Former actor, drama lecturer and theatre director Terry Deary has cornered the market in making history very entertaining by making it very horrible.

Whilst other mortals may have thought of Miserable Maths or Forgettable Physics, Deary combines a deceptive amount of research, a fair degree of wit and – in these stage versions of his massive selling books – an eye for seat-shaking 3D “boggle vision.”

It’s one thing kids being told just how horrible our ancestors were and seeing silhouette decapitations, quite another to have cannon balls seemingly hurtling towards them in the stalls and circle.

With the alliteration of a poet in the Terrible Tudors, we hear about the “horrendous Henries,” “evil Elizabeth,” “executing enemies” and are asked to decide whether 1485 – year of the battle of Bosworth and founding of the Tudors – was “terrible or tasteful.”

Why were witches so badly done to and how come Henry VIII couldn’t settle on a spouse?

Director Neal Foster makes sure his cast of four work their socks off with a byte sized view of history which makes the Reduced Shakespeare Company seem like verbose slackers.

Academics may flinch at a singalong analysing the merits of divorce, beheading and death but if it makes youngsters take their historical medicine with a smile on their face, who’s grumbling?

l The Terrible Tudors and Vile Victorians alternate until Saturday. Robin Duke