2024 Winner

Horrible Histories

Lion Television, BBC, BBC Studios

UK

- Live Action: Children

Horrible Histories is a genuine labour of love for those of us who make it. We learn something every day, and we laugh a lot. The challenge of this particular episode was unpicking what is a really quite complicated and expansive story (especially the origins of the Catholic vs. Protestant battle at the heart of it, which dates back to Henry VIII), and being able to chart its path in a way that our audience will be able to follow, and of course also laugh along with. This episode also allowed us to really push the boat out with some fabulous costumes and locations (in particular, an incredibly picturesque Tudor building, which is now a museum), and to feature some fantastically big characters – particularly our two main ones: Guy Fawkes and King James I. It was great fun for our writers and cast to work with, and we were also able to parody two classic songs along the way – who knew that the work of TLC would one day help us outline King Henry VIII upsetting the Catholic Church?!