Digging For Britain is a British television series focused on last and current year archaeology. The series is made by 360 Production (now Rare TV) for the BBC and is presented by Alice Roberts.[2][3] It was first aired on 19 August 2010.
The series focuses on archaeological excavations and research in the United Kingdom, both at new sites and those already well known to science. Filming has taken place in many parts of the country.
Its 12th series, containing six episodes, was broadcast in January 2025 (starting on 7 of that month).[4] Roberts shared information about upcoming series on her Facebook page starting from 7 June 2024.
Production
The first series consisted of four episodes, initially broadcast on BBC Two in August and September 2010. A second series of four episodes was broadcast in September 2011. Each episodes of first two series had covered archaeology of specific period. The programme returned as a series of three episodes on BBC Four in February 2015, covering the previous summer's investigations in specific geographical region of the United Kingdom in each episode. Each episode of this series was hosted in a regional museum. The same format as in series 3 was adopted for series 4 and 5, which first aired in March and December 2016, respectively. There was also a programme Digging for Ireland linked to the series[5] which had the same format and presenters as series 5; it was broadcast in February 2015. A sixth series of the programme began airing in November 2017, returning to the four-episode format (covering three geographical regions plus one special theme). This structure was retained for series 7 and 8, which aired in November 2018 and 2019 respectively. Four episodes titled The Greatest Discoveries aired in 2020. It returned for its 9th series in January 2022.[6]
Sudbury Roman lantern (commentary by Caroline McDonald)
Revaluation of 1912 dig near Hambleden called Yewden (original finder miss Janet Glassbrook,[13] original excavator Alfred Heneage Cocks, researcher Jill Eyers, commentary by Brett Thorn)
Yewden infant bones (rediscoverers Jill Eyers and Brett Thorn, analysis Simon Mays)
1st/2nd century Roman burial and potential Iron Age village excavated during the construction of the East Kent Access Road on the Isle of Thanet (director of the excavation Andrew Fitzpatrick)
Iron Age excavation near Bere Regis (co-directors of the excavation Paul Cheetham and Miles Russel)
Frome Roman coins hoard[14](finder Dave Crisp, conservator Pippa Pearce, roman coins experts Roger Bland and Sam Moorhead)
Anglo-Saxon fortress remains at Bamburgh Castle (director of the excavation Graeme Young)
Anglo-Saxon village excavation at Lanton Quarry (director of the excavation Clive Waddington)
Saxon graves excavated during the construction of the East Kent Access Road on the Isle of Thanet
Conservation of objects found at The Meads Anglo-Saxon cemetery carried out by volunteers at Conservation Science Investigations: Sittingbourne (conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown, commentary by Andrew Richardson)
Anglo-Saxon cemetery excavation at Sutton Hoo commissioned in 2000 by the National Trust (commentary by Chris Fern)
Anglo-Saxon nunnery at Berkeley Castle (co-directors of the excavation Stuart Prior and Mark Horton)
Rooswijk shipwreck (director of the dives Martijn Manders)
Barnham site[2] dating to the Hoxnian Interglacial with Clactonian flint tool industry and potential evidence of 400,000 years old fire use (co-directors of the excavation Nick Ashton and Simon Parfitt)
HMS Invincible (co-directors of the excavation Dan Pascoe and Dave Parham)
Barton Farm Hessian camp (director of the excavation Paul McCulluch)
Breechess of George II (commentary by Tom Mayberry)
Wessex Archaeology examination of skeletons exhumed from a 19th century paupers' graveyard at the site of London's New Covent Garden Market (osteologist Kirsten Dinwiddy, reporting by Raksha Dave)
Excavation of a bathhouse near the Silchester Roman Town (director of the excavation Mike Fulford)
Remains of medieval village near Chichester examined in Portslade-by-Sea (archaeologist Garrett Sheehan, archaeobotanists Stacey Adams and Angela Vitolo, finds specialist Isa Benedetti-Whitton, reporting by Raksha Dave)
Great Whelnetham Roman slave cemetery (director of the excavation Kerrie Bull)
Mapledurwell Treasure hoard of silver coins deposited in the early years of the English Civil War (finder Darcy Fear, conservator Duygu Camurcuoglu senior conservator Pippa Pearce)
