7: Martin Brown: Horrible Histories

In this episode we meet Martin Brown, the illustrator behind the gruesomely popular history books, famed for 'leaving the nasty bits in'. We'd like to think that Time Team shares some affinity with Horrible Histories, created at a similar time, in bringing the lives of the ordinary people from previous centuries back to life... At the heart of it all is a good story!

So we tracked the lead illustrator of the series, Martin Brown for a chat. The effortlessly charming Aussie shares his thoughts on a wide range of topics including: Time Team's resident artist, Victor Ambrus; the thousands of years of history that surround his home village in Dorset; his fantasy dig site; ensuring historic accuracy in reconstructing the past; finding the funny side of history; and the long tradition of cartoon strips and satire.