Snow fun for Dan as he spends a day with the commandos

"Beaten up, frozen and run ragged.”

That’s how TV presenter and historian Dan Snow described a day with the men of Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines as he learned about the birth of the commandos in the Scottish Highlands.

Dan joined the green berets to film an upcoming feature for the popular magazine programme The One Show – and the marines obliged by giving him an insight into their gruelling training regime.

The segment for the show will focus on Achnacarry Castle, near Spean Bridge, the spiritual home of the commandos – and the ancestral home of the Clan Cameron.

Between 1942 and 1945 the castle and environs served as the Commando Training Depot where the elite forces not just of the UK, but also USA, Free French, Poles, Czechs, and other foes of Nazism underwent rigorous training which culminated in a live-fire ‘opposed landing’ on nearby Loch Lochy.

Seven decades on and Dan didn’t have to undergo that... but the Royal Marines did indeed have the “tender welcome” for him that he’d feared.

The team from FPGRM – who provide protection for Britain’s ultimate weapon as well as the specialist boarding teams at the forefront of the nation’s fight against piracy, smuggling and terrorism on the high seas – put Dan through his paces, kitting him out with uniform, webbing and rifle, so that he could get a taste of wartime commando training.

He ran a speed march, received (well, was on the receiving end of...) close-combat instruction and undertook a river crossing.

When possible, he conducted interviews – and posted exasperated tweets on social network site Twitter as he became increasingly exhausted, such as suggesting that the Royals might have weighed his uniform down with mercury...

At the day’s end he tweeted:

“I just waded across a river. In the snow. I have been beaten up, frozen and run ragged. Her Majesty’s Royal Marines have defeated me.”

Dan’s feature is due to be broadcast on The One Show on BBC1 in early April.