Sacred Wonders of Britain (BBC)

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History Documentary hosted by Neil Oliver, published by BBC in 2013 - English narration

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Neil Oliver goes on a journey to reveal the sacred face of Britain, an ancient landscape of belief and ritual that still lies hidden just below the surface of our modern world.

[edit] Neolithic

Neil Oliver goes in search of the very first stirrings of religion in Britain. In Nottinghamshire, he discovers clues to a world of magic and ritual etched into the rock of Creswell Crags by Ice Age hunters. In the south of England and on the Scottish borders, great tombs are evidence of ancestor worship among the first farmers of the Neolithic era, and an extraordinary discovery in Herefordshire reveals what really lies beneath their burial mounds. In the flint mines of Grimes Graves in Norfolk, Neil discovers how Stone Age miners carried their religion deep underground. Finally, in the great stone circle and henge of Avebury and the extraordinary monuments of Orkney, he discovers how a new age of belief swept away the old religions and changed Britain forever.

[edit] Bronze and Iron Age

Neil Oliver goes in search of Bronze and Iron Age sites that were sacred to ancient Britons, with water seen not just as a source of life, but also of reverence. At Flag Fen near Peterborough he discovers a vast ancient causeway built across the fens, with sacred objects placed among its timbers. At Maiden Castle's hill fort in Dorset he unearths evidence of macabre human sacrifices to ward off evil spirits. Neil travels to Anglesey, where swords, precious artifacts and even a slave chain were ritually deposited. It was home of the druids. Neil learns about their bizarre rituals and dark reputation and how the Romans viewed them as dangerous religious extremists. Moving on to Bath and its sacred spring, Neil discovers an early version of the habit of throwing coins into water. Once here the Romans recognized the old gods but also brought their own too, making Bath one of the most sacred sites in Roman Britain. Finally Neil goes to Lullingstone's Roman villa in Kent. Deep in the cellar he finds wall paintings of pagan water deities, while upstairs there are covert messages hidden in the mosaic floor, finally leading to the arrival of Christianity that swept away the old religions, changing Britain forever.

[edit] Early Saints

Neil Oliver examines how the creation of saints by the early church led to a new generation of Sacred Wonders across Britain. On Iona, in the Inner Hebrides, Neil discovers the traditional resting place of Macbeth as well as delvings back through time to discover how St Columba sanctified the island with a tough brand of monasticism, all the way from the Egyptian desert. On Lindisfarne, Neil sees how the epic journey of St Cuthbert led to the writing of the extraordinary Lindisfarne Gospels and the building of Durham Cathedral. At Canterbury Cathedral, Neil learns how St Thomas Becket's grizzly murder was harnessed to build its Nave, one of the great glories of medieval architecture, and on Glastonbury Tor in Somerset he investigates layer after layer of powerful legend in the story of the Holy Grail, the sacred cup of everlasting life.