Horrible Histories to focus on black Britons
EARLY Britons were black “before these isles were British”, BBC children’s series Horrible Histories will tell its viewers in its first episode dedicated to black history.
The comedy serie s, inspired by author Terry Deary’s books, was launched on CBBC in 2009 to introduce young people to gruesome elements of history through irreverent sketches .
Now future episodes will focus more on diverse aspects of Britain’s history, starting with an episode dedicated to black history in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.
The first episode features abolitionists rapping that “our lives matter”, and an animation segment on the “shameful” slave trade.
Richard Bradley, creative lead at Horrible Histories from creators Lion television, said: “With the events of last summer, it felt like the whole world had a moment to reevaluate what we thought about the past.
“We thought it was a good moment to think about how Horrible Histories might tackle the whole area of black history.”
While one-off sketches have dealt with aspects of this history, Mr Bradley said the dedicated episode will explore how Britain has “always been a country with many races and ethnicities”.
To demonstrate Britain has had a black population “from the start”, the opening sketch will outline how African troops manned Hadrian’s Wall in the 3rd Century AD.
One song will touch on the prehistoric population having dark skin “before these Isles were British”, in refer
ence to the probable skin colour of the 10,000-year-old Cheddar Man remains.
The new episode comes after accusations Horrible Histories was “anti-British” for featuring a song about colonialism. There was widespread anger last year at the lyrics which cited tea, sugar, cotton and even Queen Victoria as examples of supposedly “British things” that are “from abroad” or “stolen”.
The programme will be available on CBBC and iPlayer from May 7.