Jill & Fred’s Most Hysterical Historical Adventure

Overview

Plot Summary

Meet Jill and Fred: social media-savvy besties, gadget-addicts and online influencers! Their army of dedicated followers hang on their every video post, to find out what’s hot and what’s not!
Song – Hashtag # Living Our Best Life

So, Jill’s grandparents have a problem. After years spent together as keen historians and archaeologists, visiting sites and collecting artefacts from every historical period you can think of, they now run a local museum. Their dream is, through this museum, to pass on their love of History to the younger generations, to spark their imaginations and keep the past alive. Unfortunately, visitor numbers are dwindling. These days, it seems that fewer people are interested in the past; everyone’s just into shiny new things that flash and beep, the next bit of technology or gadget that’s going to light up their life. Unless they can find a way to inspire and enthuse people with a passion for History, it looks like their museum will have to close!
Song – Fall In Love With History

At a loss, the grandparents turn to Jill and Fred for help, hoping they can ‘influence’ their thousands of followers to come to the museum. But with little passion for History themselves, Jill and Fred fail to get any response from their initial half-hearted attempts to promote the museum online. When they jokingly ‘ask Alexa’ for some ideas, they miraculously discover, by simply saying ‘please’ to her, that she comes to life, promising to make their wishes come true! Who’d have thought it! Song – Alexa’s Song

Alexa takes control of the situation, telling Jill and Fred that she will take them back to key periods in History, where they can capture real-life video footage of the lives of the people they encounter! With this footage they can create dynamic and entertaining posts for their online followers to watch, showing them just how fascinating and, more importantly, how cool History is, and persuade them to visit the museum! And so, with more magic and trickery, their journey into the past begins!

Their first stop is a Victorian school classroom in 1838, five years after the Factory Act and a year into Queen Victoria’s reign. Jill and Fred witness the comical antics of a teacher trying to control a class of children who wonder if their hazardous jobs cleaning chimneys and working in the cotton mills are less taxing than trying to get an education! Song – Victorian Kids

Next, it’s off to Ancient Egypt, where the time-travellers find themselves at the mummification ceremony of the great Pharaoh Cheops! The high priest is training four apprentices in the gory mummification process, with hilarious results! Song – Mummified

Jill and Fred then arrive in Jorvik, in the year 933, where a Viking focus-group is meeting to discuss ways they can change their public image! How can their reputation for being violent, pillaging marauders be altered? With difficulty, it would seem! Song – When You’re A Viking

In the court of Elizabeth 1st, a ghostly visitation by her mother, Anne Boleyn, sheds some light on the real reason why the queen has decided to stay single, despite her glorious achievements and the advances of some very eligible suitors! Song – Gloriana

Jill and Fred’s final destination is the trenches at Ypres, on Christmas Day, 1914. In a poignant scene we learn how a short-lived truce and a football match highlighted the futility of war, and immortalised the lives of so many. Song – Me And The Boys

Armed with the most awe-inspiring content for the coolest ever History lesson, have Jill and Fred done enough to save the museum? Well, the final uplifting song will certainly help, showing us all that we truly stand on the shoulders of giants and should be eternally thankful for the sacrifices, ingenuity and sheer dogged determination of The Ones Who Went Before.