Only Connect: Imperial colleague wins place in final of TV quiz

Education Quality Manager Rob Sassoon talks quizzing, finding your team, and campus-wide fame. 

Since last September, Imperial’s Rob Sassoon has been battling his way through TV’s toughest quiz: Only Connect, the show on which teams of clever folk try to find the link among often baffling clues. As the Teatotallers, he and his teammates have spotted connections between Catchphrase presenters, words ending in German numbers, and the autobiographies of EastEnders stars. They have seen off teams of Pipe-Dreamers, Cookes, Introverts and Crunchers – and come up against a couple of Imperial alumni on the way. 

When he’s not spotting missing vowels or choosing between a horned viper and the Eye of Horus, Rob is an education quality manager in the Business School, mainly focusing on programme and module modifications, and programme handbooks. 

Ahead of the final, airing on 3 March, Rob sat down with us to talk fame, fortunes and twisted flax. 

Rob, congratulations on making it to the final. It was a pretty thrilling semi-final that got you here. 

The teams were level going into the Wall [the round in which each team must find connections within a grid of clues]. When the scores were announced afterwards, we realised we were up by three points. It turned out that both teams had had a group of plays in their respective walls, but the other team couldn’t name the author, and they didn’t get the points. Thankfully, my captain is a playwright, so it was very much his area of strength! 

And this will be a particularly special final, won’t it? 

The final is the 500th episode of Only Connect. I don’t know how they managed that. You’ll see us all wearing 500 badges on our shirts. 

What advice would you give if there were someone at Imperial considering applying for the next season of Only Connect? 

If you're a fan of the show and you want to apply, absolutely you should go for it. You can either apply as a team of three, or you can apply on your own and they will try and match you up with two other people. 

The team that we played in the quarter finals, the Introverts, were a very formidable team who got to the quarter finals having not known each other beforehand.  

Any further quizzing plans?  

I'd love to do Countdown at some point in the future. The problem I have is that the people who win Countdown are really, really good at Countdown - they learn the dictionary! They've learnt all their letters and letter combinations and what have you. And I just sit at home playing without a pen and paper, and just sort of trying to do it all in my head. I'd love to do it. I'd love to get a teapot, and I have no further expectations 

I did Eggheads about 15 years ago. And, like most teams on Eggheads, lost. But I’ve learnt through doing Only Connect that I’m a much better team quizzer than I am an individual quizzer. I don’t have any massive sights on anything like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? or Mastermind. 

Most importantly: have you been recognised around campus? 

A couple of people have come up to me and I've had a couple of emails from people just saying: “I heard someone from Imperial’s on the show. We're big fans of the show, and I just want to say well done and good luck.” And, I have to say, it's been really nice. You know, I've had a really warm reaction from the Imperial community, and I'm really grateful for all the support I've had throughout my time on Only Connect and going into the final. 

Rob, on behalf of Imperial, best of luck in the final. 

The final episode of Only Connect Series 20 will air on BBC Two at 8pm on 3 March.