³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Bringing Horrible Histories to life for the small screen was no small feat for producer Caroline Norris. Despite working on a string of successful comedy shows including Armstrong & Miller and Dead Ringers, Caroline felt a huge weight of responsibility on this project to both the fans and the author of the much-loved series of books.

"It was incredibly daunting," admits Caroline. "The books are so fantastic, and we wanted to make a series that brought them to life and didn't disappoint their fans, which is no small task! We also wanted Terry Deary to be happy with the end result and feel it was an accurate reflection of his style.

"We had shows like Monty Python, Do Not Adjust Your Set and Blackadder in mind, and our aim was to make a child-friendly series that people would think could be prime time because that's what both the books and the audience deserved."

Luckily, author Terry Deary is delighted with the end result. He says: "I had initial reservations about the series. But the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ got the best producers and the best technicians that they could find and then got the best actors. They then did something very different which was treating it like an adult sketch show – which is very brave and very cutting edge. And I'm absolutely thrilled with it. My books were the inspiration but the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and Lion Television deserve huge credit for what they have done."

Staying true to the spirit of the books, getting the factual information across in an appealing way was another challenge for Caroline and her team.

"We thought the material would have to be comedy first and facts second but once the writing got underway we discovered that truth turned out to be funnier than fiction so we decided to keep the sketches as factually accurate as possible," explains Caroline.

"We also wanted to include as much physical comedy as possible, and thought goo and poo and falling over couldn't fail!"

Caroline also decided that a way to make the material accessible on screen was by using already familiar TV formats and songs.

She says: "I wanted to use TV formats as an easy way in, so there was something children could instantly recognise like Ready Steady Feast and Historical Hospital and they proved to be great fun. I'm also a big fan of the comedy song and thought music would be a great way of getting potentially drier historical information across in an accessible way.

"I thought that the Four Georges ballad would be an entertaining way to get across what the Georgian period actually meant and when I walked in on rehearsal, I couldn't stop laughing, so it was obviously going to be a big hit!"

A staggering amount of British comedy talent has been attracted to Horrible Histories both on and off-screen including Meera Syal, Sarah Hadland, Steve Punt and Ben Ward.

Caroline explains that there wasn't much convincing needed to get people involved.

"I'd worked with lots of great writers on shows like Armstrong & Miller and Dead Ringers, and I knew people like Steve Punt were interested in history and also had kids, so were likely to know the books.

"The books provided a great draw, and the fact that myself and (fellow producer) Dominic Brigstocke were involved meant we were able to use our contacts. Once the word was out, there wasn’t much convincing to be done – several people came to me and asked to be involved!

"With regard to on-screen talent, we were absolutely delighted that Sarah Hadland agreed to do the show – she went from working on the new Bond film to us! It was incredibly difficult to decide on the right combination of actors for the team, but in the end I couldn't have hoped for a better cast. They were all absolutely fantastic and brought the sketches to life in the most hilarious way."

Talking of acting performances, author Terry Deary also makes cameos throughout the series.

He explains how it came about: "As well as being a writer, I'm also a professional actor and I said that I would love to be able to appear in the series too. But as the illustrator of the books Martin Brown pointed out, 'by the time most people in history got to your age they were dead!' So I pop up in unusual places – as a soldier in a Trojan horse, as a Roman emperor and as a grave robber!"

When Horrible Histories transmits on C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ in April, Caroline hopes children will be inspired to learn a little more about history. She says: "I've learned an enormous amount working on Horrible Histories. I can now look at Georgian houses with their windows bricked up and know why they're like that, and understand the basics of some Greek myths despite never having learned them at school. History brings the world alive and it's really important that people feel connected by it and not daunted. I hope Horrible Histories makes people curious to find out more about all eras and helps them to realise how funny, nasty, amazing, silly and gory the past was!"

Terry Deary agrees with the importance of people engaging with the past he says: "For me history is all about people. To understand why people behave they way they do is to understand why they behaved the way they did. If you can understand the way people were before you can measure yourself against them and then you'll be happy."