West End production Barmy Britain will celebrate its fifth year on the stage with a special performance, ‘The Best of Barmy Britain’, at the Apollo Theatre from August 5 to September 9.

As part of Barmy Britain, Neal Foster from the Birmingham Stage Company will appear as Henry VIII in a one-off production of the Terrible Tudors at Hampton Court Palace, from May 26 to June 2.

Neal writes the Horrible Histories stage adaptation alongside their author, Terry Deary.

He says: "I’ve always loved history, as a company we’ve always done theatre for children and families, and I thought Terry’s writing style would work really well on stage.

"Barmy Britain is basically Monty Python meets History.

"Funnily enough I met Michael Palin on the tube last year; I told him I owe him a lot, because I was such a huge fan of Monty Python when I was young.

"He was delighted and asked for royalties, so it was a costly journey!’’

Neal cherishes the unique opportunity to perform in a place like Hampton Court Palace.

He says: "It’s amazing because it all happened here, there’s just so much history.

"When Anne Boleyn was having her head chopped off, Henry was here having a game of tennis, and you can go and look at those actual tennis courts.

"To experience the palace is great fun. Buildings quite often give you a lot of information about the people you’re playing; because you can place yourself in exactly the same location and get the vibe.’’

On the experience of playing Henry, Neal says: "He’s quite a good character to play because you don’t have to be very nice!

"It’s quite interesting wearing the costume actually, as you do get a real sense of status when you wear it.

"What’s funny is that people seem to react to me the same way you imagine people reacted to Henry, they stop, they move aside, and they stop speaking because of your presence.

"You can see how that costume worked for him, it’s like a puffed up gorilla! It makes you huge, and very impressive.’’

Horrible Histories is the longest running children’s show in West End History.

"It’s toured all over the world, and audiences everywhere all love it equally,’’ says Neal.

On why Horrible Histories has been so enduringly popular among children, Neal says: "It works because it has the key ingredients, it’s rude, disgusting, naughty, silly, playful, frightening; it’s Horrible!’’