British Comedy Guide

Terry Deary

  • Actor, writer and executive producer

Press clippings Page 2

Video: Terry Deary interview

The Horrible Histories author is struggling not to say something outrageous. Just don't mention schools... or libraries... or football.

Cole Moreton, The Telegraph, 11th May 2013

Horrible Histories returns to West End with new show

London's Garrick Theatre will host the world premiere of the second instalment of the stage adaptation of Terry Deary's Horrible Histories.

Nicola Merrifield, The Stage, 23rd April 2013

Horrible Histories books have naturally come to an end

Popular children's book series, Horrible Histories, is to end after 20 years according to author Terry Deary.

BBC News, 2nd April 2013

Deary's attack on libraries branded 'ignorant twadle'

Authors, including artistic director of Bath Children's Literature Festival David Almond have criticised Horrible Histories author Terry Deary's comments that libraries are damaging the book industry.

Daisy Bowie-Sell, The Telegraph, 14th February 2013

Terry Deary: The man behind the Horrible Histories

The wildly successful Horrible Histories books and TV shows - facts boosted by lots of jokes - are adored by children and adults alike. Writer Terry Deary thinks it's because his characters often subvert authority.

Jon Henley, The Guardian, 14th July 2012

Horrible Histories' Barmy Britain comes to the Fringe

Superbly ill-humoured Terry Deary pours scorn on his success but praises Birmingham Theatre adaptation.

Craig McLean, The List, 11th July 2012

The best comedy of the week was to be found over on CBBC, where series four of Horrible Histories made its debut (confusingly, BBC1 is currently showing series two).

Based on the cheerfully bloodthirsty books by Terry Deary and Martin Brown, it plays a bit like Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time, if you replaced the visiting professor of history from Queen's College, Oxford, with a talking rat making jokes about wee.

There have been plenty of bloody revolutions featured in Horrible Histories, but the team's most recent coup was to reunite The League of Gentlemen for the first time in a bronze age. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith turned up as craven Hollywood execs keen to panel-beat the messy lives of historical figures into award-bait biopics, and while Gatiss's American accent was pretty duff, the bickering spark between the three gentlemen remained.

Recruiting the league should not distract from the tireless efforts of the core cast, particularly Jim Howick, who has matured from being an off-model David Mitchell into a gifted comic actor in his own right. But ultimately, the highlight of this first salvo of new shows was a prancing Charles Darwin explaining the ch-ch-changes of evolutionary theory via an exquisite David Bowie pastiche. Horribly good.

The Scotsman, 17th April 2012

Horrible Histories creator blasts 'boring' classes

His Horrible History books have sold in their millions and author Terry Deary believes giving children facts, not fairytales, is a great way to get them to read.

John Dingwall, Daily Record, 3rd February 2012

Hurrah for Horrible Histories & the youth of the future

Terry Deary's wonderful books show us not that things used to be worse, but that today's kids are savvier than ever before.

Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 17th October 2011

Video: Horrible Histories author hates historians

Terry Deary, author of the Horrible Histories series, which has sold more than 25 million copies, has admitted that he dislikes historians.

BBC Breakfast, 17th August 2011

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