Visit Scotland

Bravehearts abound in this stirring Battle of the Bagpipes TV show

Soldiers come from all over the UK to the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh. There’s one subject missing from the sign, presumably to avoid scaring the chanters out of students - Highland dancing. As an instructor says in Battle of the Bagpipes (Sky Arts, Wednesday), the dancing comes as “a bit of a shock” for some. Any Glaswegian of a certain age knows the feeling. One minute dancing means a side to side shuffle in the local disco, the next some PE teacher is shouting “Pas-de-ba” in your lughole and expecting you to dance around two sticks meant to be swords.