THERE’S been a lot of talk about TV companies dumbing down, but Victoria Coren Mitchell’s returning series Only Connect could never be accused of appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Some of us are still trying to work out the first question by the time the half-time scores are announced.

While some might be put off by intellectuals choosing which pretentious symbol to opt for as they face their next question, the sublime Coren does a great job of keeping the show grounded.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is this September marks its fifth year on air, and while it started with a few hundred thousand viewers, by last October it was passing the one million mark.

Now it’s back for a new run, and three graduates of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, take on a trio of cat lovers in the hope they can make connections between things that initially appear to have no link.