Ffynnon Beuno Cave early modern human tools (director of the excavation Rob Dinnis)
Anglo-Saxon minster near Berkeley Castle (co-directors of the excavation Mark Horton and Stuart Prior)
Bronze Age burial mound at Barrow Clump, Salisbury Plain (director of the excavation Richard Osgood, post excavation project manager Phil Andrews, reporting Naoise Mac Sweeney, senior osteoarchaeologist Kirsten Egging Dinwiddy)
Tudor era human remains in the coastal cliff near Monknash (director of the excavation Jacqui Mulville)
Downpatrick's Victorian work house cemetery (osteoarchaeologist Bethany Johnson, director of the excavation Chris Lynn, reporting by Naoise Mac Sweeney)
Village that stood from medieval time to 19th century near Creswell Crags (director of the excavation Kevin Kuykendall)
Anglo-Saxon cemetery near Scremby (director of the excavation Hugh Willmott)
Viking hall at Skaill Farmstead, Rousay, Orkney (director of the excavation Daniel Lee)
Celtic roundhouse with Roman influence Swaledale (director of the excavation Philip Bastow)
Excavation of Abbey of Poulton cemetery (director of the excavation Kevin Cootes, osteoarchaeologist Rea Carlin, reporting by Naoise Mac Sweeney)
Recovery of Fairey Barracuda bomber near Gosport (commentary by Simon Aday-Davies, David Morris and Ben Saunders)
Windermere Boys village at Calgarth Estate, Troutbeck Bridge (director of the excavation Kevin Colls)
Remains of barracks of Easy Company near Aldbourne (director of the excavation Richard Osgood)
Reconstruction and conservation of the Barracuda (project lead David Morris, engineer William Gibbs, reporting by Naoise Mac Sweeney)
Excavation of the V-2 rocket near Marden (directors of the excavation Colin and Sean Welch)
Remains of D-Day landings rehearsal known as Operation Tiger on Slapton Sands (finder Ken Small, commentary of the Dean Small, surveyor Graham Scott, reporting by Naoise Mac Sweeney)
Excavation of the remains of P-38 Lightning of Second Lieutenant Milo Rundall near Castleblayney in County Monaghan (director of the excavation Jonny McNee)
Rutland Roman villa with an Iliad Mosaic on the Triclinium floor discovered in a crop field near Stamford (finder Jim Irvine, director of the excavation John Thomas, painter of the mosaic David Neal)
7th century Anglo-Saxon burial site in Deal, only 350m northeast of the Mill Hill Anglo-Saxon cemetery (director of the excavation Tim Allan, conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown)
Guthlac's Hermitage near Crowland (director of the excavation Hugh Willmott)
Vitae Sancti Guthlaci (historian Philippa Hosking, reporting Onyeka Nubia)
Rutland roman grave (in charge of the dig team Jennifer Browning)
Rutland roman building (in charge of the dig Jeremy Taylor)
Roman settlement near Mendip Hills (Archaeology Clerk of Works Mike Glyde, director of the excavation of the Oxford Archaeology team Bob McIntosh, county archaeologist Cat Lodge)
Dating of Cerne Abbas Giant (commentary by Mike Allen and Martin Papworth, luminescence expert Phillip Toms)
Child burials near Whitesands Bay (director of the excavation Ken Murphy)
Whitesands Bay children skeletons analysis (analysis by Kate ?, reporting by Cat Jarman)
7th century burials at Salisbury Plain (director of the excavation Richard Osgood, osteoarchaeologist Jackie McKinley)
Excavation of remnants of Bristol Beaufort AW271 near Ballykelly (director of the excavation Johnny McNee)
Finds from the time of Industrial Revolution under the car park Packer Street, Rochdale (director of the excavation Graham Mottershead, additional informations archaeologist Ashley Brogan)
Famine road near Enniskillen (co-directors of the excavation Eileen and Colm Murphy, additional information Catherine Scott)
Recovery of the timber from a ship probably from Tudor period near Dungeness (director of the excavation Andrea Hamel, additional informations Ben Saunders)
Dendrochronology analysis of timber from Dungeness (dendrochrologist Robert Howard, reporting Cat Jarman)
Photogrametry of the ship timber from Dungeness (Andrea Hamel Antony Firth)
Buildings of the mint in the Tower of London (curator Alfred Hawkins)
Reconstruction of impure Henry VIII coinage (historic coin making expert Dave Grinnell, reporting Stuart Prior)
17th century European ceramics from Plymouth(director of the excavation Martin Reed)
Probably Friary of Saint Saviour in Haverfordwest (director of the excavation Fran Murphy)
Neolithic settlement near Derry (director of the excavation Katy McMonagle)
