BBC Only Connect viewers fume at 'awful' format change and say they'll switch off
BBC Two's Only Connect has sparked some displeased reactions from fans following an "audio-based special" that was broadcast on Monday. The intelligence-testing quiz show, lauded for its tough lexical conundrums and the formidable Missing Vowels round under Victoria Coren Mitchell's adept hosting, encountered online dissent.
Discontent arose amidst the Connections segment when, deviating from standard practice, audio and musical clips were utilised as hints – a method occasionally adopted by the programme but still met with considerable disapproval by some viewers. Though not unprecedented in its history, every instance of such an audio twist tends to polarise the fandom, with a faction insistent that these musical interludes undermine the show's cerebral atmosphere.
Even the most devoted aficionados have expressed clear disdain for the concept, maintaining that Only Connect should remain true to its intellectual spirit and eschew the audio inquiries entirely, reports the Mirror.
One irritated fan posted on social media: "This awful music format should never happen again. Switching channels," while another confessed: "I love Only Connect, but as soon as the music round starts I'm out."
Another audience member echoed this sentiment, saying: "It's a quiz for thinkers, not karaoke night."
Meanwhile, host Victoria Coren Mitchell is gearing up for a new endeavour, stepping aside from her usual role as quiz master on Only Connect to delight fans with a fresh project.
At the age of 52, Coren Mitchell, who has become synonymous with BBC Two's cerebral quiz show Only Connect since 2008, will soon be seen in the guest host chair on Have I Got News For You.
Her much-awaited stint on the panel show is slated to air on Friday, May 23. She'll be joined by the sharp-witted comedian Chris McCausland and the esteemed broadcaster Janet Street-Porter.
The veteran panellist Street-Porter, well-acquainted with the setup, will be marking her 18th appearance on the show.
Viewers can certainly expect an electrifying episode as this trio combine wit, informed opinions, and frank commentary to light up the sought-after Friday night slot.
Known for her razor-sharp mind and distinctive poker-faced humour, Victoria has hosted over 500 episodes throughout 20 series of Only Connect, challenging contestants with her tough trivia questions.
Behind the scenes, however, life is all about family for Victoria, who cherishes time with her two daughters and her husband, the distinguished actor from Peep Show, David Mitchell.
In an open-hearted discussion with the Evening Standard back in 2012, Victoria Coren Mitchell shared her personal views on becoming a mother, stating: "I hadn't experienced the yearning that some women feel to start a family.
"I never had that point that a lot of my friends went through in their early to mid-twenties when they decided that they absolutely wanted children. But I am slightly obsessed with children [so] I absolutely still might."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
19 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Ozzy Osbourne's cause of death revealed days after star's funeral
Ozzy Osbourne's official cause of death has been confirmed after the Black Sabbath star died on July 22. Ozzy Osbourne's cause of death has been confirmed. The Prince of Darkness passed away aged 76 on July 22, while surrounded by his beloved wife Sharon and his children. Ozzy had been suffering with poor health in recent years, which he had publicly spoken about, but had been determined to make it to Villa Park, where he performed for the final time with his Black Sabbath bandmates just days before he passed away. His death certificate confirms that Ozzy died following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease and Parkinson's disease with autonomic dysfunction (joint causes). An acute myocardial infarction happens when the blood flow to the heart is blocked, often by a blood clot, causing damage to the muscles of the heart. Symptoms can include pain in the chest, including pressure, heaviness, tightness or squeezing, pain in other parts of the body, including the arm, jaw, neck, back and stomach, lightheadedness, sweating, shortness of breath and feeling sick, the Mirror reports. Ozzy's youngest daughter, Kelly, shared a tear jerking tribute to her late father yesterday evening. She took to Instagram to write: "I've sat down to write this a hundred times and still don't know if the words will ever feel like enough... but from the bottom of my heart, thank you. "The love, support, and beautiful messages I've received from so many of you have truly helped carry me through the hardest moment of my life. Every kind word, every shared memory, every bit of compassion has meant more than I can ever