Jack Dee
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40 free Jack Dee trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Jack Dee has spent more than thirty years turning a scowl into a career. The deadpan stand-up from Bromley became a household face in the 1990s, won a reality show he plainly did not enjoy, wrote and starred in his own sitcoms, and now chairs one of the longest-running comedy institutions on the airwaves. This quiz covers the whole run: the false starts before his first gig, the adverts that made him famous, Lead Balloon and Bad Move, Shooting Stars, Celebrity Big Brother, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and the straight acting roles that surprise people who only know the grumpy persona. It is pitched at fans of British comedy and panel shows. The opening questions are ones most viewers can reason out, while the later rounds reward anyone who has followed him from the club circuit to the chairman's seat. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before turning to comedy, Jack Dee tried in his twenties to enter which profession?
Priest
Priest was the calling Jack Dee explored in his twenties, going to church before he realised the life was not for him. He had wanted drama college until his mother urged him to learn a trade.
Q 02The first Celebrity Big Brother, won by Jack Dee in 2001, raised money for which charity?
Comic Relief
Comic Relief was the beneficiary, and the final went out live on Red Nose Day itself. Dee disliked how housemates were treated and has refused to let clips of his stay be shown again.
Q 03What was Jack Dee's job when he met his future wife in Fulham in 1986, before his comedy career?
Waiter
Waiter was his trade for years, including a spell at a grand London hotel. His wife-to-be was a receptionist at a hotel nearby, and they married three years later.
Q 04Which beer brand's TV adverts starred Jack Dee from 1992 to 1997, making him a household name?
John Smith's
John Smith's replaced Dee with a cardboard cut-out after he left the campaign, then turned to another comedian, Peter Kay, in 2002.
Q 05Jack Dee became host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue in 2009, succeeding which late jazz bandleader?
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton chaired the show from 1972 until his death in 2008, and many doubted it could carry on without him. Dee first shared a trial run with two other hosts.
Q 06Which twelve-episode 1970s comedy did Jack Dee champion in the BBC's poll Britain's Best Sitcom?
Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers got an hour-long film from Dee, who gave viewers twenty reasons to vote for it. Only two series of six episodes were ever made.
Q 07On which game show did Jack Dee finish runner-up to Andy Zaltzman over ten episodes in 2024?
Taskmaster
Taskmaster pitted Dee against Rosie Jones, Emma Sidi and Babatunde Aléshé as well as Zaltzman in its eighteenth series, with Greg Davies judging their efforts.
Q 08At which London club did Jack Dee perform his first stand-up set after finishing work one evening?
The Comedy Store
The Comedy Store gave Dee his start, and by 1991 he had been named Best Stage Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards. A television series of his own followed within months.
Q 09Which BBC panel show, without a permanent host since 2002, has Jack Dee guest-presented many times?
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You turned to a different guest presenter each week after Angus Deayton was sacked, and its audience grew. Dee became one of the regular stand-ins.
Q 10As host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Jack Dee oversees which game named after a Tube station?
Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent has no real rules: panellists name stations and argue over invented strategy until somebody says the winning name. The earnest debate is the whole joke.
Q 11Which presenter hosted the live eviction shows of the first Celebrity Big Brother, won by Jack Dee?
Davina McCall
Davina McCall interviewed each evicted housemate live, and the whole contest was over in eight days. Only six celebrities took part, far fewer than in later series.
Q 12Which station airs I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the long-running panel game chaired by Jack Dee?
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 has carried the show since it launched in 1972 as a parody of panel games. Two teams of two comedians are set absurd challenges by the chairman.
Q 13When Jack Dee became a Shooting Stars captain in 2008, which original captain led the opposing team?
Ulrika Jonsson
Q 21Jack Dee was born in Bromley but moved as a child to which cathedral city, where he went to school?
Winchester
Winchester later honoured him: its university gave Dee an honorary degree in 2009 for his contribution to comedy, drama and the performing arts.
Q 22Jack Dee, born in Bromley in 1961, was given which first name at birth?
