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news release
Landscape Mysteries
Presented by Professor Aubrey Manning (OBE)
TX: BBC Two, Sept 25, 7.30pm, 2003 (8x30 min)
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.
For one man, author and broadcaster Professor Aubrey Manning (pictured left), the challenge to
unearth our past is irresistible. Following the successful BBC Two
series Talking Landscapes, our distinguished explorer embarks on a
new set of journeys. From the bleak Romney Marsh to the Holy
Mountain on Ireland’s west coast, Aubrey follows clues in the
geology, natural history, and archaeology of the British Isles in an
attempt to unravel long-held landscape mysteries.
This eight-part series begins with IN SEARCH OF IRISH GOLD,
with Aubrey travelling to Ireland to track down a long-lost 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 these chalk figures has never been fully
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 show five, THE TOWER PEOPLE OF SHETLAND, Aubrey travels to the most northerly territory
in the British Isles in search of clues to the identity of the ancient people who lived in the Broch
Towers there.
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A trip to the bleak Romney Marsh is next where, in THE ABANDONED MARSH, Aubrey searches
for clues to a forgotten past – determined to unravel the mystery of this haunting and empty
landscape.
From there Aubrey ventures to an even more bleak and dangerous place – the North Yorkshire
coastline where many a ship has been wrecked on the rocky terrain. 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 enigma 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?
Dr. Aubrey Manning is a distinguished and award-winning scientist who has contributed greatly to
the development of zoology and animal behaviour study. He has been involved with environmental
issues since 1966 and with the Centre for Human Ecology since its inception at the University of
Edinburgh in 1970.
He is also a renowned author and broadcaster. His widely published book An Introduction to Animal
Behaviour is now on its fifth edition and he has presented BBC Two’s Earth Story, as well as Talking
Landscapes. He has also presented Radio 4’s Unearthing Mysteries and Origins: the Human
Connection.
Landscape Mysteries is an OU/TV6 production for BBC Two, produced & directed by Nick Metcalfe,
Liz Gray and Martin Mortimore. Series producer is Martin Mortimore, with Richard Reisz as
executive producer for TV6 and Stephen Haggard as executive producer for the BBC. The academic
advisor for The Open University is Prof Chris Wilson.
Further information on each episode, plus biographies and billing information are available on
request.
Stills will be available from http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/image-bank/programmes.asp
Media contacts:
Greg Day,
Greg Day PR. t: 020 8960 3814 m: 07889 861646 Email: greg@gregdaypr.co.uk,
Eulina Clairmont,
Open University Media Relations t: 01908 653248 Email: e.clairmont@open.ac.uk