Original subtitles

♪ Terrible Tudors, Gorgeous Georgians

♪ Slimy Stuarts, Vile Victorians

♪ Woeful Wars, Ferocious Fights

♪ Dingy Castles, Daring Knights

♪ Horrors that defy description

♪ Cut-throat Celts, Awful Egyptians

♪ Vicious Vikings, Cruel Crime

♪ Punishments from ancient times

♪ Romans, rotten, rank and ruthless

♪ Cavemen, savage, fearsome, toothless

♪ Groovy Greeks, Brainy Sages

♪ Mean and Measly Middle Ages

♪ Gory, ghastly, mean and cruel

♪ Stuff they don't teach you at school

♪ The past is no longer a mystery

♪ Welcome to Horrible Histories. ♪

Horrible Histories presents:

Protesting with Pankhurst Animated special.

When people come together to show they really dislike something

and want to change it, it's called a protest.

I protest! I protest!

And it's been happening since Roman times.

We now go live to the protests breaking out across history.

It's 73 BC, and I'm in Capua, Italy, where,

after years of brutal treatment by their masters,

several slave gladiators decided to take a stand

and escape from captivity armed with..

..kitchen implements.

I've been spatula-d!

Their real weapons were kept locked up to stop them from rebelling.

I am leaking like a... Ugh.

Was he going to say sieve or colander? We'll never know.

And here in Nottingham, 1764,

troops have been called as people protest over the price of cheese.

Cheese? That can't be right.

You don't understand how serious this is.

It's 29 shillings just for a small cheese like this one. Small?

That's not...

They shot my cheese!

Mm. Lovely.

That lick will cost you a shilling. Oh, look, a massive cheese!

And here at Harvard University, 1766,

students have walked out

in protest at the poor quality of butter in the canteen.

Really?

What do we want? A bacon sandwich with fresh butter!

When do we want it? For breakfast!

Let's hope this butter unrest doesn't spread.

Hello. I'm Emmeline Pankhurst. Do excuse me.

I'm just preparing for protest.

Unbelievably, women in Britain

aren't allowed to vote in the early 20th century,

and my group, the suffragettes,

want everyone to know how unhappy we are about it.

I've just got one or two necessities in here.

A brick. A whip.

A heavy chain.

And a small axe.

I'll certainly be getting

some attention for our cause with that lot.

Protesting peacefully really is much better

if you don't want to end up in a lot of trouble.

Of course, we suffragettes aren't the only ones to protest.

Even in your time, people are still campaigning for things

like climate change, and equality all over the world.

Throughout history, whenever people felt the need for change,

they found a way of making their feelings known.

Boycott the buses! Boycott the Bristol buses!

Boycott the Bristol buses! Excuse me, are you in the queue? What?

No, I'm part of the boycott.

Good, because I was here before you, so I should get on the bus first.

I'm not getting on the bus. It's a boycott.

We're asking people to stop using the buses

because a Bristol Omnibus company

refused to hire black or Asian drivers.

Is that right? Did you know, we sent along

a young man who was perfect for the job,

and they wouldn't even interview him because he was black.

That's terrible.

Everyone should have as much chance to get a job as anyone else.

Good luck with it. You have my total support.

Then don't get on the bus.

Sorry, I'm late. The buses are terrible today. Of course they are.

We are boycotting them. Oh, yeah.

It is quite a long way from my house, though.

You should have used your bike.

Good idea. I'll get the bus home and pick it up. No buses!

We're protesting. Oh! How's it been going? Great.

The public are behind us. Well, most of them.

And we've got a load of protesters out, especially at the depot.

Let's go down there. Good idea.

What are you doing? I'm waiting for the...

Boycott the buses!

Wow, that is a lot of people. Yeah. Impressive.

They won't be able to stop us now.

How do you think they all got here?

Don't start.

Oh! Here comes the bus.

We won! Our boycott worked.

Anyone can be a driver or conductor now.

Yay! Woohoo!

Hang on, I live in the other direction!

People have protested about all kinds of things throughout history.

In Georgian times, machines like this one were invented

that could replace workers in factories by doing their jobs.

Some of the workers were furious about this

and set up a secret society called the Luddites

to protest by destroying the machines.

Oopsie!

The Government sent spies

to find out what the Luddites were planning,

but these spies were often a lot posher than the Luddites.