3
"Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold"
Not listed
Denis Minihan
Theo Williams
22 January 2023 (2023-01-22)
N/A
Sites and archaeology featured:
HS2 excavation of gatehouse remains on the site of Elizabethan Coleshill Manor, Warwickshire (director of the excavation Stuart Pierson, find specialist Lorraine Mepham, Civil War expert Bob Clarke)
What happened in Coleshill Manor (expert of the Civil War Andrew Hopper, reporting Onyeka Nubia)
Harpole Treasure (lead conservator Liz Barham, additional information Riva Boutylkova)
Roman marching camp in Roche, Cornwall, UK's westernmost Roman camp found to date (director of the excavation Sean Taylor)
Large concentration of Iron Age grain storage pits in Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire dating to the 1st century BC (director of the excavation Jamie Williams)
Mysterious sinkhole in East Kennett surrounded in the 4th century with sarsen stones by Romans, possibly as a religious feature (director of the excavation Josh Pollard)
5
"Roman Mosaics and Ancient Weapons"
Not listed
Not listed
Not listed
5 February 2023 (2023-02-05)
N/A
Sites and archaeology featured:
Rutland Roman villa complex of buildings (director of the excavation John Thomas, commentary by Jennifer Browning, later in the tent painter of the mosaic David Neal)
Mesolithic finds on ancient island near Scarborough (co-directors of the excavation Nick Overton, Amy Gray Jones and Barry Taylor)
12th century account about the shrine of Saint Cuthbert (expert Richard Gameson, reporting Onyeka Nubia)
Narrowing down speculations about who built roman bath house in Carlisle, Emperor Septimius Severus (commentary by Frank Giecco)
Abandoned Anglo-Saxon village near East Heslerton linked by tephra deposits to the eruption of Icelandic volcano Askja during the Late Antique Little Ice Age (director of the excavation Dominic Powlesland, project lead Nicky Milner)
Analysis of sediment samples from East Hestlerton in search of tephra (expert Simon Blockley, reporting Cat Jarman)
Norman bailey earthworks in the woods of Lowther Castle dating to the Norman conquest of Cumbria (director of the excavation Jim Morris, historian Sophie Ambler)
2
"Anglo-Saxon Gold and Rebellious Nuns"
Not listed
TBA
Dominic Ozanne
3 January 2024 (2024-01-03)
N/A
Central England
Sites and archaeology featured:
Late Roman rural site at RAF Alconbury airbase with a large number of pottery and household objects, that were deliberately buried as suspected votive offerings during a time of crisis (director of the excavation Chris Thatcher, project officer Paddy Lambert)
7th-century Anglo-Saxon grave site near New Alresford potentially marking a transition from paganism to Christianity, with the dead laid facing West as in the Christian custom, but still having limited number of grave goods, like knives or a rare gold pendant (director of the excavation Paul McCulloch, find specialist Marit Gamlster)
Excavation of the ruined 12th-century Ankerwycke Priory of Benedictine nuns, showing that the surface walls are not a later folly, but remains of a refectory (director of the excavation James Brown, assistant archaeologist Harry Farmer)
Ankerwycke nunnery visitation account (librarian Nicholas Bennett, reporting Onyeka Nubia)
Restoration of the Old Black Lion pub in Northampton, first documented as a coaching inn early in the 18th century, has uncovered remains of bread ovens from a suspected earlier bakery on the site (director of the excavation Derek Roberts)
Dig outside Leicester Cathedral uncovers a Roman sunken room with painted wall plaster fragments and a portable altar, possibly a late 3rd-century private shrine (director of the excavation Matthew Morris)
3
"A Norman Panic Room and a Mesolithic Fish Trap"
Not listed
TBA
Dominic Ozanne
4 January 2024 (2024-01-04)
N/A
Western Britain
Sites and archaeology featured:
Excavations inside the Decorated Gothic ruins of Tintern Abbey, prior to their conservation, uncover post-dissolution burials of two children in an unusual high-status area outside the abbey east wall, and a shallow grave next to the southern entrance holding a crouched woman with a congenital facial deformation, testifying to the continued use of the site even after it was deconsecrated and stripped for materials (director of the excavation Richard Lewis, osteologists Ciara O'Brien Butler and Richard Madgwick)
