There has been more than one Horrible Histories Prom in the BBC's annual Proms concert series. The Horrible Histories entertainment franchise is aimed at children, and these concerts have introduced children to classical music.
It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and was that year's children's entry in the Proms series. Televised as "Horrible Histories' Big Prom Party", it took the form of a free family concert showcasing original songs from the Horrible Histories TV series, along with classical music.
In the 30th-anniversary year of the Horrible Histories books by Terry Deary, a Prom looked at the world of opera.[1] It featured the chorus and orchestra of English National Opera conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson.
Louise Fryer and Rattus Rattus (the black rat puppet "host" of the TV series) presented the concert for BBC Radio 3. The featured performers were the six-member starring cast of Horrible Histories (Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond), supported by the Aurora Orchestra with Nicholas Collon conducting. The Music Centre Children's Choir and Kids Company Choir served as chorus.[2] Orchestral arrangements were made as needed by Iain Farrington.[3]
The 65-minute televised version initially aired the following September. It featured a version of the concert edited to highlight the songs from the TV series, interspersed with snippets of the classical pieces and specially-shot linking sketches set in and around the concert hall, including ones with Rattus Rattus explaining a historical link to certain pieces.[4]
The concert was presented in two parts divided by an interval. As a general theme, songs from the TV series were paired with a classical piece composed in or otherwise relating to that historical era.[3] Various comic interludes spotlighted notable moments in musical history. Several recurring characters and concepts from the series, including reporter Bob Hale, King Henry VIII and Death from "Stupid Deaths", made appearances.
The concert was given 4/5 stars from John Lewis in The Guardian. Describing it as "pitched somewhere between a pantomime, a Footlights revue and an old-school variety show", he added that "it is not clear how much Richie Webb's songs (with enjoyably daft lyrics by the likes of Terry Deary and Dave Cohen) benefited from lavish orchestral arrangements: with Cleopatra's Lady Gaga-inspired theme, or Charles II's swaggering Eminem pastiche, the strings were unnecessary, even intrusive."[5]
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Benedict Brogan also gave the show 4/5 stars, saying that "the clever touch was to bracket each sketch and song with a smartly chosen selection of classical greatest hits, which the Aurora Orchestra under Nicholas Collon ripped out with élan." He further praised the show's accessibility, noting that "Children who came to see their television heroes were cunningly exposed to music that might in future sound familiar, not frightening."[6]