Horrible Histories - The Concert Interview

When actor-director Neal Foster and actor Ethan Lawrence—both part of the expanding Horrible Histories universe—join a video call, the first thing that fills the screen is warmth. Greetings are exchanged, jokes are made about age, and the sense of camaraderie is unmistakable. It’s an exciting moment for both of them: not only is Horrible Christmas back on tour, but an entirely new venture, Horrible Histories: The Concert, is preparing to burst onto stages across the UK in the new year.

Asked about the franchise’s longevity, Foster traces its roots back to 1993, when Terry Deary first realised that children relish the bits of history adults tend to skip: the gore, the filth, the weirdness. In partnership with illustrator Martin Brown—whose mischievous cartoons and contemporary humour reframed history for young readers—Deary created a blueprint that would eventually evolve into theatre shows, TV series, a feature film, and now a concert.

Foster has watched that appeal grow first-hand. Since launching the stage productions in 2005 (with Deary himself writing the very first one), he’s seen audiences span not just children but parents—and, notably, the dads who don’t always feel drawn to family outings. Thanks to the TV series, he says, they found a show they could genuinely enjoy with their kids. Now an entire generation has grown up with Horrible Histories, and many of those former fans are bringing their children along.

Ethan Lawrence is one of those who grew up with the books. “I was one when they came out,” he laughs. He remembers devouring them as a child and even emailing Terry Deary—who, to Lawrence’s astonishment, replied within fifteen minutes. He missed the early TV series, convinced as a teenager that he was “too cool for school”, but discovered later—while studying for his place in the HH cast—that he’d deprived himself of something brilliant. When he finally joined the TV ensemble in 2021, it felt, he says, like life coming full circle.

Foster still vividly remembers the very first Horrible Histories theatre performance—Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors—at the Darlington Hippodrome. The show’s pioneering 3D effects were reserved for the second act, so the creative team expected fireworks after the interval. What they didn’t expect was the overwhelming reaction to the first half: “just four actors doing Horrible Histories” with no technology at all. That evening convinced the company they had something truly special. It’s why opening the new concert tour in Darlington feels, to Foster, like returning to the show’s birthplace.

Horrible Histories: The Concert marks an unprecedented collaboration. For years, the stage and TV teams worked side by side but separately—until 2023, when the BBC Proms invited them to create Horrible Opera together. It proved such a joy that the companies began planning a full, original touring production immediately.

The concert takes 16 of Ritchie Webb’s most iconic songs from the TV series—from King of Blingto The Monarchs’ Song—and brings them to life with a live band, onstage musical director (Webb himself), and a company of multi-tasking actors. The show’s framing device features Shakespeare, tasked by Queen Elizabeth I with producing the greatest show on earth—only to find everything going wrong and all the monarchs turning against him. Shakespeare’s survival, the audience discovers, will rely entirely on the crowd.

The production is enormous: live music, intricate choreography, rapid-fire costume changes, and beloved characters like Stupid Deaths appearing on stage for the first time. “People may think they’ve seen Horrible Histories,” Foster says, “but they’ve never seen it like this.”

Lawrence adds that the temptation could have been to simply perform a string of songs and call it a day. Instead, the teams opted for a full audiovisual spectacle. For the TV performers, it’s an especially thrilling leap—one that replaces the safety net of editing suites with the unpredictability of a live crowd. He’s eager for the change; after years of performing sketches for small crews of technicians who long ago stopped being impressed by fake farts and silly wigs, the prospect of a full audience ready to sing, shout, boo, and cheer feels electric.

Foster, after decades of touring, embraces that chaos. He insists that audiences constantly redefine the show: they reveal which jokes soar or sink, they throw curveballs, and occasionally they instruct Henry VIII to “eat it!” when presented with an uncertain turkey. It’s this volatility, he says, that makes live performance magical—for better or worse. He recalls an accent experiment at the Sydney Opera House that bombed so badly he abandoned it mid-sentence, instantly shifting back into English. “That’s how fast theatre tells you you’re wrong,” he laughs.

Running parallel to preparations for the concert is the hugely successful Horrible Christmas tour—a holiday show that shares some pantomime DNA but retains the Horrible Histories educational core. The production takes families on a whirlwind journey through the entire history of Christmas traditions, from ancient origins through eras when the holiday nearly disappeared. Even familiar customs like turkey dinners, charity, and family gatherings, Foster explains, were cemented only in Victorian times thanks to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Not that the cast doesn’t enjoy a bit of mischief. Foster describes how, after realising he could no longer play the innkeeper as a Brummie, he adopted a spontaneous Billy Connolly impression—completely untested—seconds before walking on stage. To his delight, it brought the house down.

As the conversation winds to a close, the actors reflect on the roles they most enjoy inhabiting—those characters who bring a particular spark of joy or mischief to the stage. Foster grins: in the upcoming concert, he somehow ended up with two of his absolute favourites from the TV series—Charles II and the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin. Lawrence hints at the enormous, scene-stealing fun of playing Henry VIII, whose segment forms one of the biggest sequences in the show.

What becomes clear is that Horrible Histories: The Concert is not just another live adaptation—it’s a celebration. It represents a merging of worlds. A victory lap for three decades of gleefully gruesome education. And, if the cast are to be believed, a genuinely spectacular night out for families who already love the franchise—and for the children who are about to.

Northern dates & Ticket info.

Prices from £18 (venue prices will vary) via birminghamstage.com

Fri 23rd January Darlington Hippodrome
Sat 24th January Darlington Hippodrome
Fri 6th February Manchester Opera House
Sat 7th February Manchester Opera House
Sun 8th February Manchester Opera House
Fri 13th February Liverpool Empire
Sat 14th February Liverpool Empire
Tues 17th February London Royal Festival Hall
Sun 8th March Sheffield City Hall
Fri 13th March Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Sat 14th March Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Sun 15th March Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Fri 20th March Glasgow Theatre Royal
Sat 21st March Glasgow Theatre Royal
Sun 22nd March Glasgow Theatre Royal
Mon 6th April York Barbican
Tues 7th April York Barbican
Fri 17th April Sunderland Empire
Sat 18th April Sunderland Empire