Horrible Histories is a British children's sketch comedy television series, part of the children's history franchise of the same name based on the books written by Terry Deary. The show was produced for CBBC by Lion Television with Citrus Television.
The TV show carries over the graphic style and much of the content of the Horrible Histories book series. It maintains the franchise's overall irreverent but accurate focus on the dark, gruesome or scatological aspects of British and other Western world history, spanning from the Stone Age to the post-World War II era. Individual historical eras or civilisations are defined and named as in the books, with sketches from several different time periods combined within a single episode.
In 2011, a spin-off game show, Horrible Histories: Gory Games, was launched on CBBC. In the same year, the original show was repackaged for main channel BBC One as Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry, with Fry replacing the puppet rat as presenter.