All right, my lovers. Arr! The sheep's laid an egg. Hello, William.

Oh, nope. Nope.

We can't hear you, William.

Shall we get on with discussing our illegal plans, my lovers?

Actually, we're going to have to plot our next attack

at the local textile factory tomorrow. Yes.

I've heard that we've got a government spy in our midst.

Ooh! Arr! Milk the pigs!

Pluck the cows and so on.

I mean, a posh government spy would stand out like a sore thumb.

Thank you, Giles. Who's Giles?

Not my butler, obviously. He's my dad.

Hi, Dad. Shall we get back to discussing your secret plans?

Our - our secret plans.

Burt, is your beard falling off?

Oh, look at that.

Must be the stress of being a Luddite and losing my job

to one of those thread-making machines

like the Spinning Jennifer. Jenny.

Well, I call her Jennifer. We haven't been formally introduced.

Oh, the pain of not knowing if I'll have enough money to keep my castle!

Er, mansion... house... hovel.

Just playing with different backgrounds.

Hear me?

We can hear you now, William.

Right. I know who the spy is. It's...

That was lucky. Unlucky.

I hate machines!

Hello. John Lennon here,

rock and roll superstar, member of the Beatles

and writer of all those songs your granny likes.

I was also a big anti-war protester.

My top tip for protestings is - find somewhere peaceful to do it,

like in your own hotel bed.

REPORTERS: Mr Lennon! Mr Lennon!

Mr Lennon, do you change your pyjamas? Mr Lennon!

Forgot to mention. We needed attention,

so we let loads of reporters come in here every day

to publicise the protest. Mr Lennon, the Montreal Gazette.

Where is Paul? He is my favourite.

To be honest, it's not that peaceful for us.

I'm sorry. Can you clean the room later?

Later? Oh, it don't matter.

Protesting from your own room could save a lot of time,

although it might be problematic

if you're planning on setting fire to things

or throwing bricks, like we did.

CRASH, CAT YELPS

Emmeline? My bad.

In Roman times, the senator Cato the Younger

had a much more civilised way

of protesting against the way Rome was being governed.

He simply talked. Mind you,

he did talk for a very long time.

And again, I must protest.

Even now, Julius Caesar marches towards Rome

with his legions to seize power. Excuse me. Hi. Big fan.

All my friends are like,

"Have you met Cato the Younger yet?" I'm like, "Too nervous."

I'm in the middle of the speech.

No, no, no, and it is fab.

But it has been going on for about 17 hours. Yes.

SNORING NEARBY

I'm protesting by making a very long speech.

If I talk all day,

no-one will be able to pass any laws in favour of Julius Caesar. Sure.

Sure. Would you like to borrow a toga?

And why would I want to do that?

It's just because you're wearing an old one with the dark edges,

and everyone else is wearing a normal one with a red edge.

I just assumed you'd forgotten yours

and they'd made you wear an old one from the lost property box.

I wear this toga as another form of protest.

This is the colour of toga we wore

before this great city was corrupted by Caesar and his like.

Oh. Is the pong a protest, too? No.

But it is a hot day and I insist on vigorous exercise,

like a true Roman should.

Plus, I walk everywhere,

even when I am with friends who are riding.

Hmm. Bet that doesn't get annoying. It's part of my protest.

I'm showing that modern Rome is lazy.

Maybe a couple of drops of perfume, just like the rest of us.

I do not wear modern decadent perfume.

It is in protest at the corruption...

..corruption of modern Rome, we know!

Oh, put a sandal in it. I will not.

Because I don't wear sandals - in protest.

No, no, I respect your protest.

But I'm just going to go pop upwind, if that's all right with you.

Thank you. Now, as I was saying...

Well, at least while he's talking, he's not sitting down.

..and thus concludes my argument.

Why, what happens when he sits?

Whoa!

Toga malfunction.

Close the Fort Gates, Cato, we can see the barbarians.

Hey, folks, I'm John Hancock,

one of the leaders of the American Revolution against British rule

and the man whose signature on the American Declaration of Independence

was so big, people actually now call a signature a John Hancock.

I told our General George Washington

to read the Declaration of Independence out to our troops,

and when he did, they got so fired up,

they tore down a statue of our enemy, the British King George III.

But what did they do with the statue once it had been pulled down?

Did they...

The answer is C, they melted it down to make bullets.

