For those older folk reading this blog, Horrible Histories may not mean much to you. I dare say for some of you, Morrissey may not mean much either.

Horrible Histories is a BBC/CBBC (Children’s BBC) television series based on the books of Terry Deary. Deary’s books are a brilliantly irreverent way of bringing history to life for kids and the TV series has been critically acclaimed winning many awards including the Royal Television Society and BAFTA  Best Children’s TV awards. Throughout the five series, the programme has regularly featured songs including pastiche’s of many modern day rock stars and singers including The Hieroglyphics Song based on ABC by the Jackson 5 and Dick Turpin, based on Stand & Deliver by Adam and the Ants.

Series 5 episode 3 saw the usual mixture of Awful Egyptians, Groovy Greeks, Terrible Tudors, Ruthless Rulers and Vile Victorians. Tucked away in the latter section was a feature on Charles Dickens including a word battle between Dickens and Lewis Carroll. The finale of this was the Life of Dickens in Song to the tune of This Charming Man by The Smiths. Morrissey (for those of you who don’t know!!) was the charismatic singer and lyricist for The Smiths with his own unique singing style. Anyway, the song is hilarious and is a brilliant way of encapsulating the life of Dickens for a young audience (children and adults). The lyrics are great and include the classic “Whilst writing Edwin Drood, a train crash didn’t help my mood”!!!

Here’s a link so you can have a look for yourselves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p019qy4h