explain. "Grief is a strange thing—it sneaks up on you in waves-I will not be ok for a while-but knowing my family are not alone in our pain makes a difference. "I'm holding on tight to the love, the light, and the legacy left behind. Thank you for being there. I love you all so much." She signed off" by writing: Kelly #BirminghamForever #OzzyForever" Ozzy was laid to rest last week during a private family funeral on their Buckinghamshire estate. The day before, the Osbournes put on a united family front and made a public appearance in the star's hometown of Birmingham where thousands of fans had gathered to grieve the loss of the heavy metal icon. Ozzy's coffin made it's way down Broad Street in a hearse, stopped beside the Black Sabbath bridge and bench which was adorned with fan tributes. Sharon and her three kids, Aimee, Kelly and Jack, who she shared with Ozzy, were joined by the rock icon's son Louis from a previous marriage, as they emotionally laid their own floral tributes. Birmingham City Council began gathering up the tributes on Monday so they can be stored before being handed over to the Osbourne family. The council said: 'In due course, they will be passed on to the Osbourne family, so they may keep them as a lasting reminder of the public's affection and support.' In a statement released through the city council, the Osbourne family said: 'We are deeply moved by the heartfelt tributes that have been placed at the Black Sabbath Bridge and at the Black Sabbath mural on Navigation Street in recent days. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. "These expressions of remembrance reflect the profound impact that Ozzy had on the city and its people, as well as fans from around the world – BIRMINGHAM FOREVER!" Confirming that Ozzy had died last month, a statement from the family, released from his hometown, said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis." Speaking about his final performance at Villa Park on July 5, Ozzy's Black Sabbath bandmate, Geezer Butler, said the music icon was "frail" but "thrilled" to be able to perform for his fans one last time, who had stood by him throughout his career.
Telegraph
20 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘I worked with Steve Wright for 30 years. The BBC has tarnished his legacy'
Later this month, BBC Radio 2 will broadcast a tribute concert for Steve Wright – the adored DJ, who died last February. It will feature the bespoke jingles that were such a crucial part of shows such as Steve Wright in the Afternoon and Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs, but the man behind those jingles, Anthony James, is not involved. Since Wright's death at the age of 69, James says he has been dismayed by the BBC's handling of his friend's legacy – and haunted by what he sees as mistreatment by the corporation in the years leading up to his death. The pair first met in 1986 when James (known professionally as AJ) was a teenager. He had already begun working in local radio, composing unique musical idents for the station's presenters. A fan of Wright's BBC shows, James sent him a 30-second piece of music, with his 'cold pitch' resulting in a phone call to his home soon afterwards. 'My mother picked it up and ran upstairs and said, 'Oh my God, it's Steve Wright on the phone.' I thought it was one of my friends doing a prank,' James reflects, but it was Wright, promising that he would play the tune on his show at 3pm that very afternoon. So began a partnership that James describes as '50-50 friendship, 50-50 like a father figure'. At the outset, Wright appeared to him 'like the Wizard of Oz: he was this great big celebrity on one of the biggest stations in Europe'. When James moved to New York in the late 1990s to continue his career as a composer (still writing around 100 jingles a year across Wright's shows), their friendship continued to develop: 'He would tell me a lot of personal stuff, which was great. But first, he would always want to know what was up with me, what was going on in my world… He was very sensitive, very conscious of how I was doing.' Wright visited James in New York often; they spoke on the phone two or three times a week. He remembers Wright's levity during their calls. 'I miss that, big time. I would always get off the phone with Steve and I'd have laughed so much, because he just found humour in everything.' In the years leading up to his death, however, Wright would suffer a series of personal and professional setbacks. The first came in 2022, when Steve Wright in the Afternoon was axed by the BBC. Wright called a tearful James once the news broke; both saw the move as 'crazy; our numbers [were] through the roof'. Wright admitted that he had been told of its cancellation and sworn to secrecy by the organisation nine months prior, but was reassured by promises made by Helen Thomas, the head of BBC Radio 2, that the show would live on via a yet-to-be-created digital channel. When that prospect began looking increasingly unlikely, Wright approached Tim Davie, the director-general. According to James, Davie told Wright: 'I can't believe she fired you… I wouldn't have fired you myself.' The BBC has, however, denied this. James believes that the axing of Steve Wright in the Afternoon was part of a push to banish broadcasters considered too ' pale, male and stale ' from the airwaves, and to create a kind of conformity at direct odds with Wright's verve. 