Only Connect Viewers Spotted a ‘Mistake’ in the Very First Question — and One Wrong-Looking Train Had Railway Fans Shouting at the Screen

Only Connect had barely begun its new series when eagle-eyed viewers claimed they had already found the show’s first mistake.

Victoria Coren Mitchell presented one team with four apparently unrelated picture clues and asked them to identify the connection.

The first image was snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The second was Marvel character Rocket Raccoon.

The contestants immediately saw where the puzzle was heading.

The connection was ROCKET.

It seemed like a straightforward start to the new series — until Victoria revealed the remaining pictures.

The Third Picture Caused All the Trouble

After accepting the team’s answer, Only Connect displayed the final two clues.

One was an illustration presented as Stephenson’s Rocket.

The other showed rocket leaves.

That should have neatly completed the sequence.

Instead, some viewers stopped thinking about the connection entirely and started examining the locomotive.

They were convinced the programme had shown the wrong train.

“First mistake on the new series of @BBC #OnlyConnect,” one viewer complained on social media, claiming: “This is LOCOMOTION not Stephensons ROCKET.”

The fact that it happened during the opening question only made the apparent slip more noticeable.

“And on the very first question too!” another viewer reacted.

One Viewer Said the Picture Could Have Ruined the Puzzle

Because Ronnie O’Sullivan is famously nicknamed The Rocket and Rocket Raccoon provides the same word directly, the contestants were able to solve the connection after seeing only two clues.

For viewers who needed another clue, however, the disputed locomotive could have created a problem.

One fan admitted they had also solved it after two pictures but said that if they had needed the third clue, the train illustration “would have thrown me.”

Another railway-minded viewer had a different identification entirely.

They insisted the picture wasn’t Stephenson’s Rocket but Puffing Billy.

The fan jokingly acknowledged just how niche the complaint sounded, writing that they would now return to “looking for my life down the back of the sofa.”

Fans Immediately Put Only Connect Under the Microscope

For a programme built around exact connections, tiny details matter.

A picture that doesn’t precisely represent the intended clue can potentially send contestants — and thousands of people playing along at home — toward a completely different answer.

That helps explain why viewers noticed the disputed locomotive so quickly.

One person simply joked that “standards are slipping,” while others headed straight to the show’s online discussion to see whether anybody else had spotted the same thing.

The connection itself was never in doubt.

Ronnie O’Sullivan → Rocket Raccoon → Stephenson’s Rocket → rocket leaves.

But whether that third picture really showed the locomotive it was supposed to show became the much bigger talking point.

An Awkward Start to a New Series

Since launching in 2008, Only Connect has developed an audience that takes enormous pleasure in scrutinising every clue.

That audience isn’t particularly forgiving when something appears inaccurate.

So while the contestants successfully dispatched the opening puzzle, viewers at home were already conducting a much more detailed investigation of their own.

The BBC was reportedly approached for comment over the disputed image.

The players needed only two pictures to spot ROCKET. Some viewers needed only one look at the third to spot something else entirely — an apparent mistake in the very first question of the new series.