Northamptonshire | Digging for Britain

Duration: 13'18''

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.

Further Information

More clips from Digging for Britain

Archaeology | Digging for Britain

Archaeology | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2026 | 9'57''

Alice Roberts shows how archaeology works and how it can try to solve the mysteries of the past.

S01E01: The Romans | Digging for Britain

S01E01: The Romans | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2010 | 59'00''

Dr Alice Roberts follows a year of British archaeology. Roman finds include a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset and a man ...

S09E03 | Digging for Britain

S09E03 | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2022 | 58'58''

The best archaeology from the north of Britain, including Scotland's oldest railway, one of the best-preserved Norman castles and an extraordina...

S10E03: Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold | Digging for Britain

S10E03: Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2023 | 59'02''

A gatehouse riddled with Civil War bullets, a unique Iron Age shield made from bark and Roman burials with...

S11E06: Forgotten Fortresses and Lost Villages | Digging for Britain

S11E06: Forgotten Fortresses and Lost Villages | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2024 | 58'55''

Digs in the west of Britain reveal a forgotten fortress teetering on the edge of a cliff, evidence of th...

St Brice's Day massacre 1002 | Digging for Britain

St Brice's Day massacre 1002 | Digging for Britain

BBC HD | 2011 | 7'05''

Tragic events like the St. Brice's Day Massacre, sanctioned by King Ethelred the Unready, reveal tensions between Anglo-Sa...

More resources about Early Modern Britain

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

BBC Two | 2004 | 58'48''

Peter and Dan Snow take a look at the battles that shaped our nation. Drake's unlikely sea victory against th...

01: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World

01: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World

Channel 4 | 2023 | 46'43''

Elizabeth I pacified a divided nation, and foiled multiple plots against her. English culture flourished under her reign, and...

05: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain

05: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain

BBC Two | 2004 | 58'58''

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 t...

Episode 1 | Elizabeth I's Secret Agents

Episode 1 | Elizabeth I's Secret Agents

BBC Two | 2017 | 58'46''

A look at the world's first secret service. When the pope declares Queen Elizabeth I a heretic, spymaster William Cecil must stop the...

Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

BBC Two | 2016 | 59'09''

Drama revealing the intimate and ultimately deadly relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, using the words of the ...

02: The Battle for England | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

02: The Battle for England | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 58'42''

Dan Snow relives fierce sea battles and looks behind the scenes in the court of Elizabeth I as the Spanish fleet...

04: Cromwell | Great Britons (2002)

04: Cromwell | Great Britons (2002)

BBC Two | 2002 | 58'11''

Monarchist and military historian Richard Holmes proposes Oliver Cromwell, the reluctant republican and revolutionary who helped establis...

S10E03: Witchfinder General | Secret History

S10E03: Witchfinder General | Secret History

Channel 4 | 2002 | 48'48''

Documentary account, drawn from court records and testimonies, of how Matthew Hopkins and John Stern convicted hundreds of men, ...

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 59'00''

On 5 November 1605, a group of conspirators planned to blow up parliament. Lucy Worsley investigates the Gunpowder Plo...

The Great Plague

The Great Plague

Channel 4 | 2003 | 1'30'25''

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...

Cromwell (1970)

Cromwell (1970)

BBC Two | 2009 | 2'13'53''

Epic retelling of the clash between two great historical figures in the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the enigmatic, forceful Charles I fought in ca...

01: Day One | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

01: Day One | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 58'54''

Anita Dobson stars as Elizabeth I, and Dan Snow tells the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588.

The Making of the United Kingdom: 04: Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain? | History File

The Making of the United Kingdom: 04: Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain? | History File

BBC Two | 1994 | 19'16''

A look at the career of Cromwell, plus an analysis of how different interpretations of...

Episode 1 | Edward and Mary: The Unknown Tudors

Episode 1 | Edward and Mary: The Unknown Tudors

Channel 4 | 2002 | 49'05''

The story of two of Henry VIII's most extraordinary children, Mary 1st and Edward VI - England's fundamentalists.

S01E02: The Witch Hunts | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S01E02: The Witch Hunts | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2022 | 59'03''

What started Britain's century of bloody witch hunts? Lucy Worsley uncovers the story of one supposed witch whose case li...

01: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

01: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

BBC Two | 2013 | 58'43''

Dr. Ian Mortimer undertakes a present-tense journey through the world of Queen Elizabeth the First. Thi...

S01E02: The Spanish Armada | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

S01E02: The Spanish Armada | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

BBC Two | 2020 | 58'56''

Lucy Worsley discovers how the history of the Spanish Armada has been manipulated and mythologise...

What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 4'47''

Dan Snow discusses the foundations of what caused the Spanish Armada.

S02E04: Bloody Mary | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E04: Bloody Mary | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'51''

Does 'Bloody Mary', England’s first crowned queen, deserve her reputation? Lucy Worsley investigates, asking whether Mary sho...

Oliver Cromwell: Warts and All

Oliver Cromwell: Warts and All

BBC One | 2003 | 57'51''

Charles I has been executed and an East Anglian farmer is about to become leader of all England. Using drama and documentary this film tells t...

More from Alice Roberts

Archaeology | Digging for Britain

Archaeology | Digging for Britain

BBC Two | 2026 | 9'57''

Alice Roberts shows how archaeology works and how it can try to solve the mysteries of the past.

The perfect human? | Can Science Make Me Perfect? with Alice Roberts

The perfect human? | Can Science Make Me Perfect? with Alice Roberts

BBC Four | 2020 | 5'29''

What evolution has provided us with is a human body that works as a whole package: you can't replace ind...

Victorian living conditions | Britain's Biggest Dig

Victorian living conditions | Britain's Biggest Dig

BBC Two | 2020 | 8'04''

Dr Yasmin Khan discovers the awful living conditions the workers during the Industrial Revolution had put up with.

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

BBC Two | 2017 | 58'13''

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 2 | The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver

Episode 2 | The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver

BBC Two | 2015 | 58'56''

Series exploring the Celts looks at the golden age of the La Tene Celtic warrior. But by ...

Bread and salt | Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You?

Bread and salt | Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You?

BBC Two | 2015 | 1'13''

Alice reveals how much bread we eat as a nation and a worrying statistic about its salt levels.

The Roman domination of the known world | A Timewatch Guide

The Roman domination of the known world | A Timewatch Guide

BBC Four | 2015 | 3'44''

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

BBC Two | 2014 | 59'00''

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

BBC Two | 2012 | 59'07''

Professor Alice Roberts on the natural history of the woolly mammoth, revealing adaptations that helped the species evolve from their or...

Anatomy of the Female Reproductive Organs | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Anatomy of the Female Reproductive Organs | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

BBC Two | 2008 | 1'49''

Alice dissects a pigs reproductive organs to demonstrate the anatomical makeup of a woman's equ...