Several friends brought a short clip on YouTube about Richard III to my attention and I would like thank all of them, not least the facebook page of the Richard III Society.
The clip is from the children’s TV show Horrible Histories, which is based on the books by Terry Deary. While Deary may be mainly known for his children’s books, he also presented the fascinating BBC programme on The Battle of Towton 1461, which is available on DVD with many extras from rkproductions.
Horrible Histories takes a rather unconventional look at history. The live-action TV series was first shown in 2009 on British CBBC Television and has been hugely successful, winning an array of awards. The last was in January this year, when it won best sketch at the Comedy Awards, the first children’s programme ever to do so.
In this clip Richard III puts the record straight in a song. Because “there’s a lot of people spreading nasty rumours about [him]” and because “the history books have been telling it wrong”, it’s now “time to tell the truth about King Richard the Third”. And certainly we all agree with his assessment that there was a “special ruler – King Richard the Third”, who was a “nice guy”.
Have a look at the clip of the ‘Richard III Song‘ and enjoy it. And if it helps getting the idea across that Richard was a real person and not the synonym for evil of the widespread misconception – well, that’s not so horrible, is it?
For more info on the TV series you may like to read an article published by The Guardian on 17 March 2011.
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