Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free The Royle Family trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Royle Family did almost nothing a sitcom was supposed to do. No studio audience, no audience reaction dubbed on, barely a scene outside one Manchester house, and a family who spent every episode sat in front of the telly, smoking, bickering and saying not much that was not a dig at someone. Between 1998 and 2012 it turned that stillness into one of the best-loved British comedies of its era, winning two BAFTAs and a place in the country's all-time top twenty. These 50 questions cover the household and the people behind it: who plays Jim, Barbara, Denise, Dave, Antony and Nana; where the cast had been before (a Channel 4 soap, a spoof chat show, a Beatles cartoon) and where they went next; the theme tune and its odd second life; the phone bill, the birthday fizz, the christening and the wedding; and the five specials that brought the family back, including the one that made a nation cry. Built for pub quiz rounds, family nights and anyone who can still hear the opening bars of the theme. Play it on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for the table.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Oasis B-side to 'Whatever', sung by Noel Gallagher, is The Royle Family's theme tune?
Half the World Away
Half the World Away was written and sung by Noel Gallagher, who admits it sounds 'exactly the same' as a Burt Bacharach tune and is surprised he has never been sued for it.
Q 02Which actor plays Jim Royle, having been jailed in 1973 as one of the picketing builders called the Shrewsbury Two?
Ricky Tomlinson
Ricky Tomlinson was a plasterer sentenced to two years for conspiracy to intimidate after the 1972 builders' strike; the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in March 2021, 48 years later.
Q 03Which two-word catchphrase punctuates Jim Royle's outbursts from his armchair in The Royle Family?
My arse!
'My arse!' greets most of what the telly offers; Jim is written as a misanthropic, cynical slob who spends his days in the armchair doing as close to nothing as possible, yet shows understanding when the family really needs it.
Q 04Which 2006 special, The Royle Family's first new episode in six years, sees Nana die after moving in with the Royles?
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba drew more than 8,000,000 viewers and won Nana's actress a British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress the following year, alongside a BAFTA nomination for Best Comedy Performance.
Q 05Producer Glenn Wilhide called it 'a big fight' to make The Royle Family without which sitcom staple of 1998?
A laugh track
A laugh track was standard issue for British sitcoms of the time, but The Royle Family was shot on 16 mm film with a single camera and no studio audience, so the long silences could sit.
Q 06Which actress, who made her film breakthrough at 49 in Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments, plays Nana in The Royle Family?
Liz Smith
Liz Smith was born Betty Gleadle and was selling toys in Hamleys one Christmas when Mike Leigh's message reached her; she went on to a BAFTA for the 1984 film A Private Function.
Q 07Before The Royle Family, which spoof chat-show host asked Debbie McGee what attracted her to millionaire Paul Daniels?
Mrs Merton
Mrs Merton's Paul Daniels line came second in a 2006 poll of TV's best one-liners; the pensioner's show ran from 1995 to 1998, and her on-screen son Malcolm was played by the future Dave Best.
Q 08Which actress plays Barbara Royle while spending eleven years as profiler Grace Foley in Waking the Dead?
Sue Johnston
Sue Johnston worked for Beatles boss Brian Epstein and as a tax officer before acting, and was a 2000 BAFTA nominee for Barbara, losing to her own screen daughter.
Q 09In which Liverpool soap had The Royle Family's Jim and Barbara already played married couple Bobby and Sheila Grant?
Brookside
Brookside was shot in real houses that Mersey Television bought on a cul-de-sac in Croxteth, Liverpool; the Grants moved into number 5 when the soap began on 2 November 1982.
Q 10Which Royle Family co-writer plays Dave Best and took over narrating Gogglebox after his writing partner died in 2016?
Craig Cash
Craig Cash came to comedy from DJing on the south Manchester radio station KFM, and shares two BAFTA Television awards for the show with the partner who wrote every episode with him.
Q 11Which Royle Family co-creator plays Denise and won the 2000 BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance for the role?
Caroline Aherne
Caroline Aherne beat both of her screen parents, nominated in the same category, on a night the show led the field with four nominations and also took Best Scripted Comedy.
Q 12Which actor plays Antony, the Royle family dogsbody, having quit Manchester medical school in 1998 to act?
Ralf Little
Ralf Little later played semi-professional football for clubs including Maidstone United and Edgware Town, and spent six series as Jonny in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
Q 13Which actor plays Twiggy, the Royles' dodgy-goods dealer, having been binman Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street?
Q 21Inspired by which TV cook does Denise take on Christmas dinner in the 2008 Royle Family special The New Sofa?
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lawson's influence produces a Christmas dinner cooked by the family's laziest member, in a special that pulled 10.6 million viewers on Christmas Day 2008.
Q 22To which Welsh resort do Jim and Barbara Royle take a caravan holiday for their 50th wedding anniversary in 2009?
