Sword, Musket and Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History

Sam receives a lesson in swordsmanship from the earliest combat manual as he gets to grips with the swords, shields and lances that dominated the battlefield a thousand years ago. Sam finds out what the Bayeux Tapestry reveals about the brutal reality of combat.

Sam charts the impact of gunpowder on the battlefield, from the first cannons to early handheld weapons, and finds out what it's like to fire an English Civil War musket.

Dr Sam Willis concludes his history of the weapons that have shaped Britain by looking at the drive to develop ever more precise weapons on the battlefield, from artillery shells to rifles to the Maxim machine gun.