IF ONLY ALL HISTORY TEACHERS COULD BE LUCY WORSLEY - MARCH 30 - 3.15PM - 2019

Lucy Worsley, 2.00pm, The Sheldonian

In a dazzling bright red and black patterned dress (Q: if Lucy were a man, would you make reference to their attire? A: if it was equally stylish and spot-on, yes) Worsley grabbed the audience’s attention while still looking for their seats (she was in fact up on stage a good 20 minutes BEFORE she was due to talk). Since this was a family audience, what helped enormously for those still cradled in their parents arms was a large, crayoned picture of her (it turns out it really was a self-portrait, aged somewhere between six and eleven) on screen announcing in crayoned scribble ‘Hello! I’m Lucy Worsley’. As Darcey Bussell before, this was another sell-out event and just as similarly was preceded by that ‘buzz’. And not once did she falter. Indeed, this was a tour-de-force of personality, presentation and intelligence, laced through with an irrepressible wit, and even a cheeky curtsy to begin. Her first question to the audience “What do historians do all day?” was masterfully answered by a five-to-seven year old who said: “Go on tv shows”. After that, it just got better. Indeed, ‘live’ she sparked with all the voltage of a successful stand-up minus the heckling and spilled lager. A superbly interactive 60 minutes of dressing up, over-eager acting, and huge, beaming smiles (a little like the charm of a nativity but without the baby to drop) I was so enjoying the theatrics and quips that I clean forgot the history lesson I was supposed to be learning - although I do know Anne Boleyn was in it...