Interview: Horrible Histories at the Royal Concert Hall

Horrible Histories has toured Nottingham before. What does this production offer that's different?

Richard: Well, it's the biggest Horrible Histories show produced for the stage, and for the first time, features the cast from the TV show. It's got the songs that we all love from the series, there to be sung along with fans and the audience.

Verona: Yeah, sixteen of the nation's favourite Horrible Histories hits that the audience can sing along and dance along to. Indeed, this will be encouraged.

Dancing in the aisles, wonderful!

Richard: You can dance in the aisles. You might be apprehended by security.

What's your role in all this as actors?

Verona: I'll be playing Cleopatra and Anne of Cleves. But I’m even more excited to be playing a Viking. Singing the Viking song is going to be epic.

Richard: I'm playing quite an unknown character from history. I don't know if you’ve heard of him, William Shakespeare?

Vaguely. 

Richard: Yeah, an up-and-coming writer from his day. I'm having a stab at playing him. He's like the tentpole in the circus tent, with these mad, weird and wonderful characters making his life very difficult, including Verona's character.

Verona: Apologies in advance.

Why has Horrible Histories been so successful?

Verona: I think it's a non-conventional way of teaching history. It's fun, with songs that help you remember specific things about history that you might not if sat in a classroom being taught. Yeah, I think that's part of the reason, but then also because you have incredible actors like Richard.

Richard: That's true. In fact, if I were to say one reason why Horrible Histories was so successful, it would be me. I am the reason.

Absolutely 

Richard: When you're able to make someone laugh, they lean back, open their hearts, and you get this sense of trust. A sense of people literally opening to whatever you have to give them. So, when you're giving interesting historical facts, whilst they're laughing, they take it in. It’s a more meaningful way than in a school reading a book, where it becomes dry, distanced, irrelevant to them as the reader. And the way Horrible Histories manages to do this is unparalleled by any other show. The whole family can watch together, enjoy, learn, talk about it and sing along too.

How did you come to be in Horrible Histories?

Richard: Well, I had no other work and was desperate. No, I'm joking! I watched Horrible Histories whilst I was a Learning Support Assistant at a school, and I've never seen a comedy that was intended primarily for young people, that resonated so much with me, that I became desperate to audition. I asked my agent, and I badgered a lot of people, and eventually they took away the restraining order and allowed me to audition. And luckily, it was a good fit. It takes a special person to work on Horrible Histories. A type of adult that has a youthful, playful essence to them, a very young energy. Even though we’re grown-ups, you've got to have a silliness in your DNA to do that show. Because it’s primarily making poo jokes, and so you've got to lean into that. You can't be embarrassed.

Verona: Actually, I’m very blessed, to be honest. So in Lockdown, things were up in the air. None of us knew what we were doing. We were at home baking banana bread. I got a call and was asked to feature in season nine. I'm only in season nine—

Richard: I’d say season nine is the best season, though.

Verona: It is and because I'm in it! But I got a call asking if I wanted to do it. And I was absolutely yes! I now have cool points from my nieces, even my sister. My sister was so happy that I’m singing the Cleopatra song.

I went along in Lockdown, all masked up and performed some incredible characters, and then was lucky enough to be part of the podcast as well.

What's your favourite Horrible Histories period?

Richard: I always liked the ancient Romans, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Egyptians. They fascinate me the most. They’re that bit further away from where we are now, with all these wild, inventive and bizarre customs and events that happened during those periods. It’s a lot of fun to act because they’re so different to how we are today. And yet, a lot of the comedy comes from how similar we are now as well.

It's a long tour. How do you keep going through such a long tour?

Verona: Good question. I actually haven't done such a long tour before. I’ve just toured in Three Hens in a Boat, which was two venues in two months. Whereas with this, I mean, lots of vitamins, lots of water, lots of rest, and hopefully all shall be well.

Richard: It might be an absolute disaster. I might not be able to do it, who knows. But I think it's the audiences that lift us. If we're vocally, physically, or mentally tired, the second we meet the fans, it’s a unique experience. Horrible Histories fans were never able to see the TV cast perform, but now they will. And we will find that mutual energy exchange together. Either that or they will boo us and throw tomatoes at us. And that's fine too, because that's in the spirit of the tour.

What made you want to be an actor?

