Victoria Coren Mitchell complained her “brain was messed up” after making a mistake on Only Connect. The popular quiz show returned to BBC Two on Monday (August 12) and saw two teams battling to find connections between seemingly unrelated clues.
In season 20 of Only Connect, 51-year-old Victoria took the helm again as the three-person Midlanders team took on the Al Frescans. During the showdown, the former – consisting of Andrew Mearman, Dominic Rayner and Erica Hiorns – were left stumped when four food-themed tiles were revealed.
The first image in the series showed a plate of sashimi with a “0” in the right corner, while the second showed a roasted chicken with a “1” superimposed on it. An image of biscotti with the number “2” was to be revealed next, but the team was still stumped by the end of the time.
Finally, the trio claimed the fourth and final snap would show a chocolate cake, but their answer was rejected as they were unsure of their reasoning. “In that case, I cannot accept your answer,” Victoria said.
“Al Frescans, do you want to try it?” Fortunately, the opposing team – consisting of Tom McKechnie, Danielle Cope and Mel Gibbons – realized that the numbers in the corner of the pictures correlated with the frequency with which the dish should be cooked.
So they thought the third picture showed triple-fried chips, and they were right. “Heston Blumenthal called them the best chips,” Victoria noted.
“It started a huge trend where people were making these triple-fried fries, and the number of fires skyrocketed!
“The fire department said, ‘Why did we come up with this?’ Because it means you fry twice as much and get a lot more French fries.”
Victoria quickly realized that she had said there were “lots more fries” instead of “lots more fire,” and she emphatically admitted her slip of the tongue.
“French fries? Fire. I’m doing this thing… I literally said french fries when I meant fire. I’ve been doing this show too long and it’s episode one.
“Oh my God,” she added. “My brain is messed up.”
Despite Victoria’s slip-up, fans on social media were overjoyed that Only Connect has finally returned to BBC Two. One X-user wrote: “Thank god #OnlyConnect is back – balance is returning to the universe. #VictoriaCorenMitchell reigns.”
A second typed: “#onlyconnect back after the #tourdefrance and the #OlympicGames. I get to shout at the TV every week for 28 weeks.”
“It’s nice that Victoria is genuinely grateful that the teams even make the effort to show up,” commented another.
Someone else wrote: “Nice to have #OnlyConnect back on our screens, although once again I regret that it is not entirely made up of missing vocal rounds, which I would surely be a master at.”
“Ah, #OnlyConnect is back,” wrote a fifth viewer. “Brings back fond memories of laughing inappropriately at @VictoriaCoren’s jokes.”
Tune in to Only Connect every Monday evening from 8pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
