to think that Horrible Histories is a complete work of art...

[RudsyFarmer]

It’s completely genius. It’s taught my nine year old to have a love of history. Has given him a huge amount of facts that he has retained a year later. Has taught me a lot too!!! It’s funny and educational whilst still being cheeky and cool. I wish they’d done similar with science or geography.

Best tv programme ever!! They’re brilliant, so well written and we often listen to the songs on long journeys and the kids know every word! I love them.

he still does - he came along to a running festival a few years ago and we did a 5k run stopping off at points for him to tell history stories about the landmarks

This is interesting, my DC are tweens and they’ve had the box set of books for ages but I never found them that appealing.

I don’t know if they’ve read them all but I’m thinking we should work our way through the TV series after reading this thread.

we absolutely loved Ghosts so will we like HH on TV more than the books? Are they all available on iPlayer?

I’ve just started watching Ghosts and it is so funny. HH is just brilliant.

This thread has also got me started on Ghosts. Loving and laughing so far.

I never really got why Ghosts was on at 9pm, there was no swearing and barring hints at Julian meeting his demise in a kinky fashion very little sex.

There’s a series of sketches about the Spanish Armada(s) with the line “we have caused minor damage to an inconsequential village called Mousehole, yay!” that literally made me snort my tea the first time I heard it. It gets better with viewing because Laurence is corpsing even before he says it.

Totally agree OP.
Bought DS the books when he was 7, he devoured them and found the TV series. We've been to a couple of the stage shows. I've promised him a trip to London to go on the boat trip.

He's nearly 14 and won the school History prize last term. He's still got to choose his GCSE options, but has already decided that he wants to do A level history.

He listens to "You're Dead To Me" and follows "The Silly History Boys" on YouTube.

If you have primary school age children, it's worth following "Time Will Tell Theatre" who do stuff at historical sites during school holidays.

Omg we adore HH in this house, discovered it during lockdown as a means of making ds do something educational and ended up with all of us watching it on repeat and learning the songs. The English monarchs 😍 will have a listen to that podcast thank you

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads if your DS wants other history podcasts to listen to, I really recommend the “History Hit” group of shows. There is a main podcast and a series of other podcasts dedicated to specific areas of history:

Dan Snow’s History Hit (a daily podcast)
Warfare
Not Just The Tudors
The Ancients
Gone Medieval

Definitely worth listening to, if you have enough time!

Thanks @CaveMum, we sometimes listen to Dan Snow. I didn't know about those other podcasts. DH and DS might though!

I'd like to put in a word for the new cast and the new series' as well. I think they're just as good and the songs just as brilliant. Also there's less of the poo/wee obsession which was definitely a bit much in series 1!

I went to watch one of their stage shows... eventually took about two years thanks to bloody Covid. It was fab :)

love it
stupid deaths, four georges!
and ghosts
i think it faded away when stephen fry got involved?

We did the London boat tour at the weekend. Brilliant.

Stupid deaths! The kids and I regularly sing this.

I bloody love Ghosts.

dick turpin, adam and the ant style, excellent!

HH was always a big hit in our house. My dad (WWII veteran) loved it too, but some of the musical styles went over his head a bit. Gotta love a bit of Dickens channeling Morrissey.

Love, love, love Horrible Histories!
My youngest is 16 but she and her friend still know every word to every song.
Do the Pachacuti and Caveman Love are definitely faves.
They were excellent live when we went to see them (probably about 6-7 years ago now).

Love HH and Ghosts. The Four George’s is my favourite and the kids do a great Charles II rap.

I honestly think the License fee is worth it just for CBBC (and Cbeebies). Horrible Histories, Operation Ouch, Malory Towers...

Yes, this. In fact that's become the default way of thinking about the past, including by academics. I wonder how many of them cut their teeth on Horrible Histories.

It's like trying to teach children English literature from a joke book.

Also this Libraries ‘have had their day’, says Horrible Histories author

Terry Deary is an iconoclast, blowing raspberries at everything, but culture doesn't have to be either dull and worthy or a lot of fart jokes. And if you think that doesn't matter, ask yourself who the current prime minister is and what he's like.

I love it

Henry Richard John OI!!!!❤️❤️❤️

Such an important point. Like another poster says it leads to a sneering attitude towards people in history which doesn’t allow people to learn from it or empathise with them. And those lessons should be learnt.
Apart from the content being very colonial and having made no inroads into bringing to light some of the people and circumstances that have been erased.

Problem is that it is so well done and entertaining, you actually don’t even want the traditional narrative challenged. It’s like watching a panto. You don’t want a drama instead.
although from a learning standpoint, the panto doesn’t really offer critical thought. Which clearly is something very important in teaching history.