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Battlefield Britain is a 2004 BBC television documentary series about famous battles in British history. The 8 part series covers battles from Boudicca’s rebellion against the Romans in 60AD to the Battle of Britain in 1940 it also covers the impact and implications the battles had on the future of the British isles. The series is presented by father and son team Peter and Dan Snow. Peter explains the battle plans, topography of the battleground and the actions of the generals while Dan visits the sites to give the real-life perspective of the servicemen on the ground.

The episodes also feature re-enactments of key phases of the battles, a computer-generated bird’s-eye view of the battleground to show the topography and troop movements.

Review: Battlefield Britain could be a very useful – as well as a very enjoyable – book. A recent survey of schoolchildren asked who this country had fought in the Second World War – many answered ‘Russia’. In the light of this ignorance of history (not confined to schoolchildren!), someone like Peter Snow (not to mention his very able son and co-author) is more and more valuable: he is one of the great educators and conveyors of information, but always in a highly accessible fashion. This book (accompanying a fascinating TV series) takes the reader on a remarkable historical journey, demonstrating quite what a bloody and war-torn past this country can lay claim to. From violent foreign invasions to massive internal strife (both political and religious), the landscape of Great Britain is a chequerboard of struggle.

The father and son team describes eight key battles that virtually forged the country we live in today; for instance, the battle with the Roman Empire by the doughty Boudicca (remember when she was called Bodicea?) in AD 60, the Battle of Hastings (the one date in British history that everyone knows!) and the fight with Spanish Armada in 1588 are vividly recreated with the aid of handsome colour plates, artefacts and drawings. Snows use of the ‘swingometer’ on TV to measure political upheavals may be much mocked, but that sense of playfulness (combined with totally authoritative knowledge) serves well here, and the result is a million miles away from the stultifying history lessons most of us sat through in dusty classrooms. Battlefield Britain is history brought to life, in the most evocative fashion. —Barry Forshaw