The history of Britain is written in the landscape. Since the earliest farmers
began to cut down trees and plough the clearings more than 5000 years ago,
people have been moulding and shaping the landscape, until now no two
counties are the same. Today, much of what was forged and created from the
landscape remains a mystery - the past buried beneath our feet.
This eight-part Open University prime-time series begins with IN SEARCH OF
GOLD, with Aubrey travelling to Ireland in search of a Celtic Eldorado, a
secret source of Bronze-Age gold, buried more than 3,000 years ago. How
can clues in the landscape help Aubrey work out if and where deposits still
exist?
Next, in FIGURES IN THE CHALK, Aubrey travels to the Chalk Hills of
England to unravel the origins of the enigmatic chalk figures such as the Long
Man of Wilmington and the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset. The age of Long
Man of Wilmington has never been established and Aubrey, alongside a team
of archaeologists from Reading University, come up with a remarkable new
discovery...
Then it's on to the Gower Peninsula in south Wales, where in 1823, a skeleton
of a young man, who had died 29,000 years ago, was found. IN BRITAIN
BEFORE THE ICE, Aubrey attempts to unravel the mystery of the lost world
in which this man lived.
Programme four of the series sees Aubrey in the Solent, off the south coast of
England. It's known that people once lived in a landscape that is now covered
by the sea but how did this area become flooded? In SECRETS OF THE
FLOOD Aubrey investigates a mystery that has puzzled experts for centuries.
For programme five, THE TOWER PEOPLE OF SHETLAND, Aubrey travels
to the most northerly territory in the British Isles - to Shetland - in search for
clues to the identity of the ancient people who lived in the Broch Towers there.
In THE ABANDONED MARSH, Aubrey searches for clues to a haunting and
empty landscape that humans colonised then abandoned.
From there Aubrey ventures to an even more bleak and dangerous place - the
North Yorkshire coastline where many a ship has been wrecked. But when
the tide goes out, a different and mysterious landscape is revealed. Can
Aubrey solve THE RIDDLE OF THE YORKSHIRE TRACKS?
For the last programme in this series Aubrey travels to Glastonbury to
investigate the riddle of THE TERRACES OF AVALON. Along the steep sides
of the Glastonbury Tor there's a distinctive pattern of regular stepped terraces,
but their origin is a mystery. Is there a connection with the myths and legends
that permeate this intoxicating landscape?
Landscape Mysteries is an Open University production for BBC TWO,
produced & directed by Nick Metcalfe. Series producer is Martin Mortimore,
with Richard Reisz as executive producer for TV6, (an independent
production company) and Stephen Haggard as executive producer for the
BBC. The academic advisor for The Open University is Prof Chris Wilson.
For more information please contact the Veiwer and Listener
Officer, mailto:OU.viewerlistener.service@bbc.co.uk or telephone 01908
652777