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[0:19] John Schwab: Hi, John Schwab here from Curtain Call, and welcome to episode 113 of the Curtain Call Theatre Podcast, the podcast that brings you backstage as close as you possibly can be, often while the shows are actually happening to meet the people that make that theater happen.

[0:31] John Schwab: You can find all our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Ditcher, and other fine podcast streaming services.

[0:37] John Schwab: And if you have a spare thirty seconds, please rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you use, and I will give you a little shout out here on the podcast.

[0:44] John Schwab: So, uh, take some time and, uh, and share some love.

[0:48] John Schwab: And now for this week's podcast.

[0:50] John Schwab: Coventry City is currently looking forward to its status as City of Culture, with its tenure beginning in 2021.

[0:56] John Schwab: And to bring in the celebrations, the ever-popular Horrible Histories team visited the city to film some sketches that revolved around local historical figures, including Lady Godiva and Ira Aldridge.

[1:07] John Schwab: Horrible Histories may have found their fame on the BBC, but their collective talents are definitely rooted in the theater.

[1:21] John Schwab: So much so that you can often find them touring around the country, including right this minute. They're on tour right now.

[1:27] John Schwab: And these shows are extremely popular with the kids and adults alike, with The Times giving it four stars and exclaiming, "the auditorium seems fit to combust spontaneously in an explosion of joy and excitement."

[1:42] John Schwab: And if that isn't a call to arms to go see the show, I don't know what is.

[1:47] John Schwab: Curtain Call's Theo Bosanquet is standing in for me this week.

[1:51] John Schwab: Um, when he sat down with the Horrible Histories team to talk about the project with Adam Jenkins, the director, who kicks the chat off, followed by writer Greg Jenner.

[2:00] John Schwab: And then you'll hear from actors Jessica Ransom, Tom Stourton, and Javone Prince, playing Ira Aldridge and Lady Godiva, obviously.

[2:07] John Schwab: And, uh, then you also hear from costume designer Mark Burnham, who, uh, brings it all home.

[2:13] John Schwab: Have a listen.

[2:23] Adam Jenkins: Horrible Histories were invited to come up to Coventry, uh, which we gratefully accepted, um, to film some sketches for Coventry becoming the City of Culture in a few years' time.

[2:34] Adam Jenkins: Uh, we were delighted to be asked up, had a look at some photographs first of all, to have a look at some locations, and just couldn't believe the amount of great stuff up here.

[2:45] Adam Jenkins: So we jumped on a train, came and had a look around, chose some locations, uh, St. Mary's Guild Hall, Draper's Hall, and the Charter House, uh, where we're going tomorrow to, uh, to film some sketches, and we sort of started researching about Coventry and then set our team of writers the challenge of writing three sketches, or actually two sketches and a song featuring Coventry.

[3:08] Adam Jenkins: It's an interesting one. Um, Terry Deary had done it with the books actually. He'd written books on, uh, York and London and Dublin and so on.

[3:16] Adam Jenkins: He'd, he'd sort of done local histories, which, um, immediately when this Coventry project came up, that was where my brain went to.

[3:23] Adam Jenkins: I thought, well, actually that's fine, because you know, Terry's already established a model.

[3:28] Adam Jenkins: Um, and I think what was interesting was that, um, the project came to us with some suggestions of saying, well, you know, we've got these buildings, we've got this heritage that we're proud of, and I'm a medievalist by training, so I immediately thought of Lady Godiva, um, as a sort of good case study because she also, she plays into what we do quite well, which is that there's a certain thing we like to do, which is take received knowledge, things that people think they know, and then subvert them, invert what they expect and then do jokes about, you know, undermining, um, what people, uh, assume will be happening.

[4:10] Adam Jenkins: And of course, Lady Godiva, the story of her naked on the horse riding through town, all of that. Um, because it's a kid's show, nudity is a slight problem for us, so we have to be a bit careful with the nudity.

[4:22] Adam Jenkins: But, um, I thought it'd be really fun to do that. So that sketch I came up with in a couple of minutes, really quickly, when Simon phoned me up, he said, "What could we do?" and I immediately thought, well, why don't we do Lady Godiva?

[4:35] Adam Jenkins: But instead of it being the classical story, can we invert it? And she's sort of a celebrity who's trying to kind of big up her charity work, and the interviewer is desperately trying to talk to her about a thing that never happened, the ride through, you know, the nude road.

