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Learning while you larf
PETER MASON has a whale of a time watching this inventive and irreverent take on our history

Horrible Histories, Barmy Britain, Part 4
Apollo Theatre
London W1
 

Even at this early stage in the summer holidays there'll be many parents gratefully grabbing the boredom-busting lifeline of another Horrible Histories stage show for their kids.

Although tickets are hardly dirt cheap for this Apollo Theatre morning show (£20-£25 for most seats), they're not prohibitively expensive, either — especially for a West End venue — and for 70 minutes of delightfully distracting pleasure they certainly provide good value for money.

As always with the consistently excellent Horrible Histories brand there's a liberal helping of child-friendly bottom and fart jokes in this newly devised romp through the murkier regions of British life and times, from the death of the first Christian martyr, St Alban, through to a musical examination of the travails of Victorian night soil workers.

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