The Royle Family Trivia
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49 free The Royle Family trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 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 49 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 49 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 also sees Denise name her newborn daughter Norma after Nana, and the performance won Nana's actress a British Comedy Award at the age of 85.
Q 05Which British sitcom staple did The Royle Family do without in 1998, when it was shot on film with one camera?
A laugh track
A laugh track was standard for British sitcoms of the time, but The Royle Family was filmed with no studio audience, and most episodes seem to unfold in real time, as if viewers had simply dropped in.
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 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, who were nominated in the same category, on a night when the show also won Best Situation 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?
Geoffrey Hughes
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, with Dave's parents invited over too, much to Jim's dismay.
Q 22To which Welsh resort do Jim and Barbara Royle take a caravan holiday for their 50th wedding anniversary in 2009?
Prestatyn
Prestatyn's holiday caravan has no television and no chip pan, so the anniversary trip is a disaster and the Royles decide to go home early.
Q 23Which TV show does Dave hope to get on in the 2012 Royle Family special Barbara's Old Ring?
Dragons' Den
Geoffrey Hughes was acting with Liverpool's Unity Theatre when the actor Tom Bell spotted him, a break that led to his West End debut in the 1964 musical Maggie May.
Q 14Which Keeping Up Appearances character did Twiggy's actor play in all 44 episodes across five series?
Onslow
Onslow is the sofa-bound, unshaven husband of Hyacinth Bucket's sister Daisy, and his turning up keeps wrecking her efforts to look upper class.
Q 15Which Beatle did Twiggy's actor voice in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, thirty years before The Royle Family?
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney, like the other three Beatles, was voiced by an actor: the band supplied the songs but appeared in person only in the film's closing live-action scene.
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 nearly lost him in 2003: he handed in his notice to star in a new Carry On film, then went back to the Street when its scripts were delayed.
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 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 began as a project with his Royle Family writing partner, who pulled out over the script, so he finished it with Mealey and the two played pub regulars Joe and Duffy.
Dragons' Den is where Dave hopes to pitch an invention in the final special, while next-door neighbour Joe goes looking for love and a new neighbour causes havoc for the Royles.
Q 24Which Downton Abbey actress plays Saskia, Antony's pregnant nurse girlfriend, in 2010's Royle Family Christmas special?
Joanne Froggatt
Joanne Froggatt appears only in this special: Saskia spends Christmas Day at the Royles' heavily pregnant, and she and Antony get a surprise delivery.
Q 25Which poet co-wrote series one of The Royle Family and co-founded Baby Cow Productions in 1999?
Henry Normal
Henry Normal retired from Baby Cow in 2016 and went back to poetry, writing and performing a run of BBC Radio 4 shows about his life and family.
Q 26Which 2001 football mockumentary stars Jim Royle's actor and features his famous '4-4-2' rant?
Mike Bassett: England Manager
Mike Bassett: England Manager promotes its Norwich boss to the national job and sends him to the finals in Brazil, where England beat Argentina with a punched goal, a nod to the 'hand of God'.
Q 27Jim Royle's actor, a plasterer by trade, was born in which seaside resort rather than his adopted Liverpool?
Blackpool
Blackpool was where his mother had been evacuated as war began, because Liverpool was expected to be bombed; he grew up back in Liverpool, his parents' home city.
Q 28In which sitcom was The Royle Family's Nana actress killed off as Letitia Cropley in a 1996 Easter special?
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley killed Letitia Cropley off after seven episodes, and the actress found out when a motorcycle messenger brought the script with a note breaking the news.
Q 29Which musician from Manchester's music scene married The Royle Family's Denise actress in 1994, a marriage that ended in 1997?
Peter Hook
Peter Hook, New Order's bassist and a Joy Division co-founder, led the house band, Hooky and the Boys, on his wife's chat show during the marriage.
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; a childhood cancer of the retina, which her brother also had, left her partially sighted in one eye.