returned to BBC Two on July 12 at 8pm, opening with Scrubs v Librarians — a contest between three NHS medics and a team of librarians, putting patience and lateral thinking to the test.

Episodes of Only Connect were also available to stream through the BBC iPlayer app and website.

With its deliberately obscure clues and connections that often seem impossible until the answer is revealed, the Beaks’ puzzle offered a perfect example of why the show has earned its reputation for testing lateral thinking as much as knowledge.