Mesolithic footprints and 7,000-year-old stakes from a V-shaped fish trap are recorded on the Severn Estuary intertidal mudflats near Goldcliff, after they are uncovered by storms and before being lost to continued erosion (leader of the expedition Martin Bell)
Digs near the Norman Fonmon Castle reveal a rare early medieval cemetery settlement dating to the 6th-7th century. The cemetery is enclosed by a ditched bank and shows signs of secular activity, like blacksmith slag or pottery shreds and charred animal bones from feasting, all taking place among the burials, a practice similar to sites of the same period in Ireland (director of the excavation Andy Seaman)
Community dig in Siston finds stone foundations of an early medieval site with good metal preservation of stirrups, arrowheads and buckles due to the alkaline soil. The site was originally surrounded by a circular bank and so could have started as a monastic settlement, but later transitioned to a farmstead (directors of the excavation Zillah and David Savage, call-in expert Stuart Prior)
Recreation of medieval arrowhead (smith Hector Cole, reporting Stuart Prior)
An Iron Age banjo enclosure dating back 2,200 years, uncovered during work on the A417 road 5 miles south of Cheltenham, yields one central crouched burial, animal bones and pottery shards pointing to feasting, but no signs of occupation (director of the excavation Jim Keyte, later in the tent osteoarchaeologist Sharon Clough)
4
"A Roman Mystery and Waterloo’s Disappearing Dead"
Early medieval burials in the Lincolnshire Wolds, Lincolnshire (osteoarchaeologist Jacqueline McKinley, osteologist Ceri Boston)
Warham Camp Iron Age hillfort (director of the excavation Andrew Hutcheson, additional informations Matthew Brudenell)
Roman dodecahedron and pottery from Norton Disney (director of the excavation Richard Parker, later in the tent Lorena Hitchens)
Ruins of the Tudor Elsyng Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall manor house in Enfield, North London (archaeologist John Pinchbeck, director of the excavation Martin Dearne)
Building records of Elsyng Palace (reporting Onyeka Nubia)
Search dig for a mass burial site in the grounds of Hougoumont farm near Waterloo, Belgium (project lead Stuart Eve, additional information Tony Pollard)
5
"3000-Year-Old Shoes and Giant Axeheads"
Not listed
TBA
Dominic Ozanne
10 January 2024 (2024-01-10)
N/A
Southern England
Sites and archaeology featured:
North Kent Marshes madlock leather objects (finder Steve Tomlinson, analysis Dana Goodburn-Brown)
Stone roundhouse in Iron Age promontory fort, Caerfai Bay near St Davids (director of the excavation Stephanie Duensing Jodie Hannis)
"Oldest house" of Cardiff from Bronze Age (director of the excavation Oliver Davis, later in the tent conservator Leonie McKenzie)
Modern remains and medieval roots of the Imber deserted village (director of the excavation Richard Osgood)
Series 12 (2025)
No. in season
Title
Directed by
Producer(s)
Series Producer
Original release date
UK viewers (millions)
1
"Saxon Gold and Buried Coins"
Unknown
Terry Black & Louise Ord
Dominic Ozanne
7 January 2025 (2025-01-07)
N/A
East of Britain
Sites and archaeology featured:
Anglo-Saxon burial ground south of the Canterbury (director of the excavation Duncan Sayer, site supervisor Jemma Sweeney, conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown, archaeologist Andrew Richardson)
Discovery of the Sizewell C Coin Hoard in Leiston, a lead package with 321 silver coins from the 11th century, believed to have been buried fearing regime change after the coronation of Edward the Confessor in 1042. The site was excavated before the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station (leader of post excavation analysis Jo Caruth, conservator Pieta Greaves, coin expert Alexander Bliss)
Excavation of boundary ditches around the Norton Disney Roman Villa uncovered a military horse burial dating to the 1st century, potentially linking the foundation of the villa to forts in nearby Ixworth, set up at the same time in the Iceni territory as a response to the Boudican revolt (director of the excavation Kevin MacDonald, archaeologist Murray Andrews)
Conservation of the Anglo-Saxon sword and post conservation objects from Canterbury (conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown, commentary by Duncan Sayer)
Roman period cemetery with sarcophagus from the vicinity of Peterborough (conservator Morgan Creed, osteologist Don Walker, later in the tent senior finds officer Sara Machin)
