How do you get kids interested in history? Page after page of dates and facts to be memorised, people who lived hundreds of years ago, how do you make it relevant to the PlayStation generation? The answer, as so capably demonstrated by Horrible Histories, is to bring it to life - the blood, the gore, the ruthless rulers and deranged despots, marauding invaders and the just plain stupid. In short, exactly the sort of stuff your average primary school boy is going to love.
The show is a classic example of “edutainment” – the sketches and songs are fired off so quickly little Johnny won’t even realize he’s actually learning stuff. Based on the books by Terry Deary, there’s no end of strange but true facts on the Rotten Romans, Terrible Tudors, Vile Victorians, Slimy Stuarts, Smashing Saxons, Vicious Vikings, Cutthroat Celts and the odd sprinkling of Putrid Pirates.
Horrible Histories Is Disgusting Fun For Everyone
Who knew the Saxons made clothes out of nettles – and why on earth would they want to? Or that the second Baron Rothschild regularly dined with monkeys, and rode in a carriage pulled by zebras? And the Incas, as well as having a fondness for using llama lungs to predict the future, made drums from the skin of their slaughtered enemies.
The show is packed full of spoofs of other TV programmes – Historical Wife Swap, Victorian Dragon’s Den, The V Factor, Crimewatch BC, News at When, Roman Come Dine With Me (with voiceover by the show’s narrator Dave Lamb) and even the Historical Shopping Channel. A clever way to make odd facts from any time period seem bang up to date.
Watch Terry Deary’s Books Come To Life
Equally enjoyable are the songs featured in each episode. From “Charles II King of Bling” to “Born 2 Rule” (the four King Georges doing their best Boyzone imitation) and “Spartan High School Musical”, they’re funny, informative, and irritatingly catchy.
There’s commercials (“Does your head smell like a dead rotting llama? Try Incan Shampee!”), video games, TV crews reporting “live” on various historical happenings and the ever-popular “Stupid Deaths” slot, where the Grim Reaper interviews people who have come to an untimely (and preferably disgusting) end after doing something, well, stupid.
Any grown-ups tuning in can play spot the celeb, with guest appearances from the likes of David Baddiel and Alexei Sayle, plus impressionist Jon Culshaw chipping in the odd voiceover. There are no famous faces in the regular cast, but they still managed to bag the Best Sketch Show gong at this year’s British Comedy Awards, coming top over prime-time competition Harry and Paul and Armstrong and Miller.
So step this way, lovers of the gruesome, the gross, the mad and the manic. Horrible Histories (BBC1 and CBBC, check listings for current episodes or go to CBBC iPlayer) is an ideal way to get youngsters interested in the (not so) good old days.
Arlene Kelly - Born and raised in a small prairie town, by the time I graduated high school I decided I’d had enough of Manitoba winters and headed ...
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