Mike Loades is a British writer, television presenter, director, and military

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Career

As a television presenter/host he is best known for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

series' '' Time Commanders'' (2003-2005) and '' Weapons That Made Britain'' (2004) for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, ''Medieval Tournament: Making of a Knight'' (2003) for

and

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, '' Weapon Masters'' (2007) for Discovery Networks, and ''Going Medieval'' (2012) for H2. Loades appears regularly in television history documentaries as a military historian/historical weapons specialist. He also works as a director for television and as a historical consultant for the video games industry. Additionally he works as a fight choreographer/action arranger, who specializes in historical combat. Loades has had several books published on arms and armour topics in addition to one about the history of dogs. He provided commentary about the

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, also called the Varus Disaster or Varian Disaster () by Ancient Rome, Roman historians, was a major battle fought between an alliance of Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire between September 8 and 11, 9&nbs ...

in a short documentary for the videogame '' Total War: Rome 2'' in addition to directing other short documentaries for the franchise - ''The Throwing War'' and ''Legionary Kit.'' While referring to ''

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is a historical fiction, historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil (game engine), Anvil and its m ...

'', which he had worked as a consultant to '' Black Flag'', he said that he was "blown away" by the work that was put in by the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

to make their work more historically authentic. For Age of Empires IV, he wrote and directed nineteen short films that were embedded in the game as mini-documentaries titled Hands-On-History

Filmography

Loades has directed on related history in several television drama/documentary specials, including: *''How the Silk Road Made the World'' (2019, NHNZ) *''USS Constellation - Battling For Freedom'', Indigo Films for

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

2007 *''The Hunt For Lincoln's Assassin'', Indigo Films for

National Geographic channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

2006 *''The Plot to Kill

Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, Bank robbery, bank and Train robbery, train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie (Missouri), Little Dixie" area of M ...

'', Indigo Films for

2006 *''The Plot to Kill Reagan'', Indigo Films for

2005 *'' Weapons That Made Britain'' 2004 * Timeline ‘’The Peasants’ Revolt’’ with

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director, producer and screenwriter, whose career spanned five decades. He was identified with the "angry young men" group of British directors and play ...

*'' Meet the Ancestors'' Se4 Ep1 ‘’The killing field’’ 2001 * ''Crusades'' with Terry Jones 1995 *''Archery - Its History and Forms'', Running Wolf Productions 1995 (video) *''Blow by Blow Guide to Swordfighting'', Running Wolf Productions 1991 (video)

Bibliography

* ''Swords and Swordsmen'' 2010

Pen and Sword Books Pen and Sword Books, also stylised as Pen & Sword, is a British publisher which specialises in printing and distributing books in both hardback and softback on military history, militaria and other niche subjects, primarily focused on the Unit ...

* ''The Longbow'' 2013

Osprey Publishing Osprey Publishing is a British publishing company specializing in military history formerly based in Oxford. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company p ...

* ''The Composite Bow'' 2016

* ''The Crossbow'' 2017

* ''War Bows'' 2019

* ''DOGS: Working Origins and Traditional Tasks'' 2020, White Owl Books * ''The Worldwide History of Warfare (contributing author)'' 2009 Abe Books * ''Masters of the Steppe (contributing author)'' 2017

References

External links

* Mike Loades Television Director *
Going Medieval at history.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loades, Mike British military writers British television directors English television presenters Living people British historians Year of birth missing (living people)