Horrible Histories books and the Barmy Britain show

There are many ways you can try to get children interested in history but a surefire way is to tell them all the yucky, smelly, silly and stupid bits. And that’s why Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories is such a brilliant concept.

The first book in the series was published all the way back in 1993 then it became a children’s television series and later a film, and now there are a series of stage shows.

My daughter, 8, discovered the series relatively recently and absolutely loves the books and TV show – and I’m impressed by how much history she has learnt and how many facts she remembers from this. The books and show are also really funny – I particularly like the ‘stupid deaths’ segment but the parody of Ready Steady Cook is usually a bit gross!

We had an unexpectedly free weekend recently and I saw that the ‘Barmy Britain’ Horrible Histories west end show was offering tickets for just £15 each instead of the usual price of £37.50 each so we decided to go.

It’s only 1 hour 15 minutes long with no interval and features only two actors against a plain backdrop, but with a series of costumes, wigs, props and a couple of puppets. They whiz through key parts of British history from the Romans to William the Conquerer to Guy Fawkes. Don’t expect sophisticated humour – there are poo and fart jokes and all sorts of silly things but I also learnt quite a few things I didn’t know! The actors pull off a very funny and slightly madcap show that my daughter really enjoyed.

Horrible Histories Barmy Britain is running at the Apollo theatre until 31 August- click here for Tickets but there’s also a tour where you can see the Terrible Tudors or Awful Egyptians Tour dates .