Richard: Probably something to do with validation and not being seen enough as a child. No, I think it's just the most fun thing that you can do. Life is hard. Life is tough. It's just a wonderful gift to earn a living making people laugh, entertaining people, telling them stories, opening their hearts, their minds. I love it because it enables me to inhabit other characters and other parts of my own persona, and to live a full experience as this human being. I don't just get to be myself, I get to be other people. I get to be these infamous, cruel, bizarre, wonderful people. In this series alone, I’m Tutankhamun and James the First and Shakespeare. Incredibly fascinating people. It enables me to inhabit parts of myself  I wouldn't otherwise, if I was an accountant.

Verona: Initially, I wanted to be a singer. I had dreams of running through the crowd and slapping their hands, everyone caring for me. Until the day my singing teacher told me I couldn't sing! The wonderful thing about Horrible Histories is that Richie Webb, who's written all the songs, has been working with me, so I get to live out my dream of singing. Another reason is because I love performing. You can be childlike forever. I feel like we're old for a long time but young for such a short period. But when you're an actor, you continue to be young forever. I’ll never grow up. Being an actor allows me to see the beauty of life and that joy you have when a child.

Richard: I call it creative Botox.

What advice would you give young people wanting to get into theatre?

Verona: You can join youth theatres. You can create and write with your friends. I do. If you want to act, you know, you can write your own stuff. You've got your mobile phones. You can get clipping mics and things like that. Create high quality content using your phone. My best advice is just to do and not worry about what anyone else thinks. And if that's your calling go for it. Step out of your comfort zone. When we step out of our comfort zone, our comfort zone gets bigger. So yeah, just go for it.

Richard: Yeah, I completely agree that it’s about doing rather than intellectualizing and overthinking. Creativity is a beautiful invitation to just experiment. Be playful. Be silly. Entertain yourself. Don't try and be entertaining. Be entertained. Make yourself smile. Get invested in it. Be interested. Don't be interesting. It's just a wonderful way of being self-expressive without having to hold back. There are any number of ways to get into the arts, amateur theatre, Youth Theatre, create your own theatre. I've made my own one-man show. We're at the Edinburgh Fringe and all the Fringe Festivals.  Fantastic ways of just experimenting and finding your creative voice.

But the most important thing is, not necessarily what you do, but why you do it. It's not an exercise in getting validation in this age of social media. All of that is nonsense. You don't do it for your standing ovation. You do it because there's a part of you that wants to express yourself and enjoy expressing yourself, enjoy that creative flair, enjoy the playfulness. Actually, enjoy getting it wrong.

Do things ever go wrong in Horrible Histories?

Richard:  I mean, it's a continual process of going wrong. It's part of the show’s fabric. There's a manic schedule to get all of these sketches done on time. And with it being so crammed full, we make mistakes, we forget lines, we get our accents wrong, we're make each other laugh. There are costume mishaps and all sorts. And actually, it's about leaning into the wrongness and making that part of the show. Sometimes we keep the cameras rolling if we’ve made a mistake, because there might be some funny, unexpected content. And that will translate to the stage show seamlessly, because we can invite the audience in on the joke. We can actively say, that wasn't meant to happen. As the audience will know if we've made a mistake, we might as well own up to it and let them be a part of that. So, we're not worried about the wrongness of it, because the show itself is about the silliness. It's about the ridiculousness of history, which we reflect in our performances.

Verona: The difference between the TV show and stage show is, if something goes wrong, you can edit it, whereas on stage, you have to lean into it. And audiences won't always know when something goes wrong, unless it’s drastically wrong. With the last show I did, things went wrong constantly, to the point where we were corpsing sometimes. But if you have great actors who can lean into that, it doesn't matter.

Richard: Just to let you know, Verona, if you make a mistake and no one knows about it, I will flag it, so that everyone knows.

If you could meet one famous individual from history, who would it be?

Richard: I would love to meet a character that I do play, James the First. I'd love to ask him what his deal is with his obsession and hatred of witches. And have a beer with him. Work out how unhinged he really was. Am I being unfair in my portrayal?

Verona: Phyllis Wheatley. To chat with her about how she became the first black woman to have her poems published. And how she dealt with the pushback of people not believing that she had written a poem. And see how different it is for writers today. How far have we come along?

Horrible Histories - The Concert plays at the Royal Concert Hall on Sun 29 Mar 2026 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm. 

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