The Saga Magazine May pub quiz - A film star, sports presenter and the Sex Pistols

Put your general knowledge to the test with these 20 brain teasers.

Illustration of a light bulb and question marks

By Marcus Berkmann | Published - 5 May 2026

Question 1

Only one English king was definitely killed by a crossbow bolt. Who was it?

Question 2

The two right-handed ones are dead. The two left-handed ones are still alive. Who are we talking about?

Question 3

How many of the infrequent passes near Earth of the famous comet named after him did Edmund Halley actually witness?

Question 4

Until 2007, which European country was governed by a president and a prime minister who were identical twins?

Question 5

No One Is Innocent was the Sex Pistols’ fifth single, recorded after Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten had left the band. Who sang the vocals?

Question 6

Between 1850 and 1859, who was both the co-owner and editor of the 19th-century weekly magazine Household Words?

Question 7

Which country supplies roughly 90% of the world’s opium?

Question 8

In 1971, Mill Reef became the first horse to win the Derby, the Eclipse, the King George VI and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same year. After he broke a leg and was put out to stud, which TV sports presenter sat on his back before she was two years old?

Question 9

Which country is the only one to have played in every men’s football World Cup finals?

Question 10

The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe established that Saturn’s largest moon Titan has seas and lakes and an atmosphere of sorts. But the seas and lakes are not of water. What liquid, which would be a gas here on Earth, flows in the rivers, seas and lakes of Titan?

A plaque for Edmund Halley in Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK. — Getty

Question 11

Which is the only pub known to be supplied by the brewers Luxford and Copley?

Question 12

After her marriage in 1956, who became the first film star in the world to appear on a postage stamp?

Question 13

Where in London would you find a café/bar called Bonaparte’s and a pub called The Wellesley?

Question 14

Plutarch says it was 23 times. In his play on the subject, William Shakespeare says it was 33 times. What are they referring to?

Question 15

Who or what were Wenlock and Mandeville? Mandeville was blue-ish, Wenlock was orangey, and each had only one eye.

Question 16

Which English town lost six of the landmarks after which it was named in the 1987 hurricane?

Question 17

During the 1950s, who was, according to his theme tune, ‘feared by the bad, loved by the good’?

Question 18

Which national scheme was introduced in Bradford in 1932 to promote health in children and then was famously abolished by the Secretary of State for Education in 1971?

Question 19

Which university did Charles Ryder and Lord Sebastian Flyte go to in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited?

Question 20

And which university was attended by Data, the android in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the majority of the characters in the 1992 film Peter’s Friends?

1. Richard I 2. The Beatles 3. One 4. Poland 5. Ronnie Biggs 6. Charles Dickens 7. Afghanistan 8. Clare Balding (Her father Ian was Mill Reef’s trainer) 9. Brazil 10. Methane 11. The Queen Vic in EastEnders 12. Grace Kelly 13. Waterloo Station 14. Times Julius Caesar was stabbed 15. Mascots for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics 16. Sevenoaks 17. Robin Hood 18. Free school milk 19. Oxford 20. Cambridge