''Jay's Virtual Pub Quiz'' is a

streamed Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

general knowledge charity quiz, inspired by the British tradition of

pub quiz A pub quiz is a quiz held in a pub or bar. These events are also called quiz nights, trivia nights, or bar trivia and may be held in other settings. Pub quizzes may attract customers to a pub who are not found there on other days. The pub quiz is ...

zes. It is hosted by Jay Flynn, a former

publican In antiquity, publicans (Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the ...

, and began airing following the closure of pubs as a result of the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 200 quizzes have been aired, which have raised over £1.3 million for various charities.

Jay Flynn

For two years in his mid-twenties, Jay Flynn (born Johnny James Flynn on 9 April 1982) was

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

in London, and slept near the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

on a bench near

Embankment tube station Embankment is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, known by various names during its history. It is served by the Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines. On the Bakerloo line and the Charing Cross branch of the Northe ...

that he referred to as "Number 3, Riverside View". In November 2021, the bench was commemorated with a plaque that reads "Number 3, Riverside View. This bench was home to Jay Flynn from Jay's Virtual Pub Quiz. He proves you are not alone and there is always hope. Search Connection at St Martin's. Call Samaritans 116 123 free." Following help from The Connection at St Martin's, a homelessness charity, Flynn was able to obtain

benefits Benefit or benefits may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Benefit'' (album), by Jethro Tull, 1970 * "Benefits" (''How I Met Your Mother''), a 2009 TV episode * '' The Benefit'', a 2012 Egyptian action film Businesses and organisatio ...

and live in shared accommodation. He subsequently moved to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

before settling in

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and found employment. At the time the quiz began, Flynn was a sales executive for a

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

dealership in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

. His wife Sarah is an administrator with the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, and they have one son. Flynn is a supporter of

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Quiz

Background

In 2019, Flynn and a business partner began running the Crown

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in Darwen. While at the pub, Flynn introduced a weekly

. He left the pub in early March 2020, shortly before pubs were forced to close as part of the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Intending to continue his weekly quiz online, Flynn set up a Facebook event for the regular teams. Having configured the listing incorrectly, he had inadvertently allowed any Facebook user to attend the event—within days, 250,000 people had registered their interest in partaking, and by the day of the event, approximately 500,000 users had responded as attending or interested in the quiz.

Format

Flynn has hosted quizzes of different formats—live general knowledge quizzes, short themed "specialist" quizzes, and short quizzes made for children. Since 26 March 2020, there have been over 150 quizzes, the majority of which have been live general knowledge quizzes. Three celebrity-hosted general knowledge quizzes were broadcast on 22 May, 29 May, and 5 June, and were hosted by

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

Jonathan Ross Jonathan Stephen Ross (born 17 November 1960) is an English broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the BBC One chat show ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on ...

, and

Scarlett Moffatt Scarlett Sigourney Leigh Moffatt (born 17 October 1990) is a British television personality, presenter, and former ballroom dancer from County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1 ...

respectively. In June, Flynn hosted a single music-themed live quiz. These live quizzes air on Thursday and Saturday evenings, and usually feature five rounds of ten questions followed by a final

tiebreaker In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...

question. The length of these quizzes—including

preamble A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subj ...

, charity messages, and intervals—is approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. The live stream begin at 19:50, with the quiz beginning at 20:15. The broadcasts has previous included the " Clap for Our Carers" and musical performances from

Rick Astley Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and radio personality, who has been active in music for several decades. He gained worldwide fame in the 1980s, having multiple hits including his signature song "Ne ...

and

Maverick Sabre Michael Stafford (born 12 July 1990), better known as Maverick Sabre, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and rapper. Early life Sabre was born in Hackney, London. At age four, he moved with his family to New Ross, County Wexford, where he grew ...

. The "specialist" quizzes and children's quizzes are pre-recorded and are aired on Mondays, Fridays, or Sundays. Their runtime is between 5 and 20 minutes, and themes have included topics such as ''Harry Potter'' films, retro video gaming, and

soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

Production

As of 2020, Flynn

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

ed the quiz on

Facebook Live Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

using

Open Broadcaster Software OBS Studio (also Open Broadcaster Software or OBS, for short) is a free and open-source, free, open-source, and cross-platform Software vision mixer, screencasting and streaming app. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux distributions, and ...

(OBS) and a Studio Series SL150

condenser microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

. His social media strategy has been assisted by Alex Holmes, Deputy CEO of The Diana Award.

Reception

TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online publication owned by Future and focused on technology. It has editorial teams in the US, UK and Australia and provides news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2007 and expanded to the US in ...

'' described the quiz as "the first virtual pub quiz to go truly viral when the UK's lockdown started".

Fundraising

Flynn initially aimed to raise £15,000 for

NHS Charities Together The Association of NHS Charities, operating as NHS Charities Together, is a federation of over 250 charitable organisations that support the devolved National Health Service (NHS), their staff, volunteers and patients, in the United Kingdom. ...

. By early May, he had raised £93,000. In the first three months of running his online quizzes, Flynn had raised approximately £400,000 for charity. As well as fundraising for NHS Charities together and the Connection at St Martin's, the quizzes have raised funds for

Alzheimer's Research UK Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) is a dementia research charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer's Research Trust. ARUK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, cure or prevent all forms of dementia, including Alzhei ...

Guide Dogs A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Ex ...

, and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award. On 6 August, Flynn announced that the total raised to date was over £700,000.

Awards

The 30 April quiz set a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for "most viewers of a quiz YouTube live stream" with 182,513 individual viewers. The following month, Flynn received the Prime Minister's Points of Light award;

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

thanked him for "raising

he country's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

spirits". In September 2020, Flynn was nominated for Regional Fundraiser of the Year as part of

ITV Granada ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

Pride of Britain Awards The Pride of Britain Awards is an annual award ceremony which has taken place in the United Kingdom since May 1999 and first televised on ITV in April 2000. The awards honour British people who have acted bravely or extraordinarily in challeng ...

. In the

2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

, Flynn was awarded the

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

for "charitable service during Covid-19".

Other work

Flynn presents ''Jay's Virtual Radio Quiz'', short weekly quiz of five questions on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

's ''

Breakfast Show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a lo ...

'' on the morning of his Thursday evening quiz. A book written by Flynn, ''Jay's Virtual Pub Quiz Book'', was released by Mirror Books on 8 October 2020. It includes a quote from Stephen Fry, who describes Flynn as "Q – the quizmaster's quizmaster" and states that "his achievements form one of the happiest and most hopeful stories to have emerged from the madness of lockdown".

References

External links

*{{official, https://jaysvirtualpubquiz.com/ Quiz shows