Middle Jurassic Ardley Dinosaur Trackways found in the Ardley/Dewars Farm Quarry near Bicester (finder Gary Johnson, lead palentologist Richard Butler, palentologist Kirsty Edgar)
Warkton Roman Villa in the field near Kettering (co-director of the excavation David Errickson and Chris Chinnock)
Iron Age settlements on A428 near St. Neots (project managers Simon Markus and Paige Savage)
Tobacco use research on the bodies from early modern period found near Leister Cathedral (project lead Sarah Inskip)
Roman period archeology on the Chester House estate in Irchester (site supervisor Jeremy Taylor, archaeological curator Ben Donnelly-Symes, osteoarchaeologist Dale Ohman)
3
"Island Treasures"
Unknown
TBA
Dominic Ozanne
9 January 2025 (2025-01-09)
N/A
Islands
Sites and archaeology featured:
Neolithic tomb on the Orkney Islands (co-directors of the excavation Vicki Cummings and Hugo Anderson-Whymark)
WWI shipwreck of USS Jacob Jones, first US destroyer sunk by enemy action (lead diver Dom Robinson)
History of sinking of the Jacob Jones (reporting Yasmin Khan)
Lifting, conservation and return to the USA of the bell from Jacob Jones (commentary by Harriet Rushton, conservator Thomas Wicks)
Neanderthals tools at vicinity of the Seymour tower 2 miles from the coast of the Island of Jersey (lead archaeologist Matt Pope, later in the tent Olga Finch)
Excavation at Kame of Isbister on the Shetland Island (co-directors of the excavation Charlotta Hillerdal and Gordon Noble)
Foundations of Arthur Haselrig's mansion in Bishop Auckland (curator of the archaeology John Castling, dig leader Chris Gerrard)
Community dig in Millom started because of 6 axe-heads from Bronze Age (finders of the axe-heads Josh and Stephen Carr, director of the excavation Dan Elsworth, axe-head expert Dot Boughton)
Roman coin moulds, dated to 260 AD and used to counterfeit money, were found in Ackton Meadows, which would have been on the outskirts of the Roman fort Lagentium, modern-day Castleford (finder Tim ?, director of the excavation David Williams, coin expert Murray Andrews)
Replication of the fakery of roman coins (expert Dana Goodburn-Brown, reporting Stuart Prior)
The lifting and conservation of the Pictish Old Kilmadock Stone, dated to between the 6th and 8th century, and first excavated and reburied in Old Kilmadock Cemetery in 2022 (director of the excavation Murray Cook, archaeologist Kelly Kilpatrick, lead conservator Graciela Ainsworth)
Ancient DNA from medieval cemetery at Poulten (director of the excavation Kevin Coots, geneticists Tom Booth and Pontus Skoglund, in the lab of the Francis Crick Institute geneticist Frankie Tate)
5
"Chariots and Slaves"
Unknown
Terry Black & Louise Ord
Dominic Ozanne
15 January 2025 (2025-01-15)
N/A
West
Sites and archaeology featured:
Roman villa and possibly temple at Grove (site director Francesca Giarelli, project manager Louis Stafford)
Bridle parts found in RAF Valley in Wales (director of the excavation Richard Osgood, later in the tent Adam Gwilt and Adelle Bricking)
Hunt for the remains of Bangor Illtyd or "Illtyd's college", the oldest college in the United Kingdom and first hub of Celtic Christianity, founded by Saint Illtud in the early 6th century near the town of Llantwit Major (director of the excavation Tim Young, osteoarchaeologist Beth Price)
Findings of global trading from 17th century in Ilfracombe (director of the excavation Sean O'Regan, find manager Naomi Payne)
Global trading from 17th century commentary (historian Layla Chambers, reporting Yasmin Khan)
Roman period building near Cheltenham at A417 (director of the excavation Alex Thomson, archaeologist Dan ?)
Industrial revolution mill in Bristol (director of the excavation Chris Hambleton, project officer Vix Hughes)
Killerton during Civil War (expert Mark Stoyle, reporting Yasmin Khan)
Roman period cemetery which included bed burial London (archaeologists Alex Blanks and Michael Marshall)
Romani compound in Thorney Hill (director of the excavation John Henry Phillips)
Excavations in the Arne RSPB reserve, prior to the expansion of the salt water marshland, uncovered 17,000 fragments of Black-burnished ware pottery, marking a site of Roman mass manufacture of this local pottery (co-directors of the excavation Phil Trim and Greg Chuter)
Reconstruction of the Black-burnished ware (master potter Bill Crumbleholme, archaeologist Phil Trim, reporting Stuart Prior)
New excavation at Burrow Island also known as Rat Island (director of the excavation Richard Osgood, forensic archaeologist David Erickson)