James
James Andrew Innes Dee is his full name, with Innes taken from his grandmother's side. Both of his mother's parents were repertory actors.
Q 23Which fictional scorer is said to sit beside chairman Jack Dee on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue?
Samantha
Samantha was named after the model Samantha Fox, and early listeners complained about her treatment before realising she was invented. An empty seat with a microphone is kept for her.
Ulrika Jonsson had captained a team since the first series in 1995. One recurring sketch in the revived series had the hosts try to cheer Dee up by playing him a song on drain pipes.
Q 14Which double act hosted Shooting Stars, the surreal panel show where Jack Dee was a team captain?
Reeves and Mortimer
Reeves and Mortimer, better known as Vic and Bob, ignore the rules or invent new ones as the mood takes them, so the scoring is largely arbitrary.
Q 15Which comedian created the flat-share sitcom in which Jack Dee played eccentric landlord Geoff?
Josh Widdicombe
Josh Widdicombe named the sitcom after himself and starred as a struggling stand-up sharing a flat near Holloway Road in north London. It ran for three series.
Q 16The BBC stand-up show Jack Dee Live at the Apollo was filmed at a theatre in which London district?
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is home to the Apollo, where Dee hosted the first two series before the show dropped his name from its title. It earned him a BAFTA nomination in 2006.
Q 17Jack Dee guest-starred in which BBC mystery about a designer of magic tricks who solves crimes?
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek often cast comedians in serious parts, and Dee appeared in 2003 as Dudley Houseman. Rik Mayall and Bob Monkhouse were among the other comics given straight roles.
Q 18What is the name of the bitter stand-up comedian Jack Dee plays in his sitcom Lead Balloon?
Rick Spleen
Rick Spleen was based on the comedians who hated being comedians that Dee met in his early years on the circuit. The character scrapes a living hosting corporate award nights.
Q 19Jack Dee's sitcom Lead Balloon was widely called Britain's answer to which HBO comedy?
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm was the comparison from the day the series was commissioned, though Dee also named Seinfeld and the early films of Woody Allen as influences on its tone.
Q 20For charity in 2013, Jack Dee joined five celebrities canoeing rapids on which African river?
Zambezi
Zambezi rapids tested a team that also included Dara Ó Briain and Melanie C. Between them the six paddlers raised more than £1 million.
Q 24Jack Dee shared a 2009 trial hosting I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue with Stephen Fry and which comedian?
Rob Brydon
Rob Brydon, Fry and Dee each recorded two shows that summer, and Dee was then handed the whole of the next series. The job became his permanently.
Q 25Which comedian plays Nicky, the wife of Jack Dee's character, in the countryside sitcom Bad Move?
Kerry Godliman
Kerry Godliman and Dee play a couple who swap Leeds for a rural cottage, only to find it sits in a dip that the internet cannot reach but floodwater can.
Q 26Which comedian took over The Apprentice: You're Fired! after Jack Dee's single series as host?
Rhod Gilbert
Rhod Gilbert stayed until 2019, whereas Dee left after one run because of commitments to other comedies and a radio show.
Q 27Jack Dee made his 1998 stage debut in 'Art', a play about three friends arguing over what purchase?
A white painting
A white painting, bought by Serge for a small fortune, sets the friends against each other in Yasmina Reza's comedy. Dee played Yvan, then returned as Serge for a 13-week run.
Q 28What is the title of Jack Dee's 2009 memoir, which ends with his very first stand-up performance?
Thanks for Nothing
Thanks for Nothing stops about 25 years before it was written, because Dee wanted to tell only the story of how he got into comedy. He also narrates the audiobook.
Q 29Jack Dee starred in Power Monkeys, a 2016 comedy written hours before broadcast to track which vote?
The EU referendum
The EU referendum campaign supplied the plot, and episodes were written and produced within hours of transmission so that characters could react to that week's real events.
Q 30Jack Dee co-hosted Comic Aid in 2005, a one-off comedy gala raising money after which disaster?
The Asian tsunami
The Asian tsunami of December 2004 brought comedians together for a single night to raise money for the appeal, with Dee as one of the hosts.