Round One: The Opener
The first round sets the tone, so keep it broad and keep it moving. Read each question twice, once at speed and once slowly, and do not repeat it a third time however loudly the corner table asks. Two of these are hard enough to separate the serious teams early, which is the point — if everyone scores thirteen you have learned nothing about the room.
Q1.Which motorway links London and Leeds?Tap to reveal
Answer: The M1
Q2.Which cabinet post has 11 Downing Street as its official residence?Tap to reveal
Answer: Chancellor of the Exchequer
Q3.At the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben is properly the name of what?Tap to reveal
Answer: The great bell
Q4.What is the chemical symbol for tin?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sn
Q5.Which British coin ceased to be legal tender at the end of 1984?Tap to reveal
Answer: The halfpenny
Q6.How many players are in a rugby league side?Tap to reveal
Answer: Thirteen
Q7.Which London Underground line is coloured brown on the map?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Bakerloo line
Q8.What is the collective noun for a group of crows?Tap to reveal
Answer: A murder
Q9.Which emergency number, introduced in London in 1937, was the world's first?Tap to reveal
Answer: 999
Q10.Which confectioner makes both the Wispa and the Curly Wurly?Tap to reveal
Answer: Cadbury
Q11.What does a cooper make?Tap to reveal
Answer: Barrels
Q12.The Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall in 1941 after which venue was destroyed in the Blitz?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Queen's Hall
Q13.In darts, what is the highest score possible with three darts?Tap to reveal
Answer: 180
Round Two: These Islands
British geography is where local knowledge shows up, so expect the pattern of scoring to shift depending on where you are standing. The longest-river questions are a deliberate pair: teams that answer the Severn confidently often put the Severn again for the second one. Read them one after the other and do not flag the difference.
Q1.Which is the longest river in the United Kingdom?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Severn
Q2.Which is the longest river flowing entirely within England?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Thames
Q3.What is the highest mountain in the British Isles?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ben Nevis
Q4.What is the highest mountain in Wales?Tap to reveal
Answer: Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)
Q5.Which Pembrokeshire settlement is the smallest city in Britain?Tap to reveal
Answer: St Davids
Q6.Which area became Britain's first national park in 1951?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Peak District
Q7.Which loch holds the greatest volume of fresh water in Britain?Tap to reveal
Answer: Loch Ness
Q8.Which is the deepest freshwater loch in the British Isles?Tap to reveal
Answer: Loch Morar
Q9.Which stretch of water separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Solent
Q10.Which is the largest of the Channel Islands?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jersey
Q11.The Giant's Causeway lies in which county?Tap to reveal
Answer: County Antrim
Q12.Which English city has railway stations called New Street and Snow Hill?Tap to reveal
Answer: Birmingham
Q13.What is the most southerly point of mainland Britain?Tap to reveal
Answer: Lizard Point
Round Three: Kings, Queens and Acts of Parliament
History rounds go wrong when every answer is a date, so half of these ask for a person or a law instead. The parliamentary questions are the ones worth including: most quizzes stop at Henry VIII's wives, and teams are rarely tested on the acts that actually changed the country. Put this round last before half-time — it is the one that produces the longest arguments at the bar.
Q1.Which king was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485?Tap to reveal
Answer: Richard III
Q2.In which year did the Battle of Hastings take place?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1066
Q3.Which king sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?Tap to reveal
Answer: King John
Q4.In which year did the Great Fire of London begin?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1666
Q5.Which 1707 legislation united the parliaments of England and Scotland?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Acts of Union
Q6.Which Scottish king inherited the English throne in 1603?Tap to reveal
Answer: James VI and I
Q7.Who became Prime Minister at the age of 24, the youngest ever?Tap to reveal
Answer: William Pitt the Younger
Q8.Who was Britain's longest-serving Prime Minister?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sir Robert Walpole
Q9.In which year was the Great Reform Act passed?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1832
Q10.Which 1833 Act took effect the following year across most of the British Empire?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Slavery Abolition Act
Q11.The Representation of the People Act of which year first gave some women the vote?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1918
Q12.Which queen's reign of 63 years ended in 1901?Tap to reveal
Answer: Victoria
Q13.Which way does the portrait of Charles III face on British coins?Tap to reveal
Answer: Left
Round Four: The Telly Round
This is the round where the whole table contributes, including the person who has spent the last hour on their phone. Weight it towards programmes that ran for decades rather than whatever finished streaming last month — a quiz that turns on a recent series punishes half the room. The Fawlty Towers episode count is the classic trap: teams assume dozens because it feels enormous.