[4:50] Adam Jenkins: She's like, "What are you talking about? I'm here to talk about my involvement with the church," because that's a classic comedy setup.

[4:57] Adam Jenkins: One person thinks they're there for one reason, someone else thinks they're there for a different reason, and there's a sort of miscommunication going on.

[5:03] Adam Jenkins: Tell us about the sketches that you're, or the sketch you're filming this week.

[5:09] Adam Jenkins: Uh, and, um, and, uh, I'm, uh, I'm a, you see, if you start picking apart the logic of these things too much, it's odd.

[5:17] Adam Jenkins: But I'm a contemporary reporter covering, uh, the, uh, the recession of the myth of Lady Godiva riding through the streets of Coventry.

[5:27] Adam Jenkins: Um, but it's kids TV, so obviously you're not, you're not gonna be naked, are you?

[5:33] Greg Jenner: Well, no, and nor was she.

[5:34] Greg Jenner: That is the point.

[5:35] Adam Jenkins: Oh, right. That is the historical thing.

[5:36] Adam Jenkins: I totally misunderstood why I thought we were just working around it.

[5:41] Adam Jenkins: I mean, I've got some well-placed pumpkins to give that illusion.

[5:44] Adam Jenkins: But yeah.

[5:45] Adam Jenkins: Comedy pumpkins, uh, and a bag on the back of my head, yeah.

[5:51] Adam Jenkins: And then, and I'm sort of trying to look away nervously, thinking that she's naked as I interview her.

[5:58] Adam Jenkins: But turns out she's not.

[5:59] Adam Jenkins: Turns out I'm not.

[6:00] Greg Jenner: Yeah.

[6:01] Greg Jenner: Um, yeah.

[6:02] Greg Jenner: Spoiler.

[6:03] Greg Jenner: Um, for the completely sort of uninitiated, I guess.

[6:07] Greg Jenner: Tell us what the sort of what Horrible Histories tries to do to the sort of historical.

[6:13] Greg Jenner: So it always has to be true.

[6:17] Greg Jenner: Um, that's a big part of it.

[6:19] Greg Jenner: But Terry Deary, who wrote the original books, uh, was very much about making it finding the interesting parts of history that kind of gory and disgusting and weird and interesting things to get kids engaged.

[6:33] Greg Jenner: Uh, so the basis of every sketch we ever do on the show is always factual, and we have amazing researchers and historians working on it, but then it's finding those interesting quirky facts and making them into the sketches.

[6:50] Greg Jenner: The writing's so good, um, and it's all kind of, you know, um, that trades a similar tone to, you know, Monty Python stuff, which I still sort of love, you know, films like the Holy Grail.

[7:04] Greg Jenner: Like Ryan, it sort of fits in with that kind of that classic genre of British humour.

[7:10] Greg Jenner: And it makes us laugh, and I think that the whole thing with, I mean, I'm a big fan of people falling over and fart jokes, so it's, it's, um, it's the purpose of the realm.

[7:19] Greg Jenner: Another bit of poo.

[7:20] Adam Jenkins: Yeah.

[7:20] Adam Jenkins: Um, yeah.

[7:27] Javone Prince: Oh, I, oh, I was, um, was kind of like a pioneer for black actors and black movement.

[7:35] Javone Prince: Um, so he started obviously acting in America, but slavery was a big thing.

[7:41] Javone Prince: And, um, so he kind of, he came here where it was more acceptable to, your colour wasn't really, obviously back then it was a problem, but it wasn't that much of an issue with as to, you know, where he was in America.

[7:54] Javone Prince: And he did a lot here.

[7:57] Javone Prince: Um, he ran Coventry, he ran the Belgrade Theatre, 21 years old, which was, that's fantastic for someone twenty-one years old or so young to run an institute like that and it for it to be successful and act and campaign for ethnic rights, you know.

[8:18] Javone Prince: Um, so he was like a pioneer, he did a lot.

[8:18] Javone Prince: He did a lot for one of the first, I think, black men on stage in the UK.

[8:28] Javone Prince: So, um, that I think that has to be celebrated.

[8:31] Javone Prince: Um, you don't, it's very hard to find sort of black men of that time or positive black role models like that for you to look up to to know about.

