Horrible Histories

Horrible Histories leads BAFTA Children's nominations

Horrible Histories could be heading to success at this year's British Academy Children's Awards after being nominated in three categories.

Terry Deary: 'I don't really like historians'

The Horrible Histories author on how the bestselling series began and what West End audiences can expect from Barmy Britain Part Three.

One of the all-time great kids' shows returns for series six, adjusting to the loss of the original cast by organising itself into special episodes focusing on a single historical figure. Tom Rosenthal is the perfect choice to play crap-haired milquetoast Alfred the Great, thrust on to the throne after the deaths of all four of his elder brothers. He fights a constant battle against both the Vikings and haemorrhoids, and we learn that he didn't burn any cakes and that the Scandinavians brought sarcasm to England.

Ben Miller: pushing myself into different comedy forms

Ben Miller is bringing one of Britain's most loathsome monarchs back to life in Horrible Histories: King John And The Magna Carta.

BBC rapped over Florence Nightingale sketch

The BBC Trust has criticised Horrible Histories for giving the impression that Florence Nightingale was racist.

Certainly the most irreverent of all the programmes commissioned for the BBC's first world war commemorations, this Horrible Histories one-off is also one of the best, getting across the gravity and grimness of the conflict without compromising on comedy. Expect MasterChef parodies and songs. Lots of songs.

"Sir, why does an Austrian being killed by a Serb in Bosnia mean war, sir?" And so begins the fastest guide to the first world war you'll ever meet, narrated by a rat. As ever, there's an emphasis on gruesome facts and bodily functions, with an advert for World War One Wee Wee, useful for cooling down and softening boots in the trenches. It's not just the children who'll chortle at Historic MasterChef and Emmeline Pankhurst portrayed as a Lily Allen-ish character singing about how fierce suffragettes were.

Horrible Histories: Frightful First World War Special is not, strictly speaking, last night's TV. It first aired on CBBC at 9am yesterday morning, but it would be remiss of me not to recommend an iPlayer catch up in the strongest possible terms. Nothing can dislodge Blackadder Goes Forth from its place on the informal school syllabus (especially with Michael Gove's enthusiastic endorsement still ringing in teachers' ears), but this would make a very acceptable substitute.

The Horrible Histories team are known for making history palatable for the young 'uns by putting a comical spin on it, but could that approach ever work on this relatively recent human catastrophe?

The sketches included a brilliant Historical MasterChef in which First World War soldier Ernie, impressed the judges with his inventive yet disgusting dishes (Dog'n'Maggot, anyone?). A Charleston-style ditty sung by The Cousins (King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II) and a jaunty commercial for that solution to all trench-based problems - "New World War One Wee Wee" ("And how much does it cost? Why, one pee, of course!" That's a classic seven-year-old's gag, that.)

It was silly, all right, but also appropriately sombre: "But the funny thing about the Somme is... no, I've got nothing, sorry."