Meet the people still doing Zoom pub quizzes a year into lockdown

As Britain holds its breath in anticipation for lockdown measures easing, it looks like virtual quizzes aren’t going anywhere

Jacqui Wisher-Ellis and her tight-knit group of friends have held a Zoom pub quiz nearly every single Sunday since 12 April, shortly after the first national coronavirus lockdown began (Jacqui Wisher-Ellis)

In the first months of the coronavirus lockdown in the UK, it felt as though the whole country was involved in some version of a virtual pub quiz.As Britons settled into the reality that Covid-19 wasn’t about to go anywhere, the Zoom pub quiz became a weekly staple and a lifeline for many to stay connected to their loved ones.

Then summer came and there were things to do, places to be and people to see once again, and most people fell off the online pub quiz boat. And even when it became evident the euphoria of lockdown lifting would be short-lived, and the UK was plunged again into some level of restrictions, people appeared to have grown tired of living their lives through Zoom.

But for a loyal handful, the weekly catch-up remains a regular fixture and a highlight of their week. For some, hosting Zoom pub quizzes changed their life.

Did Jacqui Wisher-Ellis think she would still be organising pub quizzes almost a year after the UK entered its first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020?

“Absolutely not,” she tells The Independent. “I didn’t even think we’d have more than one. It was just supposed to be a single, Easter weekend Zoom quiz - but I guess people liked it enough to want to do it every week!”

Jacqui and her husband Brett, along with their tight-knit group of friends, all based in Greater London, have done a Zoom pub quiz almost every single Sunday since. They have only missed a couple and even hosted the quiz while they were in Turkey during a time when Britons were allowed to travel overseas.

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For this group of friends, the quizzes have meant they’ve seen more of each other - albeit, virtually - than they would during pre-pandemic times.

Linda Everett, who takes part with her partner Chris, says it gave them a chance to keep up with one another and was something to look forward to each week - despite them vowing to never do another quiz again once the pandemic is over.

“If we ever do an actual pub quiz, in an actual pub again, we’ll have to get used to there being other people,” says Mr Everett. “I don’t think we’ll miss these quizzes, but they’re good for the time being.”

Mike Lee, a theatre restaurant and bar manager in Manchester, says he hosted so many it started to become draining. 

“I initially started doing quizzes for my team at work, but then I expanded it to my wider colleagues and at one point, I was doing three quizzes a week with different groups of people,” he said.

Mr Lee livestreamed the events on his Facebook page for as many as 30 participants at a time during his busy periods. He stopped the quizzes when lockdown eased, but started once again when the second wave hit and the country closed down once more. 

Despite how tiring hosting these events might get, he said he got a huge sense of satisfaction out of what it meant for participants.

“I enjoy them enjoying it, and it’s a chance for them to have a glass of wine and have some fun, banter with one another in the comments,” he said. “Nobody’s perfect so I will sometimes get questions and answers wrong, but we have a laugh about that.

“Sometimes, I absolutely can’t be bothered to organise them - but I want to make sure it’s good, so I persevere. As I’ve been furloughed, doing the quizzes have also given me some structure. Furlough is a bizarre state, you don’t know what your purpose is so having a bit of structure is really good.”

For some, the advent of virtual pub quizzes brought new and exciting opportunities. Real pubs liked actor and presenter Julian Laverty’s hosting skills so much they hired him to host their in-person quizzes during periods they were able to welcome the public indoors.

Julian Laverty prepares to host a pub quiz via Facebook Live (Julian Laverty)

He had originally planned to hold pub quizzes for his colleagues at the National Theatre - but the first week they were due to start was the week the country went into lockdown.

But as he had written the first quiz anyway, Mr Laverty decided to go through with it virtually - his audience grew and grew, which led to multiple job opportunities.

Mr Laverty said: “With the quizzes I was hosting through my Facebook Live, I wanted to focus on the pub aspect as much as the quiz aspect - having a laugh, connecting, create a sense of community online. That’s quite tricky to do online, but I’m used to talking to a camera lens and projecting personality and warmth through an artificial scenario.

“I really felt like if I could facilitate some sort of atmosphere like a real pub, it would give people a sense of normalcy. It was hard and exhausting early on trying to keep up the warmth and engagement, but when the audience were connecting and engaging with it and commenting, it did energise me.”

He was also hired by a travel tour company based in California to host events and games for customers online, something he never thought he’d be doing in the midst of a pandemic.

“I didn’t even plan to do a weekly pub quiz, it just so happened I had written the quiz so I did it anyway, then they asked me to do it every week and I said sure why not,” he said.

“It became an anchor in my week, and preparation kept me from going insane. I wasn’t thinking ahead, this was something people enjoyed and I enjoyed performing, we could have some semblance of a social life. I never thought this would happen to me.”

As the UK holds its breath in anticipation for lockdown measures easing in the coming months, it looks like virtual quizzes aren’t going anywhere for some of us. They provide much-needed connections, laughter and structure to the mind-numbing monotony of lockdown, and have even opened up new doors for some people.

But they haven’t been without some casualties - namely, Linda’s oven racks.

“There was one Sunday, I was quite distracted with the quiz and the athletics and then dinner had to go into the oven, so I asked Chris if I should put the chicken in and he said yes,” she remembers as the others fall about laughing.

“It was only one and a half hours later that we opened the oven and realised I had put the entire chicken in while it was still inside its plastic tray… It had melted all over the wire rack. The chicken was still delicious. At least now he’s stopped asking me to help with dinner!”