Introduction

I'm sure there have been times on the job when nothing seemed to go right, when the day-in/day-out monotony of overbearing bosses, insipid tasks, and gossiping co-workers had taken its toll, times when you were quite sure that yours had to be the worst job in history. But you'd be wrong - that is, of course, unless your name is Tony Robinson.

In his 2004 hit BBC television series, The Worst Jobs In History, Tony Robinson (aka: Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder), set about the task of finding the REAL worst jobs in history. Each week Tony looked at some of the most unenviable jobs of the last two thousand years, investigating the history of British employment from the time of the Roman invasion to the reign of Queen Victoria and the Industrial Revolution.  

Tony's challenge in the series was to seek out the worst jobs of each era, boldly going where no historian had gone before, researching and re-enacting some of the most horrible jobs of the past two thousand years. After trying out each job, he would proclaim the one he thought was the worst at the end of each program. 

On these pages we will look at the worst of the worst from each era as well as the job that Tony ultimately declared as the worst job of all times.  So grab your Wellies and slog along as we explore the worst of the Worst Jobs In History…