You'll likely be a genius if you can answer this tricky Only Connect question

23 August 2023 , 06:00

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Even host Victoria Coren Mitchell was left feeling baffled (Image: BBC/RDF Television/Rory Lindsay)

Only Connect is known for its tough, challenging questions, with contestants and at-home viewers alike given a real workout for the brain during each 30-minute episode. Fronted by host Victoria Coren Mitchell, participating teams will need to possess plenty of impressive linguistic and numerical skills to be in with a chance of victory, as well as a fair bit of obscure knowledge.

Some questions however appear so very impossible, that they make others look easy by comparison. Take, for instance, a multi-layered question posed in Series 15, Episode 20 of Only Connect, which Coren Mitchell declared to be "the most difficult question we've ever had".

First of all, competitors were shown arrows pointing toward four geographical destinations on an unmarked map that they then had to identify. Take a look at the following image for yourself below and, once you've figured it out, read out to find out the rest of the question.

Contestants were asked to find the fourth location in the mystery sequence (wheelsongenius/Youtube)

Did you manage it? The brainy team correctly picked out Carlisle, Dublin, and, Dundee, before twigging the connection and guessing the fourth Take a minute for yourself to try and figure it out, and really try and think about where you've heard these three places listed together before.

If you don't want any clues then stop reading now and keep on scrambling about in the trivia part of your brain. If you could do with a bit of a hint, however, then be aware that music fans will likely fare quite well with this round, particularly if they're into 1980s rock music. Once you're ready to check over the answer for yourself, then read on.

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The clever team correctly identified the pattern as places listed in a line from the iconic 1987 song Panic by The Smiths, which of course reads, "But there's panic on the streets of Carlisle, Dublin, Dundee, Humberside I wonder to myself", making the fourth place in the sequence Humberside. Once you hear the locations listed in context, then it all seems so very obvious, but it's really anything but.

Addressing contestants on the show at the time, a visibly baffled Coren Mitchel said: "I genuinely think this is the most difficult question we've ever had. I was shouting, 'this is ungetable!' You have to do about 12 things to solve this puzzle. [...] First, you've got to recognise the places that are being pointed out, then you've got to think it's not a geography question it's something else, then you've got to think of The Smith's song Panic."

Do you have a seemingly impossible quiz question to share? Email us at [email protected]

Julia Banim