Horrible Histories

Video: Horrible Histories 'Jubilee' rap

Have you ever wondered why the Romans never won MasterChef? Or what you would do if a Viking moved in next door?

The latest stage show by Horrible Histories could answer your questions.

Barmy Britain at the Garrick Theatre in London is proving as popular as the books and television series.

Two of its stars, Neal Foster and Alison Fitzjohn, joined the BBC Breakfast team as Anne Boleyn and Henry the Eighth and they had a special 'Jubilee' rap to share.

You can't beat this series for fascinating facts underlining the fact that life in the past was often weird, cruel and smelly. But it's the songs that are often the best bit and today's is a winner for Kate Bush fans, as Mary Stuart tackles her own version of Wuthering Heights. Plus, we learn that the Normans changed the name of a town called Snottingham... by simply dropping the "s".

The past has never looked so much fun or so funny as in this award-winning comedy, enjoyed by children, adults and even most history teachers. In this episode, King Edward III gets married, Julius Caesar reveals his not-very-secret tips on hiding baldness, we learn the tricks of the criminal trade on The Real Victorian Hustle and there's an insight into the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci.

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.

Horrible Histories: one of the smartest comedies on TV

Often described as being 'funny ... for a kids' show', few comedies can touch Horrible Histories for original ideas.

Interesting fact: in the late 1630s, as part of the war effort against the Scots, womens' urine was collected from church congregations for use in the production of gunpowder. This is grist to the mill for Horrible Histories, back on CBBC for a fourth series. And isn't that Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith, AKA The League Of Gentlemen, joining in the fun? Which just goes to show how much credibility HH enjoys these days.

In 80 years' time there will be a generation of pensioners in Britain still holding preconceptions about the Romans or Charles II that were formed by this CBBC sketch show. It's a phenomenon that has done more to form its viewers' sense of history than a legion of primary school teachers.

Whether or not you like HH's basic take on the past - not so much a foreign country as a lunatic asylum full of mad monarchs - you can't end an episode without absorbing half-a-dozen quirky nuggets.

Among those in this first episode of the fourth series: in the 1630s they collected women's urine to make gunpowder; ancient Egyptians believed the sun was rolled across the heavens by a giant dung-beetle; and it was Oliver Cromwell who coined the phrase "warts and all". Another triumph.

Why did The League of Gentlemen choose to reform on HH?

Find out why Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss are working together on the popular kids show.

The hugely enjoyable comedy chronology returns for a new series. There's nothing else on TV like it, with its spot-on mix of education and bodily functions. In this episode you'll learn about the surprising properties of women's tinkle, where the phrase "warts and all" came from, and how German second world war pilots chose their targets from a tourists' guide to historic landmarks. All this plus the return of Stupid Deaths and an incredible running gag on the Spanish Armada with Ben Willbond dressed as Sir Francis Drake. One for the mums. Actual television perfection.