'They just wanted it a little bit more like wallpaper,' he says of Thomas's decision to 'do something different in the afternoons'. 'They thought that this idea of personality [displayed in abundance by Wright] is old style; it's not cool anymore, we should make Radio 2 cool,' he says. 'But who gives a s--- about cool? It's about being entertained.' The effect on Wright was devastating. 'He didn't really stop to accept it. I think it ate him up,' James tells me. 'It got worse, and his health got worse.' Wright had heart surgery a year after the show was axed, and the medication he took in its aftermath led him to put on even more weight. 'He told me, 'I'm just really not well. I'm trying to lose the weight, I think I'm going to have a gastric band.'' James says that Wright also considered using Ozempic. Despite Wright's best attempts to get better, James recalls that: 'There was something about our last meeting [in November 2023]. There was just a look in his eye. I told my partner [afterwards] that something was really wrong.' Then, the following February, Wright died, leaving James overwhelmed with grief. 'I was not on this planet,' he says of that time. The groundswell of public affection went some way to easing his sadness, but that was quickly dismantled by the actions of the BBC. 'The painful truth is that the same BBC leadership celebrating Steve publicly is the one that disregarded and undermined our work privately,' says James. After Wright's death, James feels that they tried to 'delegitimise' his and Wright's relationship. 'I felt disgusted by that,' says James. 'Our relationship was so successful and it lasted for 38 years, and I feel like they're just s---ting on it.' And on Wright himself: a man who attended the studio at nine o'clock each morning to prepare for his afternoon show, and was dedicated to his listeners to the last. In response to questions about the treatment of Wright, the BBC said: 'Steve was deeply loved by the Radio 2 family and listeners, and we all miss him dearly. For almost three decades he hosted a raft of brilliant shows on the network. 'Steve's Sunday Love Songs had been on air since 1996 and he was excited to take on the legendary Pick of the Pops alongside a variety of specials on Radio 2 including Steve Wright: The Best of the Guests, Steve Wright's Summer Nights and Steve Wright's Love Songs Extra on BBC Sounds.' Thomas wrote to James in autumn last year asking for permission to play his music in the BBC tribute concert for Wright, which was recorded earlier this year (ahead of this month's transmission). He agreed, but when he rediscovered a recording of Wright railing at the poor internal handling of his show being axed, 'I just got more and more angry.' James talked through the matter with Wright's son, before telling Thomas that he no longer planned to attend. Then, in the week before the concert, she let him know that 'the great and the good will be there', which James took to mean: don't miss an opportunity to network. 'And I said, 'I'm not f---ing networking; this is not about networking. This is about a tribute to my friend.'' James thinks this last-minute push was driven by fear that his absence would 'look bad' for the BBC. 'It just started stinking towards the end of it, and I thought, 'No, I've given my music, my music will represent me, and that's it. I'm not going,' he says. When I put James's thoughts to the BBC, a spokesman replied: 'When inviting AJ to the recording of the celebration of Steve's broadcast career, where new arrangements of his work would be played live on stage, Helen's sole aim was to make sure AJ did not miss what promised to be, and indeed proved to be, a very special event, with many of Steve's friends and colleagues in attendance.' It is clear that James feels both he and Wright have been wronged by the BBC. The outpouring of affection from fans since Wright's death, compared with what he sees as shoddy treatment by the corporation now openly celebrating him, has made the past 18 months particularly challenging. Wright would have turned 71 on August 26, and his birthday will spark 'very intense' feelings for James as he remembers their friendship and their creative partnership. 'I miss all that,' he says, 'and that makes me very emotional.'
