Synopsis
Looking at the skeletons from 2023's Leicester Cathedral excavation, the burials become source material for a groundbreaking scientific study that brings scientists, archaeologists and historians together to investigate how the arrival of a new product, tobacco, changed the health of the nation for the worse.
- Programme: Digging for Britain
- Series: 12
- Episode: 2: Dinosaur Highway and Roman Sauna
- Channel: BBC Two
- Broadcast year: 2025
- History
Licence: ERA Licence required
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Digging for Britain
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a...
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a...
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a...
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
S12E01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery | Timeshift
The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a...
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...
More resources about Early Modern Britain
4: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain
4: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain
Peter and Dan Snow take a look at the battles that shaped our nation. Drake's unlikely sea victory against the...
5: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain
5: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain
Peter and Dan Snow take an in-depth look at the battles that shaped our nation using state-of-the-art graphics. They go back to...
1: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World
1: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World
Elizabeth I pacified a divided nation, and foiled multiple plots against her. English culture flourished under her reign, and ...
S2E1: The British Wars | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
S2E1: The British Wars | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama looks beyond the romantic stories of Cavaliers and Roundheads to the real story of the English Civ...
Charles I: Downfall of a King
Charles I: Downfall of a King
Following a Catholic uprising in Ireland, in which thousands of Protestants are killed, Parliament passes a vote of no confidence in Charles I'...
What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England
What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England
Dan Snow discusses the foundations of what caused the Spanish Armada.
6: Mary, Queen of Scots | Historyonics
6: Mary, Queen of Scots | Historyonics
Nick Knowles asks whether Mary, Queen of Scots, one of history's most famous monarchs, was a manipulator or a martyr.
The Great Plague
The Great Plague
The Great Plague of 1665 killed 100,000 Londoners - one in three of the people living in the city. While kept diaries have provided terrifying testaments to...
S10E3: Witchfinder General | Secret History
S10E3: Witchfinder General | Secret History
Documentary account, drawn from court records and testimonies, of how Matthew Hopkins and John Stern convicted hundreds of men, w...
A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley
A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley
Recreating festivities from Henry VIII's era, Lucy Worsley dresses, eats, drinks, sings and parties like it is 500 years ago - disc...
07: Charles I | Landmarks
07: Charles I | Landmarks
This programme looks at the life of Charles I.
1: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
1: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
Dr. Ian Mortimer undertakes a present-tense journey through the world of Queen Elizabeth the First. This...
3: Brave New World | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
3: Brave New World | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
Dr Ian Mortimer takes viewers on a journey through this golden age of English history. He explores a new s...
4: Cromwell | Great Britons (2002)
4: Cromwell | Great Britons (2002)
Monarchist and military historian Richard Holmes proposes Oliver Cromwell, the reluctant republican and revolutionary who helped establish...
Battle of Naseby | War Walks
Battle of Naseby | War Walks
Richard Holmes visits Britain's historical sites. He travels to Naseby, where, in 1645, King Charles I lost the decisive battle of the English C...
Elizabeth I's Secret Agents
Elizabeth I's Secret Agents
A look at the world's first secret service. When the pope declares Queen Elizabeth I a heretic, spymaster William Cecil must stop the Catholic as...
S1E7: The Body of the Queen | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
S1E7: The Body of the Queen | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama examines the long, tangled relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary, Queen ...
Fireships | Armada: 12 Days to Save England
Fireships | Armada: 12 Days to Save England
Dan Snow explores the English use of fireships against the Spanish Armada.
S2E2: Revolutions | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
S2E2: Revolutions | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Featuring the revolutionary period in Britain after the execution of Charles I, from Cromwell's iron rule to Charles...
01: Act One: At Court | Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls
01: Act One: At Court | Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls
Lucy Worsley explores the lives of Charles II's mistresses at the royal court, inc...
More from Alice Roberts
S10E3: Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold | Digging for Britain
S10E3: Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold | Digging for Britain
A gatehouse riddled with Civil War bullets, a unique Iron Age shield made from bark and Roman burials with ...
The perfect human? | Can science make me perfect? With Alice Roberts
The perfect human? | Can science make me perfect? With Alice Roberts
What evolution has provided us with is a human body that works as a whole package: you can't replace ind...
Episode 1 | Britain's Biggest Dig
Episode 1 | Britain's Biggest Dig
In advance of the construction of HS2, the biggest ever cemetery excavation in Britain reveals the forgotten stories of rich and poor in Ge...
The Day the Dinosaurs Died
The Day the Dinosaurs Died
Ben Garrod and Alice Roberts investigate the greatest vanishing act in the history of our planet - the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 mi...
Episode 1 | The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver
Episode 1 | The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver
The first part looks at the origins of the ancient civilisation in the Alps of central Eu...
Meat and protein | Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You?
Meat and protein | Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You?
A woman's brain pattern is examined with regards to hunger and cravings before and after consuming a pr...
The Roman domination of the known world | A Timewatch Guide
The Roman domination of the known world | A Timewatch Guide
Using years of BBC history archive film, Alice Roberts investigates how the domination of the Romans has been rep...
Is Your Brain Male or Female? | Horizon
Is Your Brain Male or Female? | Horizon
Dr Michael Mosley and Professor Alice Roberts investigate whether male and female brains really are wired differently.
Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice
Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice
Professor Alice Roberts on the natural history of the woolly mammoth, revealing adaptations that helped the species evolve from their or...
S2E5: The Ear, Nose and Throat | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young
S2E5: The Ear, Nose and Throat | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young
Dr Alice Roberts gets an insight into what it is like to be deaf with specially designed headphones, and e...