Welcome, welcome, welcome to episode 279 of the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip! One for the history heads and non-history heads alike right here as Pip sits down with Horrible Histories own (and more!), GREG JENNER!

“We’re basically trying to inspire a love for history…”

Name a more iconic public historian… I’ll wait…

…couldn’t resist, sorry! I mean he most certainly is a fully realised public historian (not, as autocorrect would have it, a ‘pubic’ historian), but so much more besides as you are about to find out in this very episode. It’s another one of those ‘long time coming’ episodes too, where Pip’s been lining everything up so the going’s good but with the forthcoming Horrible Histories film out on Friday 26th, the timing seems perfect! So of course this episode has a GOOD amount of chat about the film itself including cast, tone, all of that goodness you would expect, he and Pip also get down to business on being ‘edutaining’ on Twitter, being behind the scenes in the writers room, said ‘public historian’ status, developing a new genre known as ‘factual sketch comedy’, how history and entertainment don’t have to be mutually exclusive, smuggling in history through references and humour, relatable parallels in history to modern celebrity and also the cult of celebrity and ‘parasocial interractions’ (very much a part of social media), his ‘Dead Famous’ book, the speedy pool of knowledge that is Twitter, being a historical advisor, how historical drama can either be a comfort or a contrast to current times, and of course - Taboo! Super great, and definitely something to spark, rekindle or further fuel a love of history you surely have…