First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson talks to Sir Mortimer Wheeler about Winston Churchill's writing and how close his Nobel Prize-winning volumes 'The History of the English-Speaking Peoples' came to being founded on a forgery - Piltdown Man.
First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson talks to Sir Mortimer Wheeler about his excavation at Stanwick St John in Yorkshire during the Festival of Britain celebrations in 1951. It was there that Wheeler uncovered the Iron Age stronghold of the Brigantes, a tribe of Celts.
First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson talks to Sir Mortimer Wheeler about Brigantes in northern Britain at the time of the Roman conquest. The Brigantes, a tribe of Celts, attempted to stave off the approaching Roman army at Stanwick St John in Yorkshire. Sir Mortimer also relates the story of Venutius, king of the Brigantes and his wife Cartimandua.
First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson talks to Sir Mortimer Wheeler about his discoveries at Pushkalavati. In the year 327BC Alexander the Great conquered Pushkalavati, the 'Lotus City' at the foot of the Khyber Pass. Upon invitation by the Government of Pakistan Sir Mortimer Wheeler travelled to the site in 1958 and commenced what was to be his last excavation. Sir Mortimer recalls the excavation and reveals how he arranged for the Pakistan Air Force to photograph the site, leading to "the greatest discovery made in the frontier of Pakistan for perhaps 100 years."
First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson talks to Sir Mortimer Wheeler about Sir Flinders Petrie, the single-minded Egyptologist and eccentric who was Wheeler's friend for 20 years. Mortimer Wheeler claimed that he had known four geniuses in his life: "Winston Churchill, Sir Arthur Evans who discovered the Minoan civilisation, the painter Augustus John and Sir Flinders Petrie."
First transmitted in 1974, Magnus Magnusson and Sir Mortimer Wheeler discuss the changing attitudes to archaeology which have taken place in Wheeler's lifetime. He talks about the disagreement in 1877 between Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator of Troy, and the statesman William Gladstone over the question of nudity in Ancient Greece.