Can't comment of the cork farming program but I have to say that the first series mentioned
Instruments of Death is strangely compelling. It's the sort of program which I would normally avoid and yet by homing in on the gruesome realities of battle without pulling any punches it does much to make real the past which can quite often be sanitised.
The bleakness of the Battle of Towton, for example, was fully explored as was the sheer horror and terror involved in the rout and massacre which followed. And the primitive but well-meaning surgery of the day had to be seen to be believed. Quarterizing a wound was re-enacted on the carcass of a pig. As the flesh sizzled the presenter said - "well it smells quite good" as though a rasher of bacon had been placed under a grill.
And if that wasn't enuff then the program on the Battle of Hastings was even more shocking. The battlefield surgeons had to break a shoulder bone of the casualty in order to fully extract an arrow head. This involved smashing the bone with the back of a Dane axe and then further cutting open the wound in order to gain access. "This guy must certainly have passed out by now with the pain!" exclaimed Karl in sympathy with the dead pig. And just as the viewers thought that it couldn't get any worse we were then told (and shown) how the holes for the stitches had to be made before the needles thread could be passed thru them. All the while a nausea inducing soundtrack was played in the background.
Quite a program.
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