Skip to content

Meet the Ancestors

Season 3

2000 · 7 episodes

  1. 1. Princess of the City

    2000-01-13 · 30m

    Richards investigates the significance of the archaeological dig at Spitalfields where experts have uncovered an elaborate Roman sarcophagus with a decorated lead coffin inside, and remnants of clothing and objects never before found in Britain.

  2. 2. The French Connection

    2000-01-20 · 30m

    Richards investigates the lives of three men whose remains were found on an island just off the coast of Guernsey to find out how they ended up in such a desolate place, and whether they could have been monks.

  3. 3. The Domesday Fire

    2000-01-27 · 30m

    Richards examines the remains of a medieval execution victim discovered in one of 600 graves surrounding a ruined Saxon church in Cambridgeshire.

  4. 4. The Chosen One

    2000-02-03 · 30m

    Richards investigates the seemingly bound body of an Iron Age teenage girl found in a rubbish heap in the Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water to reconstruct her life more than 2,500 years ago.

  5. 5. A Roman Plot

    2000-02-10 · 30m

    Richards explores the stories behind two Roman burial sites excavated in the centre of Bath. He attempts to discover why the deceased were laid to rest contrary to normal Roman custom with one actually placed in a lead coffin and he retraces events from the time when Christianity was gradually taking root in Britain to the final days of Roman rule.

  6. 6. The Lost Souls

    2000-02-17 · 30m

    Richards recruits local schoolchildren to investigate a mysterious burial ground found among the foundations of the Victorian village school in Buckinghamshire. The project provides a revealing insight into the history of the area and the people who lived there 1,000 years ago.

  7. 7. Skeleton in the Crypt: The Pilgrim Trade

    2000-10-07 · 30m

    Professor John Butler investigates the mysterious disappearance of the remains of murdered Archbishop of Canterbury St Thomas Becket, killed by Henry II's soldiers in 1170. How much truth is there in the popular belief that he was cremated and his ashes scattered during the Reformation? Plus, an examination of the town of Canterbury itself as a place of pilgrimage and tourism.

Track it episode by episode

Rate films and shows on two axes — quality and fun — and share taste with friends.