Twenty-five questions on British and Irish crime films, from The Lavender Hill Mob in 1951 to Legend in 2015, in five rounds of five. The answers sit under each round, folded away, so the host can open them when the pens go down and nobody else sees them early.

It is a free sampler of Proper Villains, our British crime film quiz pack. Each round opens with a couple of easy ones to settle the room and ends with a hard one to split it.

How to run it

  • Play in teams of two to five. One point for every correct answer.
  • In round two, give the missing words for a point, then name the film for a bonus point. That makes 30 points in all.
  • Read each question twice. Spelling does not count, as long as the host can tell what you mean.
  • Open the answers at the end of each round, or save them all for the end. Phones face down.

Round 1: Name the film

Name the film from the one-line description.

  1. Four mates put £100,000 into a rigged card game, end up owing £500,000, and get one week to pay it back.
  2. Bob Hoskins plays a London gangster trying to impress American investors, which is awkward when someone keeps planting bombs around his empire.
  3. An outrageous Garda sergeant in the west of Ireland reluctantly teams up with a strait-laced FBI agent to catch drug smugglers. Name the 2011 film.
  4. A Russian billionaire lends a London crime boss his lucky painting as a sign of trust. Then it gets nicked. Name the 2008 Guy Ritchie film.
  5. A supergrass's ten quiet years in Spain end when he is handed to two hitmen, played by John Hurt and a young Tim Roth.
Round 1 answers
  1. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Jason Statham made his film debut as Bacon.
  2. The Long Good Friday (1980). Helen Mirren plays Harold's girlfriend, Victoria.
  3. The Guard (2011). Brendan Gleeson plays Sergeant Gerry Boyle, with Don Cheadle as the FBI man.
  4. RocknRolla (2008). Gerard Butler plays One Two, leader of the Wild Bunch.
  5. The Hit (1984). Terence Stamp plays the grass, Willie Parker. Stephen Frears directed.

Round 2: Finish the line

Give the missing words for a point, then name the film for a bonus point.

  1. "You're only supposed to..."
  2. A borstal boy announces he now runs the wing: "I'm the... now!"
  3. "You're a big man, but you're in..."
  4. "Never underestimate the predictability of..."
  5. "Ray, you are about the worst..."
Round 2 answers
  1. "...blow the bloody doors off." The Italian Job (1969). Quincy Jones wrote the music, including the singalong Self Preservation Society.
  2. "...daddy." Scum (1979). In borstal slang, the daddy is the inmate who controls the wing.
  3. "...bad shape." Get Carter (1971). He carries on: "With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself."
  4. "...stupidity." Snatch (2000). Vinnie Jones says it, as Bullet Tooth Tony.
  5. "...tourist in the whole world." In Bruges (2008). Brendan Gleeson's Ken says it to Colin Farrell's Ray.

Round 3: Who played...?

Name the actor or actors.

  1. Who played the title role, a widowed ex-Royal Marine, in Harry Brown (2009)?
  2. Who played both Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Legend (2015)?
  3. Which Spandau Ballet brothers played the twins in The Krays (1990)?
  4. Who played Gerry Conlon, wrongly convicted as one of the Guildford Four, in In the Name of the Father (1993)?
  5. Which Welsh Hollywood star played sadistic London gangster Vic Dakin in Villain (1971)?
Round 3 answers
  1. Michael Caine. The rapper Plan B, aka Ben Drew, plays Noel.
  2. Tom Hardy. Hardy also turns up in Layer Cake and RocknRolla.
  3. Gary and Martin Kemp. Gary played Ronnie and Martin played Reggie.
  4. Daniel Day-Lewis. The film earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Actor.
  5. Richard Burton. Ian McShane co-stars, decades before Sexy Beast.

Round 4: Where are we?

Name the place.

  1. In The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), stolen gold leaves Britain disguised as souvenir models of which landmark?
  2. In The Business (2005), Danny Dyer's Frankie flees 1980s south London for which stretch of Spanish coast?
  3. Hot Fuzz's fictional Sandford was filmed in which Somerset city, director Edgar Wright's home town?
  4. Trainspotting (1996) is set in Edinburgh, but almost all of it was shot in which other city?
  5. Prison drama Starred Up (2013), starring Jack O'Connell, was partly shot inside the closed Crumlin Road Gaol. In which city?
Round 4 answers
  1. The Eiffel Tower. Audrey Hepburn has a tiny early role, as Chiquita.
  2. The Costa del Sol. Nick Love wrote and directed it, a year after The Football Factory.
  3. Wells. Wells Cathedral was digitally painted out of every shot.
  4. Glasgow. Only the opening chase on Princes Street was filmed in Edinburgh.
  5. Belfast. The other jail used was the former HM Prison Maze, in Lisburn.

Round 5: Extra time

Football firms, hard men and a mixed bag. It gets tougher at the end.

  1. In Green Street (2005), Elijah Wood falls in with the GSE firm. Which club do they follow?
  2. Which actor links Scum (1979), Nil by Mouth and Sexy Beast?
  3. In Mean Machine (2001), Vinnie Jones's former England captain was banned for life for fixing a match against which country?
  4. Rise of the Footsoldier (2007) is based on the memoir of which Inter City Firm hooligan turned gangster?
  5. In I.D. (1995), undercover Met officers infiltrate the hooligan firm of which fictional football club?
Round 5 answers
  1. West Ham United. The film is also known as Green Street Hooligans.
  2. Ray Winstone. He also starred in the banned 1977 TV version of Scum.
  3. Germany. In prison he coaches a team of convicts against the guards.
  4. Carlton Leach. Ricci Harnett plays him.
  5. Shadwell Town. The firm drinks at a pub called The Rock.

The full quiz: Proper Villains

These 25 questions come from Proper Villains: The British Crime Film Quiz, and the pack includes them. On top of them it has 35 more written questions, among them a whole behind the scenes round of multiple choice, plus a picture round where teams name the film from three icons and a tiebreaker. That is 70 questions in seven rounds, and every answer comes with a fact for the host to read out.

It is built to be run rather than read: host sheets to print, answer sheets for each team, a score sheet, a PDF screen version and an animated PowerPoint with a timer on every question and the answers in the speaker notes. It costs £4.99 including VAT and downloads straight after checkout.

More quizzes and games

Doing a themed night? There is a free horror movie quiz for Halloween and a Christmas film quiz for December, both with answers. If round two was the one your table enjoyed, Movie Quotes serves up a new line every day. For a reading list, start with the best British gangster films, ranked and every Guy Ritchie film, ranked.