Blood, guts and learning

“Guy Fawkes was tortured so badly on the rack that when he finally came to be hung drawn and quartered, he purposefully climbed higher on the scaffold so that when he threw himself off, it would break his neck. That way he’d be dead and they wouldn’t be able to torture him anymore.”

Facts like this are casually dropped into my conversation with Neal Foster who is multi-tasking as producer, co-writer, director and star of Horrible Histories Barmy Britain. It’s a very interesting conversation that not only leaves me feeling hugely unknowledgeable when it comes to the history of Britain, but one that leaves me in no doubt about his passion for two things; theatre and history.

The show has been running in London at The Garrick since the beginning of the year but it’s the first time in six years that he’s been able to bring Horrible Histories to Scotland. “I wanted to make it a special treat for Scotland so have written some new sketches—one with William Wallace—especially about Scotland and Edinburgh." 

When I ask what other parts of history are covered in the show, Foster takes a deep breath. “We take you from Romans through to Vikings, then into the Tudors with King Henry the Eight and Anne Boleyn and then a sketch called ‘Who Wants To Blow Up The Houses Of Parliament?’ with Guy Fawkes.” He pauses for breath before continuing “Then we meet Burke and Hare and Jessie King – the infamous baby farmer from Edinburgh. Next it’s off to meet Florence Nightingale and find out what she did in the Crimea. And finish with Lord Sugar quizzing General Hague about what’s gone wrong with The Somme. It’s a sort of irreverent, silly, naughty journey through British history in the Horrible Histories style.”

It’s exhausting listening to the list, even more so when you actually watch the show. I admit to him that when I left the theatre after the show I had been amazed at how much they had managed to pack into just sixty minutes. “It goes at a hell of a lick and I doubt that—in terms of a children’s theatre—there’s ever been a show that’s packed as much information into one hour as Barmy Britain seems to do. But at the same time we try and make it as fun as it can be. I call it learning by accident; you don’t realise you’re learning as much as you are. A lot of people think that they’re just jokes but everything we say is historically accurate. So it’s just one fact after another but told in a fun, silly way.”

Foster is joined on stage by Alison Fitzjohn and the double act are great fun together, their chemistry and comic timing a big part of the show’s charm. “London’s West End is full of shows with huge sets and orchestras, but I’m a big fan of theatre,” he says almost apologetically. “I wanted to create something that was truly about the art and craft of the actor. Just a couple of actors, a basket of costumes and hats and you create everything just out of that one basket. My inspiration was Tommy Cooper. I thought: ‘What would Tommy Cooper do if you cast him in Horrible Histories?’ That’s the basis upon which the whole show works and it works really well.”

I wonder whether Terry Deary—author of the original book series—who has been involved with the hugely popular CBBC television series is also involved in the creation of this show. “Terry has written half the sketches himself and I’ve written the others." So, will those children that are fans of the series also enjoy this show?  “I think our show crosses the bridge between the two; books and TV series."

Foster appears to consider all formats of Horrible Histories with equal importance, to him it's just important that the children are shown history and enjoy it. "The books are very concerned with things that are horrible, and our show is very concerned with things that are horrible. But at the same time the format of our show—the silliness and I suppose the cleverness of it—is similar to the TV shows. So what we find is that those that love the TV series will love the stage show. There’s enough similarity between the two because we’ve all got the same inspiration in the end: the books.”