Prestatyn
Prestatyn's caravan park hosts Jim, Barbara, Dave and Denise in The Golden Egg Cup, the 2009 Christmas special that drew 11.74 million viewers, one of the show's biggest audiences.
Q 23On which investment show does Dave hope to pitch an invention in the 2012 Royle Family special Barbara's Old Ring?
Dragons' Den
Geoffrey Hughes
Geoffrey Hughes played Twiggy from 1998 until 2008, and in between was conman Vernon Scripps in ITV's Heartbeat from 2001 to 2005; he died in 2012, aged 68.
Q 14Which Keeping Up Appearances character did Twiggy's actor play in all 44 episodes across five series?
Onslow
Onslow came between two soaps for the same actor: Coronation Street's binman Eddie Yeats before, and Heartbeat's conman Vernon Scripps after, with the Royles' Twiggy running alongside.
Q 15Which Beatle did Twiggy's actor voice in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, thirty years before The Royle Family?
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney was voiced by a Kirkdale, Liverpool-born actor who, decades later, spent 1998 to 2008 turning up at the Royles' with rip-off materials or stolen goods to sell.
Q 16Which Spaced co-creator plays Cheryl, Denise's perpetually dieting best friend from next door, in The Royle Family?
Jessica Hynes
Jessica Hynes was credited under her birth surname Stevenson at the time; she co-wrote and starred in Spaced with Simon Pegg and later won a BAFTA as Siobhan Sharpe in W1A.
Q 17Darren's actor, Andrew Whyment, has played which Coronation Street character since leaving The Royle Family in 2000?
Kirk Sutherland
Kirk Sutherland has kept him on the cobbles for over two decades, long enough to win a British Soap Award for comedy performance and to finish runner-up on I'm a Celebrity in 2019.
Q 18Which future Mrs Biggs BAFTA winner plays Emma, Antony's well-off first girlfriend, in The Royle Family?
Sheridan Smith
Sheridan Smith went on to spend 2001 to 2009 as Janet in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, opposite Antony's actor again, before Mrs Biggs earned her the 2013 BAFTA for Best Actress.
Q 19Which Caribbean-set BBC detective series cast Antony Royle's actor as DI Neville Parker from 2020 to 2024?
Death in Paradise
Death in Paradise kept him in the Caribbean for five years; before that he had co-written and starred in his own Sky 1 sitcom, The Café, set in Weston-super-Mare.
Q 20Which Stockport pub sitcom did Dave Best's actor, a Royle Family co-writer, create with Phil Mealey in 2003?
Early Doors
Early Doors kept its Royle cousin's habits, shot with no studio laughter and rarely leaving the bar of The Grapes; a stage version, Early Doors Live, won a Manchester Evening News award in 2019.
Dragons' Den is the dream for Dave in the final special, while Joe is looking for love and a new neighbour causes havoc in the Royle household; it was the last episode made before Denise's actress died in 2016.
Q 24Which Downton Abbey actress plays Saskia, Antony's pregnant nurse girlfriend, in 2010's Royle Family Christmas special?
Joanne Froggatt
Joanne Froggatt was already Anna Bates at Downton by then, a role that brought her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in January 2015; she had begun on Coronation Street as Zoe Tattersall.
Q 25Which poet co-wrote series one of The Royle Family and co-founded Baby Cow Productions with Steve Coogan in 1999?
Henry Normal
Henry Normal published his first poetry collection, Is Love Science Fiction?, at nineteen, ran Baby Cow until 2016 and received a special BAFTA for services to television in 2017.
Q 26Which 2001 mockumentary promotes Jim Royle's actor from Norwich City to the national team job, '4-4-2' rant included?
Mike Bassett: England Manager
Mike Bassett: England Manager sends its hero to the finals in Brazil, where England beat Argentina with a punched goal, a nod to the 'hand of God'; the film became a cult favourite among football fans.
Q 27Jim Royle's actor, a plasterer by trade, was born in which seaside resort rather than his adopted Liverpool?
Blackpool
Blackpool's Bispham district was his birthplace in 1939, to parents from Liverpool; he received the Freedom of Liverpool in October 2014, and his 2003 autobiography spent five weeks atop the best-selling new books chart.
Q 28Which Vicar of Dibley parish councillor, killed off in the 1996 Easter special, was played by The Royle Family's Nana?
Letitia Cropley
Letitia Cropley was killed off after just seven episodes; the actress went on to Grandma Georgina in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and an MBE in 2009, at 87.
Q 29Which New Order bassist married The Royle Family's Denise actress in 1994, a marriage that ended in 1997?
Peter Hook
Peter Hook co-founded Joy Division before New Order; the couple met in January 1994 and married in Las Vegas that July, three years before the split.
Q 30Born in Ealing, The Royle Family's Denise actress was raised from the age of two in which Manchester district?
Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe was home from the age of two for the daughter of an Irish railwayman; she died of lung cancer in July 2016 at her home in Timperley, aged 52.