Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain Part Three

Murder, death and poo is promised in the first five minutes of the latest stage adaptation of Terry Deary and Neal Foster’s ‘Horrible Histories’ series. And your little ‘uns won’t be disappointed: as the show speeds through the history of Britain, from the stone age to WWI, there are hangings, beheadings and lots of talk of cesspits.
 
But amid all that crap and gore, you’ll also likely learn a thing or two. For instance: did you know that if there’s a ‘by’ at the end of the name of your village or town, it was a Viking settlement? Or that a man called John Snow managed to pin point the very water pump that caused the 1854 Soho cholera epidemic (cue ‘Game of Thrones’ reference for the parents)?
 
Without wanting to be a total square, it’s these choice educational nuggets that make ‘Horrible Histories Barmy Britain’ great. Deary wrote the original best-selling books and along with Foster he’s managed to infuse this script with the same anarchic, cheeky, illuminating fun as the original: it’s a little fact-packed gem.
 
Foster also directs and stars in the show, which essentially sees him and Anthony Spargo careen through sketches set at different periods of British history – they create a rude puppet of King John as he’s being forced to sign the Magna Carta, a rapping Charles II and Christmas-hating Puritans. They throw on ridiculous costume after costume, wheel out props, sing songs and get kids up onstage only to make hilarious (and harmless) fun of them. The children around me began to get a mite fidgety about three quarters of the way through, but Spargo and Foster managed to draw them back in before the end.  

The duo are a hoot, not too over-the-top, but funny and sharp, delivering the one-liners with excellent timing.
 
Worried that their minds will go to mush over the holidays? Worry not: here’s a show that has brains (with the winning mix of fart-jokes) aplenty.