I was on Only Connect - bosses hide a major secret about the BBC set and there's an entire round that doesn't make it to screens
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An Only Connect contestant has opened up on the behind-the-scenes secrets of the popular BBC quiz show - including an entire round that doesn't even make it on air.
The BBC Two series, which is hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell, sees two teams battling it out through rounds of tricky questions with one connected answer.
The teams first tackle the connections round, where they are given four clues and must figure out the connection between them within 40 seconds.
The second round, sequences, teams get to see a maximum of three clues before deciding what comes fourth in the sequence, also within 40 seconds.
While the third round, the Connecting Wall, sees the teams given two and a half minutes to sort 16 clues into four groups of connected items.
The final fourth round, the teams are presented with a series of word puzzles, which sees words with the vowels removed, that they have to fill in correctly.
An Only Connect contestant has opened up on the behind-the-scenes secrets of the popular BBC quiz show - including an entire round that doesn't even make it on air
The BBC quiz show sees two teams battling it out through rounds of tricky questions with one connected answer
Now, former quiz contestants have spilled all on what happens outside the rounds.
Taking to Reddit, one penned: 'Each episode takes something like 45-60 minutes to film, and it was surprising to me how little gets edited out.
'But there's an hour or two of prep before that, make-up, wardrobe, sorting out your intro facts, rehearsal etc.'
A second revealed there was a hidden rounds that don't make it to TV, which are used to whittle down the possible teams of contenders, saying: 'When we did it, filming was split into two blocks: early heats, and late heats onwards.
'A typical experience is to record 1 or 2 episodes in a single day for the first block, and then roughly a week of recordings (again 1 or 2 episodes a day) for the second block.
'Of course the earlier you are knocked out, the fewer recordings you have.'
Another added of the rehearsal before taking part in the show: 'We had to do an audition, basically playing a game of Only Connect with the casting team.
'It was great fun, and we agreed that we would apply every year just to play the audition even if we didn't get on!'
The BBC show is hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell
A recent episode saw Victoria groan 'oh my word' as she learned the age of one of the contestants - who used it as an excuse for not knowing the answer to a question
It comes after Only Connect viewers were left raging the show was 'grinding their gears' this week due to a contestant they dubbed 'annoying and self-absorbed'.
Teams the Whitley Bays and Oh No, They Didn't were quick to start racking up the points through the first round, before things got trickier in the second sequence round.
The first team, made up of innovation manager Ruth Erdal, PR account director Jess Volpe and tech startup owner Steve Erdal, were dished out the first set of clues.
The first picture showed a photo of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, followed by a second picture of blue and grey squares, and a third showed a group of people enjoying a summer's day.
Stumped, the trio guessed 'a sugar cube', before Victoria, 53, confirmed that was the wrong answer.
The second team, which was made up of language student Lizzie Riley, maths student George Dickenson and linguistics graduate Diya Shah, were then given the chance to guess the answer.
They guessed that the fourth picture, which had not yet been revealed, would contain 'a big dolphin', which Victoria suggested might be 'closer' to the answer.
'I thought you were going to get that,' she told the Whitley Bays, before revealing the answer was hit song Vincent by Don McLean.
Fans at home were left disappointed by Lizzie's excuse for not knowing the answer, hitting out that they were switching off
Turning to the Oh No, They Didn't team, Victoria noticed that Lizzie was 'looking blank', leading to the contestant revealing: 'I've never heard of it.'
'I was born in 2004,' she then revealed, prompting the other team and Victoria to wince, and cover their heads with their hands and Victoria groaned: 'Oh my word!'
Fans at home were left disappointed by Lizzie's excuse for not knowing the answer, hitting out that they were switching off.
Taking to X, one penned: 'Someone born in 2004 is on this show... I'm out,' as a second chimed in: '"I was born in 2004 so I wouldn't know". Why? WHY would you go on a high-brow quiz show if you are going to use that age-old excuse? Annoying.'
A third added: 'Kids today so self absorbed can't give an answer to anything before their age,' while a fourth fumed: 'You can’t come on to a general knowledge show, show a sore lack of it, and then blame it on your age! That really grinds my gears.'
A fifth concluded: 'Before I was born always winds me up.'
Only Connect airs Mondays on BBC Two and iPlayer.
