Morgana Robinson pilots historical sketch show Blast From The Past
- Morgana Robinson is piloting a historical sketch show with the creative team behind Horrible Histories
- Blast From The Past co-stars Youssef Kerkour and Dan Skinner and is narrated by Athena Kugblenu
- Horrible Histories creator Terry Deary describes the show as bringing "the funniest, strangest, most incredible true stories from history, as told by the people who were actually there"
Morgana Robinson is piloting a historical sketch show with the creative team behind Horrible Histories, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Blast From The Past also stars Home and Significant Other's Youssef Kerkour and Dan Skinner, best known for playing Angelos Epithemiou.
A taster has been shot with stand-up Athena Kugblenu narrating and Horrible Histories creator Terry Deary serving as lead story outliner and executive producer. Deary describes the prospective series as bringing "the funniest, strangest, most incredible true stories from history, as told by the people who were actually there".
Writers on the show include Jason Hazeley, Nico Tatarowicz, Jess Bray, Hannah George and Tasha Dhanraj.
The pilot features Robinson as Amelia Earheart, Queen Elizabeth I and Marie Antoinette.
Kerkour portrays Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian architect of pyramids, while Skinner is Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle. Other sketches focus on Pickles, the dog famed for finding the stolen World Cup Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966 and the etiquette of pistol duelling.
Made by Citrus Television, which co-produced Horrible Histories up until series five, and Factory42, Blast From The Past was originally developed for Sky History but is currently being shopped around channels.
Directed by Dominic Brigstocke (Horrible Histories, The Cleaner) and produced by Joshua Grant, whose credits span comedies such as Catastrophe, There She Goes and Horrible Histories, as well as factual programming like Treasures Of The World With Bettany Hughes and Mummy Mysteries, Blast From The Past also features prominent graphics from Tim Varlow and Platform.
The script editor is Giles Pilbrow (Horrible Histories: The Movie) and the executive producers are Caroline Norris for Citrus and James Hunt for Factory42.
Based on Deary's bestselling book series, Horrible Histories originally ran from five series and six specials on CBBC between 2009 and 2014. Produced by Lion Television with Citrus, it featured a core cast of Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, who subsequently went on to make Yonderland for Sky One and Ghosts for BBC One.
Horrible Histories was revived for CBBC in 2015, with Lion having since produced four more series and three specials, with Jalaal Hartley, Jessica Ransom, Tom Stourton, Gemma Whelan and Richard David-Caine among the regular cast.
Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans was released in 2019, led by Sebastian Croft, Emilia Jones and Craig Roberts, and with a supporting cast that included Kim Cattrall, Derek Jacobi, Nick Frost, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Lee Mack, Alexander Armstrong, Warwick Davis, Chris Addison and the singer Kate Nash as Boudicca.