A History of Ancient Britain

10.0

2011•1h

Neil Oliver tells the epic story of how Britain and its people came to be over thousands of years of ancient history—the beginnings of our world forged in ice, stone, and bronze

Production

Seasons

4 Episodes • Premiered 2011

1. Age of Ice

Neil Oliver travels back to ice age Britain as he begins the epic story of the evolution of the land and its occupants over thousands of years of ancient history. In this episode he describes a struggle for survival in a brutal world of climate change and environmental catastrophe.

2. Age of Ancestors

Neil Oliver continues the story of how today's Britain and its people were forged over thousands of years of ancient history. It's 4,000 BC and the first farmers arrive from Europe, with seismic consequences for the local hunter-gatherers.

3. Age of Cosmology

Neil Oliver continues his journey through the world of Ancient Britain as he encounters an age of cosmological priests and some of the greatest monuments of the Stone Age, including Stonehenge itself. This is a time of elite travellers, who were inventing the very idea of Heaven itself.

4. Age of Bronze

Neil Oliver continues his epic tour of Britain's most distant past with the arrival of metals and the social revolution that ushered in a new age of social mobility, international trade, and village life.