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Horrible Histories is a British children's live-action historical and musical sketch comedy television series, based on the bestselling book series of the same name by Terry Deary. The show was produced for CBBC by Lion Television with Citrus Television and ran from 2009 to 2014 for five series of thirteen half-hour episodes, with additional one-off seasonal and Olympic specials.

The creative team was largely recruited from the mainstream adult UK comedy scene. They took inspiration from such quintessentially British historical-comedy classics as Blackadder and the Monty Python films. The series was a critical and ratings success, eventually gaining a wide all ages audience through its non-condescending and inclusive approach. It has won numerous domestic and international awards and has been named among the greatest British children's television series of all time.

In 2011, a spin-off game show, Horrible Histories: Gory Games, was launched on CBBC. In the same year, the original show was repackaged for main channel BBC One as Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry, with Fry replacing the puppet, Rattus Rattus, as presenter. A new series of special episodes began airing in 2015, featuring a new format and cast. It continues to be frequently repeated on the CBBC channel daily.

Horrible Histories is based on the British children's historical-comedy book series by Terry Deary, first published by Scholastic UK in 1993 and since expanded into a multimedia franchise. The books and subsequent spin-off materials are intended to pique young children's interest in history via short, factually based but humorously told anecdotes highlighting aspects of the subject not usually covered in more traditional educational sources.[1]

LionTV executive producer Richard Bradley, whose company had previously produced several adult history-themed programmes and whose son was a fan of the Horrible Histories books, was the initial driving force behind a new TV adaptation.[2] Deary was initially skeptical, having had a negative experience with the 2001 animated series, which had only loosely incorporated his concept. He finally agreed to the new project on the condition that it be explicitly "horrible, funny and true". While disclaiming any active role in developing the subsequent series, he would eventually contribute to the writing as well as appearing in several small roles.[2]

The producers were determined that the show be respectful of audience expectations for the Horrible Histories brand, maintaining its familiar visual style and content as far as possible. Early concepts for bringing it to the screen involved framing or interpretive devices, including a ghostly train carrying children into the past, or a wizard storyteller to act as their guide. Eventually Bradley with producer/director Dominic Brigstocke concluded that the material was strong enough to stand on its own, so they developed, in consultation with CBBC executives, a live-action sketch-comedy showcase.[2] Once the writing was underway, the producers further discovered that sticking as closely as possible to the historical truth made it easier for them to find the humour within it. They then introduced a comedy style relying on parodies of familiar modern media conventions as a means of making these historical details more immediately accessible.[3]

The divisions by historical era or civilisation in the book series are carried over in the TV show, focusing on events in or directly affecting Great Britain and (to a lesser extent) the larger Western world. The Inca and Aztec empires are also featured in later series.[11] Sketches are grouped under these divisions, named as in the books, beginning with the Savage Stone Age and including among others the Cut-throat Celts, Awful Egyptians, Groovy Greeks, Rotten Romans, Smashing Saxons, Vicious Vikings, Measly Middle Ages, Terrible Tudors, Slimy Stuarts, Gorgeous Georgians, Vile Victorians and Frightful First World War. The timeline for the most part ended at the Woeful Second World War.[2][12] During the fifth and final series the show featured a handful of significant post-World War II (or "Troublesome Twentieth Century") events, including the civil rights movement and the Space Race between the US and the USSR. The most recent event referenced was the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing.[13]

Each named division has its own title card that appears before each sketch (or group of sketches) set in that era or civilisation, along with a short introductory animation featuring a period-appropriate character. Throughout each sketch, small pop-up signs are used to affirm the truth (or otherwise) of any particularly implausible-seeming concepts mentioned onscreen.[11] The live-action material is intercut with short animated sketches, quizzes and interludes with puppet "host" Rattus Rattus (performed by John Eccleston), who addresses the viewer directly as a presenter, commenting on and clarifying the factual basis behind the humour. Rattus also occasionally holds up pop-up signs himself during sketches.[12][14]

