The BEST episodes of Digging for Britain
Every episode of Digging for Britain ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Digging for Britain!
Dr Alice Roberts follows a year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations of the length of the country.
#1 - North
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/28/2018
Professor Alice Roberts celebrates the biggest and best archaeological discoveries of 2018 from the north of the UK. Each digging team has been filming its own excavations, giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens. Alice begins the programme with a prehistoric Pompeii at the Black Loch of Myrton. Uncovering incredibly preserved 2500-year-old houses, archaeologists are stepping back in time and glimpsing what life was really like in an Iron Age village. We follow archaeologists uncovering a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire full of spectacular and unusual grave goods. We go on the hunt for a lost Second World War reconnaissance Spitfire in Norway and piece together the story of its brave pilot. Deep in the vaults at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, we explore one of its greatest treasures, the Westness Brooch. We also head to the island of Rousay in Orkney, where archaeologists rescue a Neolithic tomb before it gets washed away and discover an incredible trace of our ancestors on a rare Pictish stone. In Salford, a major regeneration project is unearthing the largest jail in Georgian England and its radical approach to crime and punishment. Roving archaeologist, Raksha Dave gets privileged access behind the scenes in the conservation labs at Vindolanda Roman fort and discovers what really happens when the digging stops.
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#2 - East
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/20/2016
This episode looks at the east of Britain. Finds include: new revelations from 'Britain's Pompeii' - the 3,000-year-old perfectly preserved village in Cambridgeshire - including how our Bronze Age ancestors designed their homes, and their kitchens packed with food and equipment; the theatre where Shakespeare premiered Romeo and Juliet and Henry V, complete with sound effect props and evidence that Shakespeare's original audience was much rowdier than you might expect; evidence that we may have finally found the location of the Battle of Barnet, the famous Wars of the Roses site where Edward IV defeated Warwick the Kingmaker in a bloody battle that would eventually bring the Tudor dynasty to England's throne.
#3 - Ice and Stone
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/30/2011
In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of our elusive Stone Age ancestors. Along the way she visits the Channel island of Jersey where she meets a team of archaeologists hoping to shed new light on the much-maligned Neanderthals, and embarks on a kayak survey of the coastline looking for undiscovered sites hidden in the cliffs. At the Natural history museum Alice comes face to face with the dark side of our Ice Age ancestors lives - she sees evidence of cannibalism and the ritual use of human skulls. And she meets a team who are hoping to unlock the secrets of Stonehenge, not on Salisbury plain, but in the remote Preseli Hills of Wales.
#4 - Anglo-Saxons
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/2/2010
The Anglo-Saxons - they divided our land and heralded the arrival of the Dark Ages. But were they really just barbarians? Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through a year of archaeology, visiting the key sites that are throwing light on this most mysterious of periods. She visits the royal seat of power at Bamburgh, Northumbria and sees how the skeletons tell tales of violent death, but also of tenderness. There's a remarkable community project in a shopping centre in Sittingbourne where people are curating the grave goods of their own ancestors. And there are treasures that make her wonder just how dark the Dark Ages really were.
#5 - North
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/24/2016
Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the north of Britain. A team discovers clues to Scotland's first kingdoms, metal detectorists unearth a hoard of Viking treasure, and a new housing development reveals a graveyard of Iron Age warriors.
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#6 - The Tudors
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/10/2010
In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of the Tudor age, a time that saw momentous changes across all aspects of British life. Along the way, Alice visits excavations at Shakespeare's first theatre in London's Shoreditch, where the Bard began his career and Romeo and Juliet was first performed. Alice also joins a team sifting through Shakespeare's rubbish at his last home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and finds revealing clues about his carefulness with money. In a remote corner of Wales, Alice meets a team of archaeologists uncovering the brutal realities of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, a conflict that would change the very fabric of Britain. On the muddy banks of the Thames, Alice discovers the rich history of a forgotten royal palace, which was home to the Tudor kings and queens. And she learns about a mysterious Tudor shipwreck which dates from this age of exploration and trade.
