Only Connect series 4 starts on September 6th on BBC4.

To celebrate, here is a question I floated by David B earlier in the year. It’s quite easy, it’s a picture sequence, the question is what would you expect to see in the fourth picture?

Poor ITV1, and indeed poor Millionaire – as much as I like the revamp, clearly quite a few people (such as myself) don’t like it enough to actually watch it week on week, last night’s was down half a million on the series opener a fortnight ago. But the big question is this: if you were to axe Millionaire, what do you put in its place? Odd One In and Magic Numbers aren’t doing the business on Saturday nights (although I think at least one of those is because Saturday nights is completely the wrong place for them). Even Bother’s Bar non-favourite The Colour of Money could pull in bigger figures than Millionaire currently is. And that was rubbish.

So what I’m basically leading up to is this: why doesn’t ITV try Survivor again? Back when it was shown on British TV ten years ago, it would happily pull in 5-6m viewers – at the time, the low side of solid, despite actually being a great show (albeit much slower paced than necessary). In 2010, those are big hit numbers.

Of course, there are no guarantees that it would pull the same numbers in 2010. But it remains a solid performer around the world years after it was first unleashed. It’s clearly got something going for it.

There are of course things to object about. What if people associate Survivor 2010 with the abject failure of Survivor 2001? Then just call it Expedition Robinson. Survivor UK reportedly cost £10m to make which is a huge amount in this day and age. But to that I say “don’t emulate the Americans, have a word with Strix (Swedish), Adventure Line (French) or Talpa (did the Netherlands/Belgian one for a bit) to see how they make a successful long-running show on evidently a much smaller budget. Fewer massive set pieces, more grit.”

Could it work?

To begin, 3-2-1 is finally over. What did Tom reject, and what’s he walking away with?

In the meantime, Chris MD posed an intriguing question yesterday: who was better: Ed Welch or Zack Lawrence? Lawrence of course has some great tunes to his name – Peak Performance for Treasure Hunt, Force Field for The Crystal Maze and Rock Revolution for Interceptor (although that’s basically a cover), I just don’t think you can beat the eighties synth stylings of Ed Welch:

Man, I really want to watch Knightmare now. Awesome.

Incidentally, Perfection is getting rerecorded 14th-23rd September at the London Studios. Lost in TV have the details.

Today I revisited Minute to Win It. I originally thought it was a bit dull and stodgy, but time has been kind to it and recent episodes are mildly entertaining – nothing to set the world alight, but good fun.

Anyway, it’s come to my attention that there’s now an Australian version. It’s OK, although I get the feeling the more difficult games get played earlier than they do in the US. But the big question is: Darren McMullen – what is that accent?

It started out as a Question Too Esoteric For Only Connect by Des Elmes.

It has evolved INTO A MONSTER. And still Only Connect question editor David Bodycombe can’t solve it. Yeah, taste of your own medicine, David.

So if you’re playing along at home and you still haven’t solved it, in which case DUH, here is a complete list of the clues given:

• Knight
• Aerial
• Oscilloscope
• Scottish Flag
• An upward pointing arrow
• A compass rose
• Some tortoises mating
• A triple-coloured river
• A thistle
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• A ship pointing westward
• A chevron
• Four letters in 2×2 arrangement
• A slightly colourful, slightly gibbous moon
• A 3d parallelogram turned slightly to the side with two lines running through it horizontally, conjoining in the middle.
• A spinning star
• A sort of Venn diagram in black and white
• A cake
• A lot of triangles on a flag
• Hexagons and a leopard’s head.

There can’t be many more, but if you’ve worked out the connection and can think of any other ones, feel free to add them.

Unless he’s been secretly taking the piss all afternoon.

Right, the fact is I’ve got three out of four in my head, and overnight I intend on thinking of a fourth one. Let’s hope I can find one! This is a music question by the way.

• Glory Days, by Pulp
• Three Lions, by Skinner, Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds

Giveaway clue in the morning.

Nobody? How about:

• Theme from Give Us a Clue, Alan Braden

Alright, final clue so we can move on:

• 99 Luftballons, by Nena

And David B has got it! They are all tunes that have been at one point or another redone with different lyrics, by the same artists.

Join us next time for a game of Questions That Are A Bit Too Esoteric For Only Connect!

…THE MOST USEFUL PAGE ON THE INTERNET?

It’s a sequence, what comes fourth? Time starts NOW!

• Love and adventure
• Cash to spend
• Love and affection
• Two or three friends

They’re the Things That Dreams Are Made Of (or at least, the things that everyone needs) by The Human League, which awesomely popped up on my iPod this morning. Well done to Mark D for being the first, and everyone else for the reasoning.

Join us next time for more Questions That Are A Bit Too Esoteric For Only Connect! Bye!

Mission 2110:

• Mission Two-thousand, One-hundred-and-ten?
• Mission Twenty-one Ten?
• Mission Two-hundred-and-eleven Zero?
• Mission Two One One O?

Enquiring minds need to know.

Bonus question for D Peake or G Male: In the title sequence of Accumulate! there’s a round of Speculate to Accumulate going on with the answers shown as ‘Floods’, ‘November’, and finally ‘Accumulate’. What was the question? Also please use “you lost, you chost” next series please thanks.

Inspired by comments on other posts, I thought I’d set my own question. I will update this throughout the day if nobody gets it.

So, what comes fourth in this sequence and for no bonus or indeed credit, why?

• Stephanie Beecham
• Kate O’ Mara
• Rula Lenska
• Susan George is the answer because “DJB had already did this in a TV Cream mailout!” Well done Jenny Turner! Ahem.

Join us next time for another brilliant game of “Questions That Are Probably A Little Bit Too Esoteric for Only Connect!” Bye!