Digging for Britain

Digging for Britain, a 4×60’ landmark history series presented by Dr Alice Roberts is, according to executive producer John Farren, “an archaeology series that shows everything that archaeologists do – the science, the conservation, the research.”

Says Farren: “With this series, we bring viewers the best of archaeology, in all its guises, from around Britain including iconic sites that they may have encountered before and also lots of new ones that are just getting underway.”

Filming of the show hit the headlines when archaeologists attached to the production investigated a mass burial of 97 infants at a Roman villa in Buckinghamshire and came to the conclusion that it may have been located near a brothel. In another episode, the filmmakers documented the excavation of the biggest Roman coin hoard in a single container ever found in Britain – more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd century AD, buried in a field in Somerset.

Other fascinating finds during the shoot included: a Roman Briton buried face down on a bed of meat; Scotland’s oldest goddess; one of history’s most ancient shipwrecks – with a hidden treasure trove; and a dig at Shakespeare’s first theatre where presenter Alice Roberts stands in the newly discovered spot where the world first heard the line ‘O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou, Romeo?’