"The blue water, smitten by many oars, might be seen foaming far and wide" wrote a medieval monk who watched a Viking fleet set sail. Above: Detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the ...

Gildas, a British monk, (circa 504-570 AD) wrote that the Angles and Saxons received a great setback at Mount Badon, possibly somewhere in south west Britain, where they were defeated by the Britons.

By keeping the Viking ships away with an atomic cannon, this is precisely what the Monk hopes to achieve. Peter Butterworth was already a well-established actor at the time that he was offered the ...