Only Connect viewers are used to being the ones left baffled by the BBC quiz show’s notoriously difficult questions. But this time, it was the contestants’ answers — or lack of them — that left fans feeling surprisingly knowledgeable.

The latest episode featured two youthful teams, the Harmonics and the Cat Cows, who proved impressively quick when faced with maths, languages and acronyms. Yet several references to older British television and popular culture appeared to leave both teams completely stumped.

The result was an unusual role reversal, with viewers at home realising they knew answers that had escaped the contestants.

A game show reference that left contestants blank

One of the biggest surprises came during a clue involving Bruce Forsyth’s Play Your Cards Right.

The phrase “Not in this game” was enough to trigger recognition among many viewers, but the contestants initially had no idea what Victoria Coren Mitchell was referring to.

In the episode, Mitchell even prompted the Cat Cows to repeat the phrase in the hope that it might jog their memories.

The reaction online was immediate.

One viewer wrote: “They don’t know PYCR? Jeez I feel old.”

Another admitted: “Never heard of Play Your Cards Right? I feel old.”

A third said they were watching Only Connect and feeling old because none of the contestants knew where “Not in this game” came from.

Cuddles the Monkey causes another surprise

The knowledge gap became even more noticeable during a picture round.

The teams were shown an image of Keith Harris’s puppet Cuddles the Monkey, but the contestants struggled to identify the character.

The moment prompted another wave of reactions from viewers who remembered the character from earlier British television.

One fan wrote: “Nothing makes me feel as old as NOONE on #OnlyConnect knowing who Cuddles the Monkey is!”

The Harmonics also admitted that they had never watched the classic sitcom Cheers, which surprised some viewers given the show’s long-standing place in popular culture.

One reaction simply read: “Not seen Cheers… sacrilege..”

Another viewer asked whether the contestants had experienced an “80s English culture bypass.”

A generational knowledge gap?

The contrast was particularly striking because both teams demonstrated strong knowledge in other areas.

The Harmonics and Cat Cows were capable of producing quick answers involving numbers, languages and acronyms, showing that their difficulties were not with the quiz’s more analytical challenges.

Instead, the stumbling blocks appeared when the questions relied on cultural references from before the 2000s.

One viewer summed up the impression by writing that “both teams only know stuff from 2000 onwards,” while another pointed out that the period in question was already around a quarter of a century ago.

The episode itself, which aired on September 2, 2024, featured the Harmonics and Cat Cows in the fourth first-round match of Series 20.

Another controversy for Victoria Coren Mitchell

The cultural knowledge debate came just one week after another Only Connect controversy involving Victoria Coren Mitchell.

In the previous episode, Four Opinions faced the Bean Farmers, with Mitchell awarding points after accepting an answer despite the team’s reasoning not being entirely correct.

Later, she acknowledged that she had been “lenient” earlier in the game and awarded the Bean Farmers two points when their answer was not the “absolutely perfect answer.”

That decision also prompted criticism from viewers who felt the scoring had been too generous.

Only Connect continues to air on BBC Two at 8pm on Mondays, with Victoria Coren Mitchell hosting the quiz in which knowledge is only part of the challenge — and where lateral thinking can be just as important.