Brainiac: History Abuse was an eight part British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 TV programme co-produced by London Weekend Television and Granada Television for broadcast on Sky1. It was a spin-off of the show Brainiac: Science Abuse

Brainiac: Science Abuse

Brainiac: Science Abuse is a British entertainment TV show with a science motif. Numerous experiments are carried out in each show, often to verify whether common conceptions are true or simply to create impressive explosions...

concentrating on historical subjects. The show is presented by Charlotte Hudson

Charlotte Hudson

Charlotte Hudson is a British television presenter. She presents the Sky One television series Brainiac: History Abuse, a spin-off from the award-winning Brainiac: Science Abuse...

 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
  Nigella Lawson
  Nigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. empire...
  
  .
• 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
  Vending machine
  A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....
  
   or a locked car
• Like Brainiac: Science Abuse before it, the show always ends with an item in which a caravan
  Travel trailer
  A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent . It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation, without relying on a motel or hotel, and enables them to stay in places...
  
   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	8 September 2010	8	2	None

Soundtrack

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

• "Toxic" and "...Baby One More Time
  ...Baby One More Time (song)
  "...Baby One More Time" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. It served as Spears' debut single from her debut studio album, ...Baby One More Time . Written by Max Martin and produced by Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, "...Baby One More Time" was released on September 30, 1998,...
  
  " by Britney Spears
  Britney Spears
  Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
  
  
• "Doctor Doctor" by the Thompson Twins
  Thompson Twins
  The Thompson Twins were a British pop group that were formed in April 1977 and disbanded in May 1993. They achieved considerable popularity in the mid 1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States and around the globe. The band was named after the two bumbling detectives...
  
  
• "Stayin' Alive
  Stayin' Alive
  "Stayin' Alive" is a song by the pop group Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees and produced by the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on 13 December 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever...
  
  " by the Bee Gees
  Bee Gees
  The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
  
  
• "Everybody Hurts
  Everybody Hurts
  "Everybody Hurts" is a song by R.E.M., originally released on the band's 1992 album Automatic for the People and was also released as a single in 1993. It peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, #7 on the UK Singles Chart and #3 on the French Singles Chart.-History:Much of the song was written by...
  
  " by R.E.M.
  R.E.M.
  R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
  
  
• "Unbelievable" by EMF
  EMF (band)
  EMF were an indie dance band from the United Kingdom. The band, from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, came to prominence at the beginning of the 1990s. During its initial eight year run , EMF had released three studio albums and had gone on hiatus and reformed twice...
  
  
• "Babies" by Pulp
  Pulp (band)
  Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
  
  
• Theme from Get Carter
  Get Carter
  Get Carter is a 1971 British crime film directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a gangster who sets out to avenge the death of his brother in a series of unrelenting and brutal killings played out against the grim background of derelict urban housing in the city of...
  
  by Roy Budd
  Roy Budd
  Roy Frederick Budd , was a British jazz musician and composer, known for his film scores.Born in Mitcham, Surrey, Budd became interested in music from an early age and had built up a vast musical repertoire by the age of eight...
  
  
• "Hysteria" by Muse
  Muse (band)
  Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...