Q1.Which soap was first broadcast on 9 December 1960?Tap to reveal
Answer: Coronation Street
Q2.In which year did EastEnders first air?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1985
Q3.Who played the first Doctor in Doctor Who?Tap to reveal
Answer: William Hartnell
Q4.In Only Fools and Horses, what is the name of the Trotters' tower block?Tap to reveal
Answer: Nelson Mandela House
Q5.Fawlty Towers is set in which seaside town?Tap to reveal
Answer: Torquay
Q6.How many episodes of Fawlty Towers were made?Tap to reveal
Answer: Twelve
Q7.In Dad's Army, what is Captain Mainwaring's civilian job?Tap to reveal
Answer: Bank manager
Q8.On University Challenge, what is the opening question of each set called?Tap to reveal
Answer: A starter for ten
Q9.Which sitcom was set at the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Office
Q10.Which children's programme, first broadcast in 1958, is the world's longest-running?Tap to reveal
Answer: Blue Peter
Q11.What is the name of the pub in EastEnders?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Queen Victoria
Q12.Under what title did Emmerdale originally run?Tap to reveal
Answer: Emmerdale Farm
Q13.Which Yorkshire-set sitcom, ending in 2010, is the longest-running sitcom in the world?Tap to reveal
Answer: Last of the Summer Wine
Round Five: The Music Round
You do not need speakers to run a music round, and a written one is easier to mark than clips. These are weighted towards British chart records and the places records came out of, so age helps but does not decide it. The Frankie Laine question is the hardest here by a distance — it dates from 1953 and the record has stood ever since.
Q1.Which Elton John single is the best-selling single of all time in the UK?Tap to reveal
Answer: Candle in the Wind 1997
Q2.Which 1967 Beatles album had a cover designed by Peter Blake?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Q3.Definitely Maybe was whose debut album?Tap to reveal
Answer: Oasis
Q4.Which act won Eurovision for the UK in 1997 with Love Shine a Light?Tap to reveal
Answer: Katrina and the Waves
Q5.Which city gave rise to The Specials and the 2 Tone label?Tap to reveal
Answer: Coventry
Q6.Who was the lead singer of Joy Division?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ian Curtis
Q7.Life on Mars? appears on which David Bowie album?Tap to reveal
Answer: Hunky Dory
Q8.Which Manchester nightclub, opened by Factory Records in 1982, closed in 1997?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Haçienda
Q9.Which singer duets with Shane MacGowan on Fairytale of New York?Tap to reveal
Answer: Kirsty MacColl
Q10.Which festival was first held at Worthy Farm in 1970?Tap to reveal
Answer: Glastonbury
Q11.Which Welsh singer had a 1968 hit with Delilah?Tap to reveal
Answer: Tom Jones
Q12.Which single was the UK Christmas number one in both 1975 and 1991?Tap to reveal
Answer: Bohemian Rhapsody
Round Six: The Sport Round
Finish on sport and you finish loudly, which is what you want going into the marking. Spread it across codes so it is not thirteen football questions — the cricket, snooker and rowing entries here are what stop one team running away with it. If two teams are level after marking, use a tie-breaker with a numerical answer and award it to whoever is nearest, such as the year Wimbledon was first held: 1877.
Q1.Which racecourse hosts the Grand National?Tap to reveal
Answer: Aintree
Q2.Which horse won the Grand National three times in the 1970s?Tap to reveal
Answer: Red Rum
Q3.Which venue has hosted the World Snooker Championship since 1977?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
Q4.Who made the first televised maximum 147 break, in 1982?Tap to reveal
Answer: Steve Davis
Q5.Who scored a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final?Tap to reveal
Answer: Geoff Hurst
Q6.Which country did England beat in that final?Tap to reveal
Answer: West Germany
Q7.Which England batsman scored 364 against Australia in 1938?Tap to reveal
Answer: Len Hutton
Q8.Which two nations contest the Calcutta Cup?Tap to reveal
Answer: England and Scotland
Q9.How many points is a try worth in rugby union?Tap to reveal
Answer: Five
Q10.Which London football club plays at Craven Cottage?Tap to reveal
Answer: Fulham
Q11.Which annual race is run over 4 miles and 374 yards on the Thames?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Boat Race
Q12.In which year did London first host the Olympic Games?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1908
Q13.The Open Championship was first held in 1860 at which course?Tap to reveal
Answer: Prestwick
Frequently Asked Questions
How many rounds should a pub quiz have?
Six rounds of ten to thirteen questions is the standard shape, running about two hours with a half-time break. Fewer than five feels thin for the price of entry; more than seven and teams start drifting to the bar mid-round.
How long does it take to run a quiz this size?
Roughly two hours. Budget eight minutes per round for reading and answering, ten to fifteen minutes for half-time, and twenty minutes at the end for marking and settling the scores.
How do you settle a tie?
Ask a tie-breaker with a numerical answer and give it to the team nearest, over or under — the year of an event, a height in metres, a population. Never settle a tie with another knowledge question, because the losing team will argue that they only lost on a subject they never agreed to.
Should teams mark their own papers?
No. Collect the sheets and pass them to another table before you read the answers out. It is faster than marking them yourself and it removes the temptation entirely.
How hard should the questions be?
Aim for about a third that most teams will get, a third that half will get, and a third that only one table will. If the winning score is close to full marks the quiz was too easy, and if nobody clears half the room stops enjoying it by round four.
