Meet the Ancestors

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.