Horrible Histories – series two

My son Jack and I were lucky enough to attend a preview screening of the TV series of Horrible Histories, which is a fabulously funny and informative show aimed at children aged between eight and 12.

I must admit I laughed the whole way through! Based on the popular books written by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown, Horrible Histories covers every era from the Stone Age to World War Two. Each episode is packed full of sketches, songs and cartoon clips detailing strange facts, rotten rulers, gory battles and weird and wonderful moments from the past. Children are introduced to history in a fun and exciting way, through brilliant comedy writing and performances.

My favourite sketch from the first episode was the Roman "Come Dine With Me" and although this is a children's TV programme, I will definitely watch it again.

The second series of Horrible Histories airs every weekday on the CBBC channel at 5.15pm during half-term (starting on Monday 31 May 2010) and will subsequently air every Tuesday.

Also worth a mention is the website – www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc and click on Horrible Histories. You can play games, watch clips from the show and lots more.

I really like the Horrible Histories books and so I was excited to see what the TV series would be like as I had never seen it before. I found it really interesting and very funny. My favourite bits were the songs and Stupid Deaths which involves a character explaining how he or she died with a Britain's Got Talent style panel (made up of skeletons) judging them. It is clever because you learn lots about history and have fun at the same time.

The sketches are not too long so you don't get bored and it switches to different periods of history in each programme. I would definitely recommend this show to my friends and I will be watching the whole series.
Photo courtesy of BBC.