#7 - East
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/17/2016
Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the east of Britain. A team unearths a mass grave, divers search the Thames for clues to a 17th-century tragedy, and a metal detectorist makes the find of a lifetime.
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#10 - Britannia
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/9/2011
Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing and sometimes disturbing. This episode concentrates on Roman Britannia, where finds include the thickening mystery of 97 baby skeletons found by the Thames, a newly discovered town in rural Devon that turns history on its head, and a Roman cult figure buried for 1700 years beneath a fort.
#11 - Invaders
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/2011
In this week's episode, Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Viking Age in Britain and visits excavations that are revealing a different side to these seafaring pirates from Scandinavia. She looks for signs of the earliest Viking settlers in the Outer Hebrides, and in Orkney - where Viking dominance outlasted anywhere else in Britain - she visits the excavation of a Viking chief's citadel and finds evidence of their way-of-life. There's an extraordinary collection of silver and gold that demonstrates the furthest reaches of the Vikings' trading empire and excavations in York - famously the capital of Viking England. This episode also includes a fresh look at some of our most celebrated Viking finds, such as the fantastic Lewis Chessmen, which are currently the subject of major new research.
#14 - The Horsemen of Hadrian's Wall
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/13/2017
In this special, Professor Alice Roberts reveals the forgotten story of the Roman Army's secret weapon in Britain - their cavalry. These fearsome horsemen were the key to defending Britain's most famous Roman monument fortification, Hadrian's Wall. Alice sets off across Hadrian's Wall to investigate any evidence the Roman cavalry left behind, while a team of archaeologists and historical re-enactors attempt to re-stage a Roman cavalry tournament - a spectacle that no one has seen for over 1,600 years. We follow the team's training as they prepare for the performance, and Alice joins them at a public display in Carlisle where 30 riders perform in front of a crowd of spectators. To put the cavalry's story in context, the film also explores the latest archaeological digs happening across the UK, each of which is searching for new evidence of the Roman cavalry. On her journey across Hadrian's Wall, Alice visits some of the most iconic sites associated with the Roman cavalry, including Chester's Roman fort, Vindolanda fort and museum and Hexham Abbey. Along the way she builds a picture of the horsemen's lives here on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.
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#15 - North
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/13/2016
This episode is from the north of Britain, where finds include: evidence for the first Roman siege in Britain, including the biggest cache of Roman bullets discovered anywhere; Britain's most famous monastery - Lindisfarne - rediscovered for the first time since it was violently sacked by the Vikings 1,000 years ago; and the incredible discovery of the ancient Scottish man-made islands that entirely rewrite our understanding of Stone Age tech.
#16 - Age of Bronze and Iron
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/2011
Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Ages of Bronze and Iron to discover what kind of a place Britain was before the Romans invaded. With no written history, only archaeology can provide the clues. Alice uncovers a world that is complex, sophisticated and pretty strange. She examines the two Hebridean Bronze Age skeletons known as the Cladh Hallan mummies. Not only do they appear to have been mummified, new analysis has revealed they are made up of a jigsaw of different people. What did our ancestors use the mummies for? And are there more British mummies out there? In Norfolk, Alice gets her hands dirty helping to pull up timber from a huge prehistoric monument that has been hidden in mud for at least 2,000 years. And she visits the famous Roman town of Silchester, near Reading, where archaeologists are digging below the Roman layers to reveal the Iron Age settlement that lies beneath, uncovering evidence for a sophisticated pre-Roman lifestyle. Alice also examines the evidence that suggests Silchester could be the place where two British chiefs took a stand against the Romans.
#19 - Iron Age Revealed
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/19/2018
Alice Roberts follows the excavation of Iron Age Britain’s most spectacular grave. A team of archaeologists in East Yorkshire have uncovered the remains of only the third upright chariot burial ever found in Britain, and the only chariot burial ever found in this country with the chariot harnessed to two standing ponies. This sensational find is the lead dig for the Digging for Britain Iron Age special.
