The title is taken from a passage in E. M. Forster's 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted.

[3][4] The series is regularly the most watched programme on BBC Two of the week and is typically broadcast on Mondays between Mastermind and University Challenge as part of the channel's quiz night.

[10][8] The show's questions will cover any topic, and many may require knowledge of both arcane subject areas and popular culture.

[10][12] On occasion Coren Mitchell will wear a wig or costume (such as a carnival mask or a complete pilgrim outfit), and no reference will be made to her appearance.

In series 4 Coren Mitchell announced that this idea had been dropped, ostensibly due to viewer complaints that it was too pretentious.

Henceforth Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (two reeds, lion, twisted flax, horned viper, water, and the eye of Horus) would be used instead.

Coren Mitchell sometimes joked in the programme that even she did not fully understand how it works and, especially in Series 12–13, it felt like the gameplay never ends and contestants "play and play and play…" Series 12–13 shifted to a format identical to University Challenge, with a knockout first round combined with a repechage for the best performing losers and double-elimination quarter-finals.

Typically, one of the six puzzles involves pictures, and another uses pieces of music, both classical and contemporary, but teams have no way of identifying these questions before making their choices.

As in the previous round, one set of clues involves pictures, with teams describing the fourth picture in the sequence, and starting from the quarterfinals of Series 10, there is occasionally a sequence made by three music clips, with contestants supplying the title or artist/s of the fourth unplayed music clip.

For example, sequential clues of "Anger", "Bargaining" and "Depression" would be correctly followed by "Acceptance", these being the 2nd to 5th stages of the Kübler-Ross model of grief.

Each team receives a wall of 16 clues and are given 2 minutes and 30 seconds to sort them into four groups of four connected items.

The puzzles are designed to include red herrings and to suggest more connections than actually exist, as some clues appear to fit into more than one category, but there is only one perfect solution for each wall.

For example, in a category of "Booker Prize-winning novels", a puzzle of "VR NNGDLT TL" would be correctly answered as "Vernon God Little".