Horrible Histories: Gory Games facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Horrible Histories: Gory Games
Genre	Children's Game show
Presented by	Dave Lamb
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	66
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Citrus Television and Lion Television
Distributor	All3Media
Release
Original network	CBBC
Original release	30 May 2011 (2011-05-30) – 26 January 2018 (2018-01-26)
Chronology
Related shows	Horrible Histories (2009) Horrible Histories (2015)

Horrible Histories: Gory Games is a children's game show, co-produced by Citrus Television and Lion Television for CBBC, that debuted in 2011. It is a spin-off of hit children's sketch comedy Horrible Histories and is a product of the same creative team.

Gameplay

Gory Games is co-hosted by comedian Dave Lamb and Rattus Rattus, the rat puppet who also "hosts" the parent series. The show revolves around "horrible facts". Gameplay involves three child contestants (called "Horrible Historians") trying to obtain "Year Spheres" by completing either a historically-themed physical challenge or a quiz. Each Year Sphere contains a year which is either A.D. or B.C.. If it is A.D., the year is added to the player's score at the end of the show; if B.C., it is subtracted from it. The player with the highest overall score after three rounds is the winner.

The games are divided into six categories: "Brainy", "Messy", "Scary", "Silly", "Gory" and "Death" (hosted by Death himself). Quiz questions manifest as either multiple-choice or true-or-false questions and may be asked either by Dave, Rattus, a live-action or animated character from that period, or—in Series 3—Death. "Prop questions" are also asked.

Similarly to its parent series, the games are grouped under randomly selected historical eras or civilizations based on Terry Deary's original books. To date the eras used in Gory Games are:

• Awful Egyptians
• Rotten Romans
• Measly Middle Ages
• Terrible Tudors
• Vile Victorians
• Vicious Vikings (Series 1–4)
• Groovy Greeks (Series 4 onwards)
• Savage Stone Age (Series 4 onwards)
• Slimy Stuarts (Series 3–4)
• Nasty Knights (Series 3)
• Putrid Pirates (Series 1–2)
• Gorgeous Georgians (Series 1–2)
• Frightful First World War (Series 2–3) (Note: This category was part of the Gory Grid in series 1, but it was never chosen in any of the rounds)
• Awesome USA (Series 5)
• Incredible Incas (Series 5)

As from series 3, at the end of the show, the two runners up ended up having to go home through the Time Sewer which was a slide leading to a tank of thick brown gunge. The kids were barefoot when they got gunged.

Cast members from the parent show make frequent cameo appearances as the historical questioners, as does Horrible Histories author Terry Deary.

Year Sphere Dates

• 2.5 Million B.C. - Man begins to use tools
• 1.5 Million B.C. - Man discovers fire
• 1 Million B.C. - Man arrives in Britain
• 150,000 B.C. - Neanderthals make the first cave paintings
• 110,000 B.C. - Neanderthals came to Britain
• 16,000 B.C. - Man creates pots and bowls
• 10,500 B.C. - The end of the last Ice Age
• 10,000 B.C. - Man domesticates dogs
• 9,000 B.C. - Man started using bow and arrow
• 8,000 B.C. - Woolly Mammoths became extinct
• 3150 B.C. - The start of Ancient Egypt
• 2532 B.C. - The Great Sphinx was completed
• 2184 B.C. - The death of Pepi II
• 1213 B.C. - The death of Ramesses II
• 776 B.C. - The first Ancient Olympics
• 753 B.C. - Rome is founded
• 490 B.C. - The Battle of Marathon
• 449 B.C. - The Battle of Salamis
• 405 B.C. - The Peloponnesian War ended
• 305 B.C. - Alexander the Great conquers Egypt
• 264 B.C. - The first Roman Gladiator games
• 60 B.C. - Boudica rebels against the Romans
• 30 B.C. - The death of Queen Cleopatra
• 37 A.D. - Caligula becomes Emperor of Rome
• 64 A.D. - Great Fire of Rome
• 78 A.D. - The Romans conquer Whales
• 79 A.D. - The destruction of Pompeii and the Roman Colosseum opened
• 122 A.D. - Hadrian's Wall began to be built
• 476 A.D. - The fall of the Roman Empire
• 793 A.D. - Vikings attack the Lindisfarne Monastery
• 978 A.D. -Æthelred the Unready becomes the King of England
• 991 A.D. - Vikings win the Battle of Maldon
• 1042 A.D. - Edward the Confessor becomes King of England
• 1086 A.D. - The Doomsday Book is completed
• 1135 A.D. - The death of King Henry I of England
• 1199 A.D. - The death of Richard the Lionheart
• 1305 A.D. - The execution of William Wallace
• 1337 A.D. - The beginning of the Hundred Years' War
• 1348 A.D. - The Black Death hits Europe
• 1415 A.D. - The Battle of Agincourt
• 1438 A.D. - The Incan Empire begins
• 1453 A.D. - The end of the Hundred Years' War
• 1455 A.D. - The War of the Roses begins
• 1485 A.D. - King Richard III dies in battle
• 1492 A.D. - Christopher Columbus discovers America
• 1533 A.D. - Henry the VIII marries Anne Boleyn & the Incan Empire falls to Spain
• 1542 A.D. - Mary, Queen of Scots becomes Queen of Scotland
• 1587 A.D. - Mary, Queen of Scots gets executed
• 1588 A.D. - The Spanish Armada destroyed
• 1603 A.D. - The death of Queen Elizabeth I
• 1607 A.D. - Jamestown Colony is founded
• 1665 A.D. - The Plague of London starts
• 1666 A.D. - The Great Fire of London
• 1702 A.D. - The death of King William III
• 1776 A.D. - The signing of The Declaration of Independence
• 1788 A.D. - The first European settlement in Australia
• 1792 A.D. - Gas lighting is invented
• 1805 A.D. - The Battle of Trafalgar
• 1815 A.D. - The Battle of Waterloo
• 1840 A.D. - Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert & the Penny Black stamp gets used for the first time
• 1851 A.D. - The Great Exhibition
• 1852 A.D. - London's first public flushing toilet opened
• 1854 A.D. - The Crimean War begins
• 1867 A.D. - Antiseptic is invented
• 1901 A.D. - Queen Victoria died
• 1914 A.D. - The beginning of World War I
• 1918 A.D. - The end of World War I
• 1945 A.D. - The end of World War II

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Series 5

Awards and nominations

In 2013, the show was nominated for a Children's BAFTA award in the category of Entertainment.