Ear Candy: Plot Twist

really pleased with it because it seemed to sum up how, with Only Connect, you can bring so many things together.

Are there any subjects best avoided? It’s better to look at it the other way around: no matter how obscure a sub ject, it can be fashioned into a good question.

What’s the secret to a good quiz? Finding the right balance between luck and skill. Any topic can come up, from pop music to particle physics, which is where luck comes in, but the very best teams will always rise to the top because of their skill. You need people who can play; otherwise, a quiz won’t work. “Play-along-ability” at home is also hugely important.

How important is the host? A lot of the character of Only Connect is down to Victoria [Coren Mitchell]. She loves the show and puts a huge amount of preparatory work into it, which isn’t the case for every host. A lot of them turn up on the day and read the ques tions – and that’s fine, they’re not meant to see the questions beforehand. But Victoria is an important part of the process of putting the show together before filming.

How would you two fare as contestants on Only Connect? We were both contestants in the show. [Jack:] I was in the first-ever episode of series 1 in 2008 and my team reached – but lost – in the final. [David:] I was in series 5 but we had a bit of a night mare on the wall and vowel rounds, as can happen to the best of teams. We lost, but it wasn’t embarrassing. I would do better now. n

Question editors Jack Waley-Cohen and David McGaughey were interviewed by Matthew Bell.

The answer: Each of the examples, surpris ingly, becomes some kind of edible vegetable. The explanation: 1 Apocolocyntosis is a vicious satire in which the former Emperor Claudius is turned into a pumpkin on his death (Apo colocyntosis means ‘pumpkinification’). 2 The court declared that, for customs purposes, the tomato was a vegetable, not a fruit. 3 The headline ‘That’s yer allotment’ was accompanied by an image of Taylor as a turnip after he resigned as England manager. 4 Cinderella’s carriage turns back into a pumpkin at midnight.

The Trip

Plot twists can make or break a TV series. They can be the reason you fall in – or out of – love with a TV show. Or force you to resurrect your Twitter account to share your shock with other viewers. In normal times, life doesn’t usually throw the same twists at you as TV frequently does. But the sudden change of direction that we are all sharing due to the coronavirus pandemic empha sises how you can very suddenly find yourself on a different journey to the one you planned. And, consequently, with more time to listen to podcasts. Whether it is the revelation that The Good Place is really the Bad Place or the cliff hanger at the end of an episode of EastEnders or Hollyoaks, a plot twist can change the dynamic of a show or take a series in an unexpected direction. On Now TV’s Plot Twist podcast, hosts Tom and Fran invite an eclectic mix of TV and film stars to describe their own “plot twists”, where life, work and love have taken unexpected turns. Guests have included Bulletproof stars Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters, come dian Karl Pilkington, The Trip duo Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, and Intelli gence’s David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed. The famous faces touch on their most memorable plot twists on and off screen, from unconventional career shifts to their standout TV plottwist moments. n