Not great, but we were at war at the time. Back away! Back away?

We'll never retreat.

Retreat!

Well, I hope nobody's thinking of pulling down my statue.

I've only just finished posing for it.

I think we can all agree they've really captured my...

..my chair.

Pulling down statues is something you've seen recently,

with protesters removing old statues

of those connected to the slave trade.

Of course, protesting about racism and civil rights is nothing new.

And few did it better than the civil rights movement in the 1960s,

whose leaders organised a huge march

to call for fairer treatment of black Americans.

Has anyone seen Dr King?

Dr King? Dr King, there you are.

I thought you and other leaders would be at the front.

The march started without us.

We were meeting with politicians, had to run, get a car, traffic bad.

Give me a second.

Could I say that the passion you've shown

campaigning against racism has been an inspiration to me.

Oof! Tree.

How exactly are we protesting today? We are walking.

Where are we walking to? The Lincoln Memorial.

Hang on, that's only about a mile from where we started. Oof!

Street sign, that time.

But still, we're protesting about centuries of racism.

How is a couple of hundred people walking

going to improve the lives of black people?

Hundreds may not make a difference, but look around you.

We are growing by the minute. Wow. There are thousands of people now.

But still, is it really enough to...? Good news, Dr King.

We have reports of 2,000 buses full of supporters

arriving from around the country.

One person even roller-skated 700 miles to be here. Wow.

250,000 people are here for our protest.

Not walking. Marching.

A march on Washington for jobs and freedom.

Wow. So many people.

I hope you've got a speech prepared.

I have a dream that one day

this nation will rise up,

live out the true meaning of its creed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident

"that all men are created equal."

Dr King's speech that day

was one of the most famous and important in history.

It was recognised as the highlight of that day's successful protest,

and has endured as one of the most iconic moments

of the civil rights movement.

And Dr King wasn't the only person to capture the world's attention

fighting for the rights of black people.

Hello. I am Nelson Mandela.

I grew up here in South Africa, where we had apartheid,

a system that separated people

according to the colour of their skin.

I campaigned against it,

and in 1994 became the first black president in South Africa.

So tell me, where did I spent 27 years of my adult life?

The answer is C.

During apartheid, I was locked up for 27 years for protesting.

Oi!

Those rocks won't pointlessly break themselves.

I seem to have forgotten. Can you show me how to break rocks?

Honestly, how many times?

Right. Give it here.

Throughout history, there have been times

when individual people made a huge difference to society,

from Nelson Mandela helping end apartheid

to William Wilberforce campaigning against slavery

to Gandhi, peacefully fighting for Indian independence.

And in 1918, we suffragettes had our success, too,

when the first British women were finally allowed to vote.

Hurrah!

Emmeline! Was that you again? No. It wasn't me.

And we suffragettes weren't the only women

who played their part in the history of protest.

Take it away, ladies.

♪ Who changed the world? Girls. Girls!

♪ Who changed the world? Girls. Girls.

♪ Who are we? Suffragettes. We changed the world

♪ We changed it, changed it

♪ Who am I? Mrs Tubman I changed the world

♪ We changed it, changed it

♪ Who am I? Johanna Ferrour I changed the world

♪ We changed it, changed it

♪ We want to vote just like the men

♪ But will they let us? No, they won't

♪ I want the slaves to all go free but do they free us?

♪ No, they don't

♪ I am Rosa, I'm not moving.

♪ I know what I'm worth

♪ Johanna Ferrour, because I'm poor

♪ Joined the Peasants' Revolt!

♪ I'm protesting, baby Not sitting cos I'm lazy

♪ We started the revolt because we couldn't afford to feed our babies

♪ Men, we're not playing We won't be ladies

♪ We get what we want

♪ Don't need a man to save me

♪ Who changed the world? Girls Girls!

♪ Who are we? What do we want?

♪ To change the world

♪ And help free my people

♪ Who are we? What do we want?

♪ To change the world

♪ Starting a Peasants' Revolution

♪ Who are we?

♪ Yeah, we'll fight

♪ To change the world

♪ Stop my people's persecution

♪ We all want to change the world

♪ Who changed the world? Girls. ♪

At the 1968 Olympics...

At the 1968 Olympics.

At the 1968 Olympics...

SHE LAUGHS

♪ The past is no longer a mystery.

♪ Hope you enjoyed Horrible Histories. ♪