Neil Oliver

Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer

Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now. In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer.

Who Put the Klan in the Ku Klux Klan?

In this surprising documentary, archaeologist and historian Neil Oliver examines racism in the Deep South and the Scots who first occupied it who influenced where we are today. Oliver travels to the south and speaks with many people and researchers to discuss the Klan's history in Southern United States.

The Quest for Bannockburn

Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard set out to solve one of the biggest puzzles in battlefield archaeology. 700 years ago, Robert the Bruce's overwhelming victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn helped seal Scotland's future as an independent kingdom, although the actual location remains a mystery. With the help of leading battlefield archaeologists, stuntmen, computer-generated graphics and some digging, Neil and Tony go in search of both the real and imagined Battle of Bannockburn.

The Search for Alfred the Great

Neil Oliver is given exclusive access to a team of historians and scientists investigating the final resting place of Alfred the Great. Alfred's bones have been moved so many times over the centuries that many...

Scotland and the Klan

The role of Scots in shaping the concept of the American Dream is a story often celebrated but could Scottish settlers have also had a hand in America’s racist nightmare? Neil Oliver travels over two thousand miles to examine links between racism today and the Scottish settlers that first occupied America's Deep South.

Quintinshill: Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster

Neil Oliver describes the worst ever railway accident in the UK, which happened a hundred years ago on 22 May 1915, in which three trains collided at Quintinshill near Gretna Green. One of the trains was a troop train taking soldiers to fight in World War I at the Battle of Gallipoli: many of the dead were in this train which caught fire due to escaped gas from the archaic gas lighting in the carriages. The cause of the crash was attributed to a catastrophic signalman's error, but Neil examines whether there were other contributory factors and whether there was a cover-up to prevent investigation of them, making convenient scapegoats of the signalmen.

The Hector: From Scotland to Nova Scotia

The story of the 1773 highland migrants who left Scotland to settle in Nova Scotia.

The Machine Gun and Skye's Band of Brothers

The development of the Maxim machine gun and its effects on a remote Highland community.

Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer

Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now. In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer.

Who Put the Klan in the Ku Klux Klan?

In this surprising documentary, archaeologist and historian Neil Oliver examines racism in the Deep South and the Scots who first occupied it who influenced where we are today. Oliver travels to the south and speaks with many people and researchers to discuss the Klan's history in Southern United States.

The Quest for Bannockburn

Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard set out to solve one of the biggest puzzles in battlefield archaeology. 700 years ago, Robert the Bruce's overwhelming victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn helped seal Scotland's future as an independent kingdom, although the actual location remains a mystery. With the help of leading battlefield archaeologists, stuntmen, computer-generated graphics and some digging, Neil and Tony go in search of both the real and imagined Battle of Bannockburn.

The Search for Alfred the Great

Neil Oliver is given exclusive access to a team of historians and scientists investigating the final resting place of Alfred the Great. Alfred's bones have been moved so many times over the centuries that many...

Scotland and the Klan

The role of Scots in shaping the concept of the American Dream is a story often celebrated but could Scottish settlers have also had a hand in America’s racist nightmare? Neil Oliver travels over two thousand miles to examine links between racism today and the Scottish settlers that first occupied America's Deep South.

Quintinshill: Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster

Neil Oliver describes the worst ever railway accident in the UK, which happened a hundred years ago on 22 May 1915, in which three trains collided at Quintinshill near Gretna Green. One of the trains was a troop train taking soldiers to fight in World War I at the Battle of Gallipoli: many of the dead were in this train which caught fire due to escaped gas from the archaic gas lighting in the carriages. The cause of the crash was attributed to a catastrophic signalman's error, but Neil examines whether there were other contributory factors and whether there was a cover-up to prevent investigation of them, making convenient scapegoats of the signalmen.

The Hector: From Scotland to Nova Scotia

The story of the 1773 highland migrants who left Scotland to settle in Nova Scotia.

The Machine Gun and Skye's Band of Brothers

The development of the Maxim machine gun and its effects on a remote Highland community.

Cunk on...

Landmark mockumentary-maker Philomena Cunk traces the history of Britain and Earth.

A History of Scotland

Presented by Neil Oliver, A History of Scotland is a television series first broadcast in November 2008 on BBC One Scotland and later shown UK-wide on BBC Two during January 2009. The second series began on BBC One Scotland in early November 2009, with transmission at a later point on network BBC Two. Along with the series, BBC Scotland planned a range of radio programmes, a new website, an interactive game, and concerts. The Open University, in collaboration with the BBC, also created a series of audio walks around historic locations in Scotland, with narration from Oliver. In Australia, series one aired on SBS One Sundays at 7:30pm from 6 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. Series two commenced on 24 October 2010 running until 21 November in the same Sunday night Lost Worlds strand. It has since been repeated.

Blood of the Clans

Neil Oliver presents a drama-documentary series telling the tales of Scotland's most epic and bloody conflicts and the characters who made their mark in this memorable era of the country’s history.

A History of Ancient Britain

Neil Oliver tells the epic story of how Britain and its people came to be over thousands of years of ancient history—the beginnings of our world forged in ice, stone, and bronze

Rise of the Clans

Series following an epic struggle for power in medieval Scotland, told from the point of view of the feuding clans.

A History of Celtic Britain

In four chapters, largely based on and illustrated with archaeological finds and sites, Neil Oliver explains how, as far as is known, the Iron Age Celtic tribes known as the Ancient Britains evolved and entered European civilization. Their internecine tribal phase was warlike and partitioned. Overseas contacts, especially metal trade, brought wealth and progress. Ultimately, it attracted the superior Roman empire, which would conquer and pacify Britain into a province, like Gaul shortly before, but Caesar's invasion wasn't the definitive annexation yet, that was left to emperor Claudius; even afterward some Celtic traits and even rebellions remained.

The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice

Three-part documentary series in which anthropologist professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Neil Oliver go in search of the Celts - one of the world's most mysterious ancient civilisations.

Vikings

Vikings is a 2012 BBC television documentary series written and presented by Neil Oliver charting the rise of the Vikings from prehistoric times to the empire of Canute.

Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets Of Orkney

Neil Oliver, Chris Packham, Andy Torbet and Dr Shini Somara join hundreds of archaeologists from around the world who have gathered in Orkney to investigate at one of Europe's biggest digs.

Coast New Zealand

Neil Oliver takes a fascination journey around the coast of New Zealand, uncovering stories that make us the island nation that we are today.

Coast Australia

Coast Australia follows renowned Scottish archaeologist and historian Neil Oliver on his very first trip to Australia, as he and a diverse group of co-hosts gather stories about our spectacular coastline: the history, the people, the archaeology, the geography and the marine life, investigating interesting and little known facts along the way. Oliver’s co-hosts, all experts in their field, are journalist and Australian arts and culture specialist Miriam Corowa, environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery, marine scientist Dr Emma Johnston, anthropologist Dr Xanthe Mallett and television presenter and landscape architect Brendan Moar.

The Last Explorers

Archaeologist and writer Neil Oliver presents a series on the golden age of exploration, charting the routes of contact that drew together the farthest reaches of the world. Neil Oliver follows in the footsteps of four Scottish explorers who planted ideas rather than flags - ideas that shaped the modern world we know today.

Sacred Wonders of Britain

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.