Pictures and video: Snows bring battle to life - TV pair enthuse about history of Shrewsbury

Mr Snow senior – fondly remembered for his election swingometer – spent 10 years of his early life in the town.

His father was stationed at Copthorne barracks and his brother, Richard, worked at Shrewsbury Library.

"Shrewsbury is a wonderful town, there is so much history here," said Peter, now 77, following his breakfast at the Premier Inn in Smithfield Road.

It would have been a very different town centre when he lived here, and he retains fond memories of cycling around as a young man and visiting the old houses and castle.

"I want to show Dan where I lived in Meole Brace and where my father worked," he adds.

The Snows are in Shrewsbury for their stage show at Theatre Severn, which promotes their new book, The Battle of Waterloo Experience.

The book is a treasure trove of documents, maps and letters detailing the battle between The Duke of Wellington and Napoleon and the stage presentation is more of the same.

They gave their first show last night, with a second this evening.

And Shrewsbury is an appropriate place for them to be discussing Waterloo – after all, Lord Rowland Hill, whose statue stands opposite Shirehall, was one of the Duke of Wellington's top men at the battle, which was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 and forever changed the course of European history.

It was a bloody affair, too, with more than 150,000 French, British, Dutch and Prussian soldiers fighting over a very small patch of ground.

The battle cost the lives of thousands of men but made legends of Wellington and – in Shropshire at least – Lord Rowland Hill.

Daddy Hill, as he was affectionately known, has a special place in the hearts of Salopians and it seems the Snows carry a torch for him, too.

"Daddy Hill was hugely significant," says Peter. "He was a trusted brigade, division and corps commander under the command of the Duke of Wellington.

"He took the surrender of the Imperial guard. He was a terrific chap and was one of the most popular men. He was popular with his troops and he was a tremendous mate of Wellington himself."

So what are the Snows bringing to the stage with their show?

"We want to give the audience a sense that this was a pivotal point in history, one that changed the world," says Dan, 36.

"If that is what they get from our talk then we have shown them how important the Battle of Waterloo was."

"The battle highlights all the extraordinary features of courage and the bravery of those fighting," adds Peter.

"It is one of the last times in history where people were fighting at such close range.

"The swords, muskets and sabres dictated the range of the battle and the scale of the battlefield was just three miles by two miles.

"Fifty thousand men died or were wounded and there was very little medical treatment. If a soldier got hit by a musket ball there was very little chance of it being removed.

"It was far more likely that the limb would be amputated"

And that's not the only difference in military matters – camouflage had yet to be invented.

Says Peter: "People dressed in extraordinary colour – totally unlike what soldiers wear in modern warfare.

"Waterloo was probably one of the last times that war was fought in such a way.

"Battles were fought in a day with mass killing."

Between shows the pair seem keen to see what Shropshire has to offer, visiting the museums in the Ironbridge Gorge and Shrewsbury Castle.

Dan even tweeted to his 106,000 followers that when he stood on the "red battlements of Shrewsbury Castle gazing at the sweep of the Severn" he was "definitely not fantasising about being Henry V".

Shropshire, it seems, is a special location for the father and son team. "It is one of our favourite places," says Peter.

"We live in a country which wears its history on its sleeve. We have such wonderful castles and battlefields and historic sites in the country it is understandable that we have such a deep love of history.

"Shrewsbury is beautifully placed. There is so much history around here such as Ludlow, Ironbridge, Chester – and the history within the town – that I can see us spending quite some time here."