Hilarious Histories – What’s So Funny About the Past?
Public Historian and comedy nerd Greg Jenner is on an Arthurian quest to discover why comedy writers love history
Public Historian Greg Jenner embarks on an Arthurian quest to find out how comedy writers make history funny.
Greg is the Historical Consultant to all eight series of CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s Emmy and multiple BAFTA award-winning Horrible Histories. In short he is both a nerd and a comedy nerd.
Over three hours, the range of comedy from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ archives includes:
* Pauline Pepys’ Dowry starring David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Katherine Parkinson and Sharon Horgan.
* Austentatious (Cariad Lloyd, Rachel Parris, Andrew Hunter-Murray)
* Stand-up from Eddie Izzard.
And, that’s not all; we’ve also excavated audio of Monty Python discussing the controversy surrounding The Holy Grail and Life of Brian, plus a choice selection of shiny trinkets from Horrible Histories.
To help Greg grapple with the big questions over accuracy, ethics, and whether Mr Darcy wore underpants, he’s chatting to comedian-turned-Classicist Natalie Haynes, Horrible Histories Head Writer Ben Ward, Austentatious improvisers Cariad Lloyd and Andrew Hunter-Murray, and Stephen Fry, who apparently was in a show called Blackadder.
Producer: Anne-Marie Luff
Made for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in February 2019.
Last on
Hilarious Histories mini-series
Greg Jenner's Arthurian quest to discover why comedy writers love history.
What was it about the past that proved so funny?
Clip
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Stephen Fry on Blackadder's "tsunami of violence"
Duration: 03:54
Broadcasts
- Sat 16 Feb 2019 09:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
- Sat 16 Feb 2019 19:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
- Sat 8 Jan 2022 09:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
- Sat 8 Jan 2022 19:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra