Horrible Histories - Series 1-6 [DVD]

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It has won numerous domestic and international awards and has been named among the greatest British children's television series of all time. 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. A hugely talented ensemble of comic actors and special guest stars put a comedy spin on history's dirty deeds, famous events and quirky characters in Horrible Histories' much-loved mix of. Throughout each sketch, small pop-up signs are used to affirm the truth (or otherwise) of any particularly implausible-seeming concepts mentioned onscreen. If you are in Australia or New Zealand (DVD Region 4), note that almost all DVDs distributed in the UK by the BBC and 2entertain are encoded for both Region 2 and Region 4.

Horrible Histories TV | Groovy Greeks Horrible Histories TV | Groovy Greeks

Notable parody inspirations included Masterchef, Wife Swap, Come Dine with Me, Gogglebox and The Apprentice.However, after the creative team noted the critical and popular success of the major exception ("Born 2 Rule", which featured King Georges I–IV performing in the style of a boyband) the decision was taken from the second series onwards to continue in that vein. According to Norris, a desire to include more women's stories was hampered by the traditionally male-dominated viewpoint of historical records. 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. Naomi West of The Daily Telegraph characterised the first series as "boundary-pushing", suggesting that "the bold decision to approach the series in the same way as an adult show has been the key to its success. James Delingpole in The Spectator likewise recommended the show to viewers of all ages, saying that "Even though there are vast quantities of entirely gratuitous fart, bottom and wee wee jokes, the cumulative effect—bizarrely—is one of dumbing up rather than down.

Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans [DVD] Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans [DVD]

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. They took inspiration from such quintessentially British historical-comedy classics as Blackadder and the Monty Python films. Writing in The Independent, Tom Sutcliffe noted that "As a grown-up you might quibble with the fact that they don't always distinguish between things that genuinely are true and the things that people would like to be (sadly, there's no hard evidence that Aeschylus was brained by a tortoise dropped by an overflying eagle)", but added that "children and adults alike should enjoy the gleefully anachronistic way in which the information is presented. The net result was a show that immediately appealed to young children while also gaining the increasing respect—and viewership—of older audiences. It's quite amusing, though whether it will pique an interest in the subject, or—as some say—merely encourage children to learn more about defecation, gluttony, murder and torture, we cannot know.But behind this entertaining and light-hearted exterior lurk hard historical facts and the fundamentally educational nature of the series. The show's effectiveness in this respect was endorsed by historical scholars, including presenter Dan Snow.

Horrible Histories (TV Series 2009–2023) - IMDb Horrible Histories (TV Series 2009–2023) - IMDb

Norris has described her personal criteria for age suitability as whether she would be nervous watching it with a ten-year-old. If you are in the North America, look out for US/Canadian flag icons on popular product listings for direct links. Harry Venning in The Stage approved the "seriously funny, beautifully performed and endlessly inventive sketches" along with "plenty of crowd-pleasing fart and poo gags.Tom Stourton stars as the Bard, as we find out about his humble beginnings, his glove-making father and his early life as an actor. The first series reached a viewing peak of 50% of UK children aged 6–12, [4] while the second was watched by 34% of UK children aged 6–12, or 1. A compilation of the 'Top 12 Scary Things' from the first four series of the award-winning CBBC history series. Eventually this led them to continue working together after Horrible Histories ceased full-time production, creating, writing and starring in the TV series Yonderland, feature film comedy Bill and TV series Ghosts. or if it's Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas it's a time for farting jesters, finding bacon in your Christmas card and having your dinner confiscated by Oliver Cromwell.

Horrible Histories: Complete Series 1-3 Box Set [DVD]

Historian and Labour Party MP Tristram Hunt, while admitting that he had not yet actually seen the programme, [2] voiced his concerns that the show's content was not "challenging and stimulating" enough for the BBC, adding that "For children, Horrible Histories is an exciting aid to engage with the guts and gore of the past, but there are more sophisticated, populist ways of getting people involved in history than this. 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. 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. Writing in The Independent, Gerard Gilbert notes that Horrible Histories is part of an extensive British black-comedy tradition not only in adult but also in children's programming.

It was produced for the BBC by LionTV and Citrus Television, [note 4] with post-production being handled by Platform Post Production. In 2013 the show was also named in a Radio Times poll of all-time greatest British children's TV series, and was cited at No. 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.