Digging in

Sandi Toksvig pursues her passion for archaeology to unearth fascinating finds across the UK in a new series

- WORDS: LAURA CARRENO-MÜLLER

Sandi Toksvig is no stranger to curiosity, but in her latest series - Sandi Toksvig's Hidden Wonders - she's delving deeper than ever before. The beloved broadcaster is turning her lifelong love of archaeology into a full-scale adventure, uncovering the history buried beneath Britain's soil.

"I studied archaeology many years ago at Cambridge University. It was a theoretical course, so I never went on a dig," she says. "So when I got offered this, it was a bit that was missing in my education. I really needed to do this."

Teaming up with her friend, archaeologist Raksha Dave, Sandi, 67, embarks on a thrilling nationwide journey across four episodes. From Dorset to Northumberland, the duo dig up remarkable discoveries that stretch from the Iron Age to the Second World War.

The series begins in Dorset, where a team from Bournemouth University excavates a 2,000-year-old Iron Age cemetery belonging to the Durotriges, one of Europe's earliest women-centric communities. From there, Sandi and Raksha head off to join the University of Reading at Cookham Abbey, before venturing north to explore Hadrian's Wall and finally taking on their most ambitious dig in Essex - uncovering the wreckage of a US fighter plane from the Second World War.