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#21 - West
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/10/2016
Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present the year's most outstanding archaeology. During the summer, archaeologists have been unearthing our history in hundreds of digs across Britain. They've gone to extraordinary lengths to uncover long-lost treasures, retelling our story in a way only archaeology can. With unique access to some of the countries best digs, our teams have been self-shooting their excavations to make sure the audience is there for every moment of discovery. This episode heads to the west of Britain, while archaeologists join us back in the Salisbury Museum to look at the new finds and what they mean. Marden Henge: The communal sweat lodges and feasting remains that illuminate the lost rituals of Stonehenge. Durotriges: A glimpse into the bizarre animal sacrifice rituals offered to their gods by a mysterious Celtric tribe of the first century BC. Trellech: An enormous lost Welch city is discovered seven centuries after it disappeared from historical record. Kent's Cavern: A team swap trowels for pneumatic drills in a search for the hidden entrance of the site where Britain's earliest human remains have been found. Jersey: Archaeologists are fighting against mother nature to find the evidence of a Stone Age hunter-gather campsite. Staffordshire Hoard: Conservators painstakingly reassemble the elaborate weaponry of the Anglo-Saxon warriors we didn't know existed.
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#22 - North
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/17/2015
Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present 2014's most outstanding archaeology from the north of Britain. Sitting in the heart of the Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, the Ness of Brodgar houses a 5,000-year-old temple at the heart of a sacred landscape, built out of stone over hundreds of years. We catch the unearthing of a Roman altar dedicated to Jupiter that was originally carved in the 2nd century, when Maryport was part of the coastal defences linked to Hadrian's Wall. 11,000 years ago Flixton in Yorkshire was an island used by our very earliest ancestors, and it has preserved vital clues about their world and the wild horses they hunted and ate. In Ardnamurchan, a 5,000-year-old cemetery - housing burials from the Bronze and Iron Ages... and an intact Viking boat burial. A Tudor-era aristocrat's feasting hall is revealed... and how one night the revelry came to a very abrupt end. One of the richest hoards of Pictish treasure ever found reveals the metalworking secrets of the mysterious tribes who ruled Dark Ages Scotland.
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#23 - West
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/22/2017
We discover the camp from which Vikings invaded Britain, and find groundbreaking new evidence that the world-famous Avebury stone circle isn't just a sacred site but a place where our ancestors lived and worked - a discovery that's also changing our understanding of neighbouring Stonehenge. In Staffordshire, the oldest Iron Age gold in Britain is unearthed - a set of beautiful gold torcs, mysteriously abandoned 2,500 years ago.
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#24 - West
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/6/2016
This episode looks at the west of Britain, and archaeologists are in the lab to look at the new finds and what they mean. Finds include: the lost WWI training trenches on Salisbury Plain; Britain's first 'double henge' - discovered just down the road from Stonehenge - where the evidence suggests our ancestors feasted and made sacred offerings as part of a visit to the ritualistic Stonehenge landscape; and luxury foreign goods discovered at Tintagel, the legendary childhood home of King Arthur.
#25 - East
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/12/2018
Professor Alice Roberts explores this year’s most exciting archaeological finds from the East of Britain. Every new discovery was filmed by the archaeologists themselves giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens. In this episode, we join a team in Suffolk as they uncover an ancient lost monument as old as Stonehenge. We travel a little further East than usual to a WWI battlefield in France to explore one of Britain’s earliest and most disastrous tank battles, and then return to Suffolk as archaeologists try to make sense of some disturbing Roman burial practices. Also, one lucky metal detectorist chances upon a coin hoard that gives us insight into the effect the English civil war had on the lives of ordinary people. Our roving archaeologist, Raksha Dave goes behind the scenes at an archaeological lab in Brighton and follows an investigation into a lost medieval village.
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