As far as TV is concerned I still get asked if I am doing any more Meet the Ancestors but, despite there being some great stories out there, this series is long gone. For the last few years there have been frequent repeats on UK TV History but these seem to have dried up recently.
More recent programmes include:
Secrets of Hadrian's Wall for Timewatch on BBC2. This was filmed in 2006 and originally shown in 2007. It was repeated in summer 2008 to co-incide with the major Hadrian exhibition at the British Museum.
Building Wonders
This was a six part series made by Available Light Productions for ITV West. In it we examined how some of the great icons of the West Country were designed and built. Although some of the icons were a fairly obvious choice (Stonehenge was inevitable), others were more difficult and we ended up with Brunel’s Box Tunnel, Bristol’s floating harbour, the Fosse Way Roman road, Gloucester Cathedral and Concorde.
There was a lot to pack into half an hour but the programmes were helped enormously by great computer animations in which I was shrunk down and the miniature me then walked around in the original plans and diagrams. This meant lots of blue screen filming and was a welcome opportunity for me to be a bit more light-hearted than I had to be when dealing with the more serious subject of ancient burials.
Lindisfarne 793 - a Clash of Cultures
This is a non-broadcast film made with Chris Corden Productions for the Lindisfarne Trust. Its subject is the Viking raid on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) in 793, a raid that ushered in the Viking Age in England. You can see the film in the new exhibition on Lindisfarne that opened in June 2008.
It’s only a Theory
I March 2009 I recorded a contribution to this new BBC4 panel show - to be broadcast in May 2009. The basic idea is that ‘experts’ bring along a ‘theory’ - mine was ‘That the Vikings were a force for good’. This ‘theory’ is then presented to a panel consisting of comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter and in my case the broadcaster Martha Kearney (Radio 4’s ‘World at One’ etc). You’ll just have to watch to see if I made a complete idiot of myself……. |
