In Ben Wheatley’s 2013 historical drama A Field in England viewers are dropped into the middle of a battlefield in 17th-century England, without any explanation of where this field is, who is fighting whom, who the characters are and how they relate to each other. While more information about the characters is disclosed - as well as plenty of blood and guts - as the action unfolds, many of these questions remain unanswered by the end of the film.

How successful was Ben Wheatley’s experiment in historical film-making? And despite its lack of contextual material, are there still things that the film can tell us about life in 17th-century England?

In this episode we ask Dr Tim Somers, post-doctoral fellow at Newcastle University, to answer these questions.