Horrible Histories

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.

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.

In other words it's all your favourite songs from the series, performed by the regulars with an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. So we get Ra Ra Cleopatra, the Stone Age Song, and The Vikings. Plus, there's plenty of silliness with dances of death, starring Death and his executioners and a whole host of royal performers.

This year's free family Prom featured the team behind Horrible Histories, the CBBC programme which has capitalised brilliantly on the underexploited fact that real history is far funnier and more gripping than any kids' cartoon. The Guardian's original review of this concert characterised it as "pitched somewhere between pantomime, a Footlights revue and an old-school variety show", only just about qualifying for Proms status by shoehorning classical snippets between sketches. There is something indubitably heartwarming about an Albert Hall full of children enjoying the life of Charles II being rapped in the style of Eminem.

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.

Prom 20: Horrible Histories - review

Pitched somewhere between a pantomime, a Footlights revue and an old-school variety show, this year's free Family Prom barely qualified for its Prom status, save for 10 judiciously chosen classical excerpts that were crowbarred in between the skits. Not that it mattered: the queue for returns snaked several hundred yards out of the Albert Hall, suggesting that this show could probably have filled Wembley Stadium.

Terry Deary interview

As the BBC takes 'Horrible Histories' primetime, its creator, Terry Deary, speaks his mind...

I have to admit this is the first time I have watched Horrible Histories, which is strange because I loved the books when I was a kid. Having watched the first episode in the new series it is clear that this is something I've grown out of, as sadly this show is not for me.

It is such a shame because it is clearly popular with both its target audience of children, with some adults, and with the people who decided to give it the British Comedy Award for "Best Sketch Comedy". However, for me much of it was just annoying. For example, one episode featured a Roman general trying to kill 5,000 people in battle so that he could get a parade, but the enemy surrendered after 4,999 deaths, so the general kills a Roman bureaucrat to reach the total. That is all right as an idea for a sketch, but then the general did this annoying beat-boxing at the end to celebrate reaching 5,000.

It wasn't the only thing annoying thing about the show. There was also a parody of the Adam and the Ants song "Stand and Deliver" telling the story of Dick Turpin, which just got on my nerves; all the way through the show little signs kept popping up saying things like, "This really happened!", which wound me up; and there was a sketch about a French prankster - although to be fair the character was deliberately meant to be annoying.

Also, this show also had quite a lot of jokes involving and seeing faeces. To be fair however, at least the sketch was teaching children about gong farmers (people paid to remove human waste) and tanners (people who used poo to make leather), whereas in Lead Balloon it just came out in one sudden unpleasant burst.

I suppose the way to conclude this review is that if you like it, good for you, because there is more to come. There is already a spin-off called Gory Games which features Dave Lamb as a co-host - interesting to see that he is willing to entertain children face-to-face but not adults. I'm guessing children are much easier to please.

Horrible Histories is also being re-worked for a primetime audience, with Stephen Fry acting as a host. However, I don't think even he is going to make me watch it. For me, this is a children's sketch show that the children can keep for themselves.

Children's TV is growing up - is that a good thing?

Horrible Histories' move to primetime shows how sophisticated kids' shows have become. Would you rather watch CBBC?