Digging For Britain

Professor Alice Roberts explores major discoveries from western Britain: a high-status Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the Cotswolds, the search for the lost cloister at Shaftesbury Abbey, Neanderthal caves in Wales, Beaker-period burials on Salisbury Plain, long-running digs at Berkeley Castle, and a dramatic cliff-side rescue of medieval human remains on the Welsh coast.

Exploring northern Britain, Alice Roberts investigates ruins tied to Lady Jane Grey, a Victorian workhouse graveyard linked to the Great Famine, and protective witch marks at Creswell Crags. Near Lincoln, an Anglo-Saxon grave reveals a rare Roman bowl, while on Rousay teams search for a lost Viking longhouse and traces of centuries of settlement.

Alice Roberts explores southern Britain as a lobster discovery reveals a submerged Neolithic settlement off the Isle of Wight. In Dorset, an Iron Age crouched burial emerges, while London excavations uncover an Elizabethan playhouse. Teams revisit a Roman mosaic site and join Operation Nightingale near Portsmouth, where prison graves expose stories of conflict and recovery.

In this special, the team hunts archaeology from WWII, raising a rare Fairey Barracuda from the waters of the Solent, where experts piece together the lost dive-bomber. At Lake Windermere, digs reveal Holocaust survivor children rebuilding their lives. In Wiltshire, archaeologists trace Easy Company before D-Day, while coastal dives uncover evidence of secret wartime rehearsals.