Brainiac: History Abuse

Brainiac: History Abuse
Genre	Entertainment
Presented by	Charlotte Hudson
Starring	Stephen Wisdom Regina Cotter
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s)	Granada Productions
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	Sky1
Picture format	16:9
Original release	1 June 2005 – 20 July 2005
Chronology
Related shows	Brainiac: Science Abuse Brainiac's Test Tube Baby

Brainiac: History Abuse was a British entertainment documentary show that aired on Sky1 from 1 June to 20 July 2005. It was a spin-off of the show Brainiac: Science Abuse concentrating on historical subjects. The show is presented by Charlotte Hudson with additional input from Stephen Wisdom as "Ernest Clough, History Buff", and Regina Cotter as Shell in the Kitchen cooking traditional medieval delicacies.

The series wasn't as popular as its scientific counterpart, and was axed after one series. However, it is repeated on Sky3.

Regular features include:

• "Men In Steel" and "Knight Fever" - highlighting modern-day activities you can do (with varying degrees of difficulty) while wearing a suit of armour.
• Shell's Kitchen - medieval (and to most modern tastes, unpalatable) recipes, presented in a parody of the style of Nigella Lawson.
• Ancient Hist-O-Wee - historical uses for urine
• Historical medicinal remedies
• Ancient Vege-Battles: historical battles illustrated using fruit and vegetables
• The Brainiac Battering Ram Squad "fixing" an everyday problem with unnecessary force, such as opening a vending machine or a locked car
• Like Brainiac: Science Abuse before it, the show always ends with an item in which a caravan gets blown up. In deference to the theme, they use a "historical" explosive for an everyday task (e.g. a WW2 depth charge to unblock a toilet).
• Torture instruments were shown and demonstrated with fruit

Releases

Australian Release

Season	Date Released	# Of Episodes	# Of Discs	Special Features
Complete Series [1]	8 September 2010	8	2	None

Soundtrack

Certain pieces of music are used repeatedly during the series, including:

• "Toxic" and "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears
• "Doctor Doctor" by the Thompson Twins
• "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees
• "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.
• "Unbelievable" by EMF
• "Babies" by Pulp
• Theme from Get Carter by Roy Budd
• "Hysteria" by Muse

References

1. http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/814452

External links

• Brainiac: History Abuse at the Internet Movie Database