[8:43] Javone Prince: You don't, you have to really find it and research those type of men to for you to know that what their history is and what they've actually done and how far what they've had to go through for actors like me to be here to play there.

[8:54] Javone Prince: So it's, uh, it's kind of an honour, even though it's a joke and we know it's, it's Christmas and it's fun, and you know, but there's actually quite a serious, you know, through line for this.

[9:05] Adam Jenkins: Oh, I speakers in, hang on, speakers in then, yeah.

[9:08] Adam Jenkins: That's okay.

[9:08] Adam Jenkins: Um, I think so much way back when started acting in the state, but they didn't want to like me.

[9:25] Javone Prince: Oh no, it's their slavery.

[9:29] Javone Prince: So I travelled on the boat. What's that about that?

[9:33] Richard Webb: I am Richard Webb, and I am the composer on Horrible Histories.

[9:38] Richard Webb: The song about Ira is great because it's a character not many people know anything about, but it's kind of a great story, and we're also able to marry it up beautifully with the musical style which relates to the city.

[9:51] Richard Webb: So it's sort of like the perfect, it's the perfect coming together.

[9:54] Richard Webb: Great character, great story, great musical style, which is, you know, what the best Horrible Histories songs, uh, achieve, I think.

[10:01] Mark Burnham: Hi there, Mark Burnham, um, costume designer for, um, this little Horrible Histories sketch.

[10:07] Mark Burnham: As part of the Horrible Histories series, you must, you must have to design hundreds, hundreds of music.

[10:13] Mark Burnham: Yeah, so the last nine weeks, let's see.

[10:16] Mark Burnham: I think we went through about 1500 costumes.

[10:19] Mark Burnham: Goodness.

[10:20] Mark Burnham: We did on average about five sketches, maybe four to five sketches a day.

[10:25] Mark Burnham: So on a day we'd easily go through 40 costumes plus extras.

[10:33] Mark Burnham: So yeah, we, um, we kept busy, and then even on a day, you don't necessarily stick with them on period, so it could be that you start off with Tudor, then we'll get a Victorian, then go to modern, then go to 1940.

[10:47] Mark Burnham: So yeah, we, um, we have a lot to organize and to get.

[10:52] Mark Burnham: Well, it's good, it's good fun.

[10:53] John Schwab: Where do you source your costumes?

[10:55] Mark Burnham: Is it a case of, so Horrible Histories has got some stock, um, but then we've got about three or four costume houses that we use.

[11:03] Mark Burnham: Uh, one Bristol costume services, which we like using a lot.

[11:08] Mark Burnham: Then there's two, uh, London costume houses that we use, Cosprop and Angels.

[11:13] Mark Burnham: Um, then there's other smaller ones that we'll do very specific stuff with.

[11:17] Mark Burnham: Right.

[11:18] Mark Burnham: We've got military stuff, we'll go to a military hire place and, and you know, sometimes we'll make stuff.

[11:22] Mark Burnham: It depends on what we need.

[11:24] Mark Burnham: So it's a huge logistical.

[11:36] John Schwab: The Horrible Histories team there, taking time to speak to Curtain Call's Theo Bosanquet about all things Coventry and Horrible Histories.

[11:43] John Schwab: And you can listen to the extended, uh, podcast, that original one from Theo by clicking in the link in the show notes.

[11:48] John Schwab: Now, before we wrap up, if you're a theater professional, guys, head on over to curtaincallonline.com and sign up for a free profile page.

[11:54] John Schwab: Uh, you can follow us on all the socials, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at Curtain Call.

[11:58] John Schwab: We'd love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or feedback for the podcast.

[12:01] John Schwab: Just get in touch with us via any of the social media platforms I just mentioned, or write to me at john@curtaincallonline.com, and you can also follow me on, uh, the socials at John Schwab, J O H N S C H W A B.

[12:15] John Schwab: It just leaves me to say a huge thank you to the fantastic Horrible Histories team.

[12:19] John Schwab: Look out for their Coventry City of Culture sketches that, uh, we'll be airing soon.

[12:24] John Schwab: And also a big thank you to Theo Bosanquet for providing the audio to this week's podcast.

[12:29] John Schwab: Make sure to click on the link to hear the full original version of the podcast that has many more guests than you heard today.

[12:35] John Schwab: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Curtain Call Theatre Podcast, and I will catch you all next week.

[12:40] John Schwab: Bye.