Roberts and Williams visit a site in Cambridgeshire known as the Pompeii of the Bronze Age to get a unique glimpse of life 3,000 years ago. Elsewhere they find links to two great historical figures: Queen Boudicca, who destroyed the Roman town of Colchester, and the emperor Nero.

At Barrowclump, Ipplepen, and other wonderfully named sites in the west of Britain, Roberts and Williams examine a Bronze Age burial site with dozens of Anglo-Saxon warriors, find out about the lives and deaths of lepers in one of the country’s first hospitals, and visit a dig that is literally pushing the boundaries of Roman Britain.

A dig in Yorkshire reveals why a Tudor-era aristocrat’s feasting hall was so quickly abandoned, while a 5,000-year-old stone temple in the Orkneys keeps its secrets.