The Guardian
20 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ray French obituary
Although Ray French was a dual rugby international, winning four caps for England at rugby union and then, after signing professional terms to play rugby league, appearing four times for Great Britain, it was as the BBC's rugby league commentator that he came to national prominence. French, who has died aged 85 after living with dementia, succeeded Eddie Waring as the BBC's voice of the sport in 1981, spending 27 years in the role. Waring had established a public profile, beyond his verbally eccentric rugby commentaries, via frequent appearances in light entertainment shows and knockabout comedy routines. And, like Waring before him, French too became a somewhat divisive figure among a cohort of rugby league supporters who believed he entrenched a stereotypical perception of their sport. With his distinctive Lancashire enunciation, catchphrases and characteristic lexicon, his critics accused the national broadcaster of choosing a figurehead designed to 'keep the sport in its place': an idiosyncratic pastime of northern England. However, to focus solely on his presentational style would be to mask the depth of knowledge French had for both codes of rugby, especially league. His command of the history of the two codes and his personal experiences of the prejudices constantly marring their relationship were leitmotifs running through his spoken and written work, imbuing his delivery with authenticity. He also called some of the most celebrated matches during his BBC tenure, including the 1985 Challenge Cup final between Wigan and Hull, oft-regarded as the greatest final of all, and 12-man Great Britain's against-the-odds victory over Australia at Wembley in 1994 when fellow cross-coder Jonathan Davies scored one of the finest tries seen at the stadium. 'Davies, he's got some space. He's going for the corner, he's got his head back. And the Welshman is in for a magnificent try' are words longstanding supporters can recite verbatim. Despite such highlights, French always said his most professional achievement at the BBC was during the second half of a commentary when, stuck high on a gantry, he was so desperate to relieve himself that, while still speaking, he was forced to use a bucket held by his match summariser. Meanwhile, his books – which include My Kind of Rugby: Union and League (1979) and Ray French … and Rugby (2010) – explore the complex socioeconomic and political relationships between the two rugby codes. And despite the longstanding animosity between them, often based on class and misplaced prejudice, he did much to break down barriers he considered absurd. Indeed, French was an advocate of a single rugby code, noting that 'the strength of rugby union is along the M4 corridor from London into Wales, while the strength of rugby league is along the M62 corridor in northern England. If rugby stopped dividing its resources, we'd have a game to challenge football.' Raymond James French was born on 23 December 1939 in St Helens. His father, Richard, worked in the local glass industry and his mother, Ellen, was a homemaker. Although raised in a rugby league-supporting family, in 1955 a scholarship took him from Rivington Road school to Cowley Grammar in nearby Windle where he first encountered rugby union. There his prowess as a robust back-row forward attracted the interest of the St Helens rugby union club. He quickly won Lancashire county honours and the attention of the England selectors. He won four international caps, playing second-row in England's Five Nations matches in 1961. Despite England's disappointing campaign, French prospered amid a mediocre pack and looked set for further call-ups. However, St Helens, his hometown professional rugby league club, had been monitoring his progress and in late 1961 offered him a £5,000 contract which initially he turned down. But the opportunity to play his favoured code eventually proved irresistible. He became part of the club's formidable forward pack, playing an integral role in Saints' double-winning season of 1965-66 as they won the Championship and Challenge Cup. However, although he had become club captain, St Helens sold French to local rivals Widnes in 1967. He wasn't especially pleased, describing it as 'feeling like a piece of meat on a supermarket shelf' but it would be at Widnes where he earned his rugby league international honours, travelling to Australia and New Zealand with Great Britain's 1968 World Cup squad. Unfortunately, the team's lacklustre performances meant many squad members, including French, would not be selected again. Meanwhile, while still playing professionally at St Helens, French studied for a degree in English, Latin and Russian at Leeds university. He graduated in 1962 and applied for teacher training at Loughborough university, only to be turned down because he was a rugby league professional. He eventually qualified back at Leeds and taught English at his alma mater Cowley, where he stayed until retirement. It was during his time at Cowley that French began commentating on rugby league for local radio, eventually progressing to the BBC. He was awarded the MBE in 2011 for services to rugby league. The man-of-the-match award in the 1895 Cup Final for lower-division teams is named after him, reflecting his love of, and involvement in, grassroots rugby. He married Helen (nee Bromilow) in 1963. She survives his, as does son Gary and daughter Susan. Raymond James French, rugby league player, journalist and sports commentator, born 23 December 1939, died 26 July 2025
