Only Connect Viewers Thought They’d Caught The BBC Quiz Giving A Wrong Answer — But One Tiny Harry Potter Detail Turned The Semi-Final Into A Fierce Debate

Only Connect has built its reputation on questions so fiendishly difficult that even experienced quizzers can be left staring blankly at the screen.

But during one tense semi-final, something unusual happened.

Viewers weren’t arguing because they couldn’t understand the answer.

They were arguing because they believed the answer itself was wrong.

A bizarre connection involving Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and the dark comedy In Bruges left both teams unable to solve the puzzle. When host Victoria Coren Mitchell finally revealed the intended connection, eagle-eyed fans immediately spotted one detail they believed undermined the entire question.

Others, however, insisted the clue was technically defensible.

And it all came down to one actor — Colin Farrell.

Can You Spot The Connection?

The controversy began during round one of the first Only Connect Series 19 semi-final.

The Thrifters were facing the Suncatchers when they were presented with four increasingly revealing clues:

“Grindelwald is the younger of the two main characters.”

“Fleur Delacour dates Grindelwald.”

“Mad-Eye Moody is the older of the main characters.”

“Lord Voldemort is the boss of Grindelwald and Mad-Eye Moody.”

On the surface, the statements sound like an extremely strange description of relationships within the Wizarding World.

Anyone familiar with Harry Potter would immediately notice that something doesn’t seem right.

That was deliberate.

The contestants needed to stop thinking about the characters themselves and instead identify the actors connected to them.

Both teams recognized the Harry Potter element.

Neither managed to make the final leap.

Coren Mitchell then revealed the intended connection:

Wizarding World actors in In Bruges.

The Four Clues Pointed Towards One Movie

The question was constructed around actors associated with four Wizarding World characters who also connect to Martin McDonagh’s 2008 film In Bruges.

Ralph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, portrayed crime boss Harry Waters in In Bruges.

Brendan Gleeson, known to Potter audiences as Mad-Eye Moody, played Ken.

Clémence Poésy, who portrayed Fleur Delacour, appeared as Chloë.

Then there was Colin Farrell.

Farrell starred opposite Gleeson as Ray, the younger of the film’s two central hitmen.

And that was where viewers found a problem.

‘Colin Farrell Never Played Grindelwald’

Farrell appeared in 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as Percival Graves, the powerful Director of Magical Security.

The film’s final twist reveals that Graves is actually Gellert Grindelwald in disguise.

When Grindelwald’s true identity is exposed, however, the character is shown as Johnny Depp.

Mads Mikkelsen later took over the Grindelwald role in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

That distinction led some viewers to argue that describing Farrell simply as the actor who “played Grindelwald” was inaccurate.

One viewer complained that Farrell played a disguised version of the character under a different name, pointing out that Grindelwald was otherwise portrayed by Depp and Mikkelsen.

Another agreed that the question was wrong because, in their view, Farrell technically played Percival Graves rather than Grindelwald.

Others made the same objection more simply:

“Colin Farrell never played Grindelwald though.”

For a show famous for demanding extraordinary precision from its contestants, the wording immediately became a talking point.

But Was The Answer Actually Wrong?

Not everybody agreed.

There is a reason the argument isn’t quite as straightforward as saying Farrell played an entirely unrelated character.

The ending of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them establishes that the man audiences have known as Percival Graves is Grindelwald using a magical disguise.

In narrative terms, therefore, Farrell spends much of the movie portraying Grindelwald disguised as Graves.

That gave defenders of the Only Connect question their counterargument.

If Farrell’s character is ultimately revealed to have been Grindelwald all along, describing him as playing a disguised Grindelwald can be considered defensible.

The disagreement therefore comes down to how strictly the clue should be interpreted.

Was Farrell playing Percival Graves because that is the identity shown to audiences for most of the film?

Or was he playing Grindelwald because the finale reveals Graves was a disguise?

That tiny distinction was enough to turn a single quiz clue into a debate.

Some Fans Absolutely Loved The Question

While critics focused on the technical wording, other viewers admired the construction of the connection.

One fan described it as a contender for one of their favorite Only Connect questions, praising the crossover between two seemingly unrelated fictional worlds.

And the underlying idea is certainly elaborate.

The clues effectively take relationships between characters in In Bruges and replace each actor’s name with the Wizarding World character associated with that performer.

Once translated back into actors, the strange statements suddenly make sense.

Farrell and Gleeson are the two main characters.

Poésy’s character dates Farrell’s.

Fiennes plays the criminal boss of Farrell and Gleeson’s characters.

Without recognizing In Bruges, however, the Wizarding World references send the solver in an entirely different direction.

That is precisely the kind of lateral thinking Only Connect normally demands.

This time, though, the Farrell-Grindelwald wording gave viewers something else to solve.

The Contestants Had An Even Bigger Problem Coming

The disputed question was only part of an exceptionally close semi-final.

The Thrifters and Suncatchers remained locked together deep into the episode.

By the end of the Missing Vowels round, both teams had reached 20 points.

That meant the semi-final had to be decided by a tie-break.

Under the show’s rules, only the team captains could answer.

With a place in the grand final at stake, one final clue would separate the two sides.

The Thrifters ultimately came through the tie-break and secured their place in the Series 19 final.

The Suncatchers weren’t eliminated from the competition entirely, however, as they moved into the third-place playoff.

A Rare Moment When Viewers Challenged Only Connect

Arguments over quiz questions aren’t unusual.

But they carry a little extra weight when they involve Only Connect.

The BBC show is famous for exacting connections, obscure knowledge and clues that can appear completely nonsensical until the underlying logic finally clicks.

Contestants are expected to notice tiny distinctions.

Viewers play along at home looking for equally tiny details.

So when the show itself appeared to blur the distinction between Colin Farrell playing Percival Graves and Percival Graves being revealed as Grindelwald in disguise, fans inevitably noticed.

Yet that same twist is also why other viewers believe the clue works.

The question therefore produced something arguably more difficult than a normal Only Connect puzzle.

Even after the answer was revealed, people still couldn’t agree on it.

And for once, the toughest connection of the night wasn’t simply figuring out what the quiz wanted.

It was deciding whether the quiz had actually got it right.