Horrible Histories Brings The Nasty Bits Of The Past Back To Sheffield

By Grace Hatchell

History was never particularly tidy.

Kings chopped people’s heads off, ancient Egyptians did peculiar things with dead bodies, monarchs argued with Popes and, frankly, quite a lot of people met endings that would never make it past a modern health and safety assessment.

Thankfully, Horrible Histories has spent years making sure children learn about all of it.

The much-loved Horrible Histories returns to Sheffield from Wednesday 30 September to Saturday 3 October with two live shows, Awful Egyptians and Terrible Tudors, bringing some of history’s more gruesome moments onto the stage.

And as somebody from Yorkshire, I am delighted that Sheffield is about to receive an educational visit involving mummies, beheadings and Henry VIII. We know how to put on a family day out around here.

Meet The Awful Egyptians

First we are heading considerably further back than my postal round normally takes me.

Awful Egyptians digs into the world of Pharaohs, pyramids and some particularly unpleasant facts surrounding death and decay in Ancient Egypt.

Audiences can encounter Ramesses the Great, discover more about those mean mummies and even venture towards the Gates of the afterlife.

Ancient Egypt has always been one of those periods of history that sounds terribly glamorous until somebody explains exactly what they did with the bodies. Horrible Histories, naturally, has never been a franchise to politely skip that paragraph.

Expect the fascinating bits, the foul bits and presumably several facts that children will enthusiastically repeat over dinner later.

Then Things Get Terrible With The Tudors

If mummies aren’t quite gruesome enough for you, there is always Henry VIII.

Terrible Tudors brings together the horrible Henrys and evil Elizabeth alongside some of the legends – and lies – surrounding one of Britain’s most famous royal dynasties.

There is the small matter of Henry’s unfortunate wives, his rather substantial disagreement with the Pope, Bloody Mary and poor old Ed meeting his end in bed.

It is quite remarkable how much drama one family managed to generate. Give the Tudors a crown, a marriage and a religious disagreement and somebody was inevitably going to have a very bad afternoon.

Of course, that is precisely why the period lends itself so beautifully to Horrible Histories.

History Without Cleaning It Up

Part of the enduring appeal of Horrible Histories is that it understands something rather important about getting younger audiences interested in the past: sometimes the disgusting bits are the best bits.

Dates and names on a classroom page are one thing. Discovering that the people attached to those dates were plotting, fighting, marrying, dying and generally behaving appallingly is quite another.

These live productions use actors alongside 3D special effects to bring historical characters and events to life, continuing that familiar Horrible Histories mixture of education and glorious unpleasantness.

Children might even accidentally learn something.

Best not tell them beforehand.

There are two different shows to choose from, too, so families can decide whether their preferred historical unpleasantness involves Egyptian mummies or Tudor monarchs. Personally, I think that is a surprisingly difficult decision.

Horrible Histories: Awful Egyptians and Terrible Tudors runs in Sheffield from Wednesday 30 September to Saturday 3 October. https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/

History with the nasty bits left in?

That sounds considerably more interesting than the version I remember from school.