The flag question was an odd one. Just the country names on their own would be sufficient to let the contestants establish the connection, but I wonder if the question setter decided it was too easy and thought "let's show the country's flag instead", then realised the contestants had to identify the flag AND then deduce the connection, decided that was too difficult and threw in the final letter as a compromise.

Yeah, I thought that was a bit of a dodgy decision. It was perfectly accurate -- but I suppose the worry is that, when you accept one thing that's not on the card, where would it end? They could have four clues with a person's name on them and a team could say "they're all people", and that would be technically correct too.

I still thought it was an unfair decision, though, and that the question should have been written differently to avoid it.

The flag question really didn't work as a picture question, I feel it would've been fair if it had been set out something like:

Luxembourg
Denmark
Bangladesh
Iraq

The names of four countries on their own would have been meaningless without any indication that the final letter was significant in the connection, so you have to 'flag' (ahem - sorry) that somehow. That would be even if there was nothing else to connect them - it would still be too random to guess.

The problem with this question is that the uniqueness of countries' English names last letters is not something that anybody really ever thinks about, or particularly wants to. Is it possible that it is only in the esoteric world of professional quizzing you ever get asked questions such as "Which is the only country that ends with an 'h'?" because you have to come up with ever more obscure trivia to try to separate the top few, and that when it translates to a popular tv quiz nobody else actually gives a damn?

The American football one was stupid too. My husbands a massive football fan and the pictures they had to represent the saints, packers, giants, ravens were all rubbish. We though it was Jesus and couldn't figure out the giant one. I can think of a million stock photos that represent a giant. I can only think they chose it so they could get it on telly...oh hahaha a big willy...:|

Well, it's known as the Cerne Abbas Giant and is a well-known hill figure, so as good a clue to "giant" as anything else, I reckon.

I think that one might have worked more as a 'Round 1' question rather than a 'Round 2' i.e they are all American Football teams, rather than an actual sequence to it as well.

I quite liked the concept behind the FM frequencies one, though didn't think it was that well executed. Tony Blair as PM (Years 1-3) is May 1997 to April 2000, not '97-'99.

I think that we should write off this series as a new question editor trying to make his mark but going slightly too far.

As simonk01 pointed out in a previous post, the next series probably will see questions more like we're used too.

I agree but it is a shame for the teams that have appeared on this series.

It's hard enough to get teams on the show now that we seem to see the same faces week after week with the new format.

Must be high time for a Digital Spies team to take the air.

That would be amazing!

Would be very interesting to read davidbod's assessment of the current series, but I'm sure he'd rather refrain from passing comment. And understandably so.

Definitely a decline without him on the question setting team though.

Hi there, davidbod. I am sure you are quietly chuckling at the way this thread is going.

Actually, I didn't realize how much you get up to - I have just read your Wikipedia entry!

Although as soon as the round was announced as 'things best served cold' ice cream was the first thing that came into my head, so was just waiting for it to appear!

I was waiting for revenge

I'm not happy with some of the new questions either, but that's a bit much...

The teams this series have been a bit... shall we say... bland. I assume these were filmed around the same time as the last series?

You really should go for it - it's a huge amount of fun to do, if you go in with the right attitude. To tackle a few things people have mentioned recently:

Yes, in my opinion the next series won't be as hard as this one. Though I can think of one particular question that will make you all go, "Oh come on, that's just impossible."

The Iain M. Banks question was probably unrelated to his death. The current series must have been filmed in about January - we filmed in early May for the next series, which will be broadcast from September.

Please stop going on about the size of Victoria Coren-Mitchell's breasts (we had enough of that from one of our teammates in Cardiff!)

Two problems...
The questions have been harder so it's been more difficult for a team to show off and get a good following.

The lack of teams means we see the same faces every few weeks and it gets a bit boring seeing the same people over and over, especially if you think they were a bit bland in the first place.

Bland is good though, if the alternative is that moron in the last series whose name I shall not mention for fear of offending.

Yes! I correctly guessed Italian names for German Cities.

Come on, teams - Berlino.

So now we know where the programme gets its title from.

I did always wonder!

For goodness sake.

So, tonight they decide they DO need to use an 'e.g.' in the sequemces round when it indicates an example. The inconsistency is ridiculous. This show needs to sort itself out for the next series, that's one major flaw too many for me.