The show also created several popular recurring characters and concepts, notably "Stupid Deaths", in which a skeletal, platinum-blond Grim Reaper amuses himself while processing souls for admittance to the afterlife by forcing candidates from throughout history to relate the embarrassing details of their demise.[2][19] HHTV News' Bob Hale and his eccentric-but-erudite in-studio reports provide a broader picture on historical events (such as the Wars of the Roses and the French Revolution), in a style reminiscent of presenter Peter Snow.[20][21] The "Shouty Man", a parody of a typically ebullient infomercial host (like Barry Scott), pitches unusual historical products.[3]

Original music plays a significant role in the show and its popularity; "Music from Horrible Histories" was chosen as the 2011 theme of the BBC Proms' annual children's concert.[22] Alongside various short intro themes and commercial jingles, each episode[note 1] and each special contains at least one longer comedy song centred around a particular historical figure or theme and performed by the cast in appropriate character.[5]

The songs have since become among the most critically and popularly acclaimed elements of the show, especially among its adult audience. Commentators cite the apt cleverness of the various historical/musical parody match-ups, and the complexity and skill with which the musical elements are executed.[9][22][24] Principal composer Richie Webb confirms that the songs became more sophisticated as a result of the show's increasing popularity with older viewers, as well as the demands of increased visibility online.[24] Many of the videos have earned standalone popularity on YouTube.[5]

The videos tend to run about three minutes, with two significant exceptions. "The Monarchs' Song", from the third series, lists all of the British monarchs since William the Conqueror, using a Chas & Dave-inspired cumulative format.[9][note 2] The creative team wrote the song to challenge the show's young audience, after noting that the same youngsters had been inspired to memorise lyrics to previous songs.[25] "We're History", styled as a grand finale for the show's final episode, uses stock footage from across the show's run to revisit every major era it ever featured in turn.[note 3]

Throughout, emphasis was placed on meshing comedy with the demands of historical accuracy, as defined by the mainstream scholarly consensus on the topic. This stance sometimes encompassed traditionally accepted if not actually well-documented anecdotes, such as those involving Caligula.[15][26] All the material used on the show was vetted by production assistant and self-described "tyrannical pedant" Greg Jenner during both writing and filming; he says that he has counted only eight errors out of more than 4,000 facts presented over the course of the show's run.[5] Costuming and makeup were likewise painstakingly recreated based on primary historical sources where available.[5][13]

When an error was discovered, the effort was made to correct it whenever possible. This process is perhaps most noticeable in the evolution of a song featuring the four Hanoverian King Georges: lyrics in the original 2009 video incorrectly saying that George I had "died on the loo" were correctly reassigned to George II for the song's reprise at the show's 2011 BBC Prom concert.[26]

Taking cues from what Deary describes as his "seriously subversive" attitude towards the mainstream British history education model[5] meant that the show inevitably incorporated sociopolitical comment. Perhaps most explicitly, Scots-Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole was deliberately championed in both a sketch and later song as a forgotten heroine in the shadow of Florence Nightingale. The activities of African-American activists Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks were also showcased, as was ex-slave boxer Bill Richmond.[26] According to Norris, a desire to include more women's stories was hampered by the traditionally male-dominated viewpoint of historical records.[16] The show did make an attempt to counteract this by giving showcase songs to the British women's suffrage movement and women's work on the British homefront during World War II, and wherever possible highlighting strong-willed, dynamic female figures, including Queen Victoria, Elizabeth I and Boudicca. Religious controversies, class divisions, the ethics of conquest, and labour conditions were likewise touched on.[2]

The association with a proven and popular children's brand focusing on potentially sensitive subjects enabled the TV series to deflect any serious controversy regarding the same subjects, as they had demonstrably already been presented to children without any ill effects.[15] Senior writer Steve Punt said that there were in fact very few complaints regarding the initial series' content, adding that "everyone was very relieved".[4] The producers did consider some topics intrinsically unsuited for an irreverent comic treatment, as for instance the Holocaust or the harsher details of slavery, and avoided them accordingly.[6][26] Norris has described her personal criteria for age suitability as whether she would be nervous watching it with a ten-year-old.[15] While BBC executives in large part were willing to concede the requirements of reflecting historical realities, some topics, notably suicide, needed careful handling to avoid potentially negative impact on younger viewers.[26] The show sometimes acknowledged particularly emotive subject matter (the World War I Christmas truce, for example) by following up the sketch not with a joke, but a more sombre elaboration of the less comedic details.[16]

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