Digging for Britain.S12E04.Roman Crime and Ancient DNA (2025)

Alice heads to the north of Britain to explore the region's most fascinating archaeological digs.

She first heads to County Durham to join archaeologists digging at the spectacular Auckland Palace, one of the best-preserved bishops' palaces in Europe, for evidence of what happened here during Oliver Cromwell’s brief Commonwealth.

In the small town of Millom on the west coast of Cumbria, a community dig is taking place, bringing together volunteers from across the local community in search of their town’s history. It has turned up the biggest haul of medieval pottery ever discovered in Cumbria.

In Castleford, near the banks of the River Aire, Alice meets archaeologists working on the site of a new housing development who have uncovered a previously unknown Roman settlement.

In the parish of Kilmadock, in Scotland, an internationally significant Pictish stone was discovered five years ago, and expert stone conservators are now attempting to lift this ancient and fragile monument from beneath the ground.

Finally, a site in Cheshire that Digging for Britain first visited in 2018 sees DNA analysis work being done to reveal secrets that have remained hidden in a 13th-century graveyard for centuries.