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Tori is a palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specialises in the Ice Age – where the human story and archaeology really get going. Her work has taken her from the fossil-rich caves of the Mediterranean islands to the permafrost of Siberia in search of frozen mammoth carcasses. Tori’s palaeontological endeavours inform her expertise on the ethics and practicalities of “de-extinction” – whether we could, or should, bring back extinct species.

In January 2026 Tori joined the presenting team of Digging for Britain for BBC Two, showcasing archaeology’s latest discoveries. Tori will be the lead presenter of the new series of Digging for Britain, airing in 2027. Other credits include Bone Detectives, Britain at Low Tide, and Walking Through Time all for Channel 4. She also presented Ice Age: Return of the Mammoth for Channel 4 and the Science Channel, Woolly Mammoth the Autopsy for Channel 4 and Smithsonian, Hannibal’s Elephant Army for Channel 4/PBS and T. Rex Autopsy for National Geographic. Tori has also made numerous appearances as an expert contributor on specialist factual programmes, as well as news and current affairs (she once left Russel Howard lost for words on Russel Howard’s Good News).

Tori’s audio presenting credits include BBC Radio 4’s Hoax and One to One: Future Cities, and the award-winning podcast Wild Crimes, part of the broader series Our Broken Planet. She is a frequent guest on radio comedy shows such as the Infinite Monkey Cage and Curious Cases, and is regularly called upon for expert comment.

Tori is Senior Lecturer in the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield, where she also runs the MSc in Science Communication.

She co-founded TrowelBlazers, an organisation dedicated to telling the stories of pioneering women in palaeontology, geology and archaeology.

Professor Ben Garrod is an academic, author, and broadcaster. He is a multi-disciplinary scientist, with a focus spanning evolution, zoology, and conservation. Ben is an award-winning broadcaster, presenting and co-presenting a wide range of television and radio science documentaries and series, and has written numerous Children’s books, with a mission to inspire young readers to be passionate, inquisitive, and confident about science.

Ben is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at The University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He has a master’s degree in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College, London, and his PhD at UCL, ‘Primates of the Caribbean’, focused on studying the early stages of speciation in island-living monkeys through molecular and anatomical changes.

In 2014, Ben presented his first TV documentary, with the award-winning BBC4 series Secrets of Bones. Since then, he has presented a wide range of science and wildlife documentaries and series, including Secrets of Skin (2019) and Baby Chimp Rescue (2020). He has worked alongside Prof. Alice Roberts, presenting The Day the Dinosaurs Died (2017), and with Prof. Danielle George in the series Hyper-evolution: the Rise of Robots (2017). He also co-presented Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur (2016) and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard (2021) alongside Sir David Attenborough. Ben has also presented several segments for The One Show.

Across radio and other digital audio platforms, Ben has fronted various series and stand-alone documentaries, including A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs and A Grown-Up Guide to Oceans (both for Audible Original), and a whole host of BBC Radio 4 projects, including Super Senses, Bone Stories, and The Human Hive, alongside three series of the hugely successful anatomy series Wild Inside with veterinarian and broadcaster Dr. Jess French. He has also been featured on A Life Scientific and has guest presented on BBC Inside Science.

Ben grew up on the Norfolk coast and, from a very early age, was fascinated by the natural world, juggling a love for local wildlife with a desire to work in tropical biology. Ben is an accomplished field biologist and has, over the last twenty years, lived and worked all over the world, studying primates in the field. Destinations have included: Uganda, Madagascar, Gabon, Liberia, Cameroon, with chimpanzees, gorillas, and lemurs; in Indonesia, working with critically endangered Sumatran orangutans; and across various Caribbean islands researching introduced green monkeys.

Additionally, his work has included investigating archaeological animal remains in Chinese Imperial tombs, assisting in anatomical assessments of stranded sperm whales, and excavating some of the largest dinosaur remains ever discovered, in Argentina.

Ben is a prolific author and loves to write for children and young adults. He has written about his work with great apes in The Chimpanzee and Me and has written two eight-part, non-fiction series: Ultimate Dinosaurs and Extinct – the story of life on Earth. Ben’s first children’s fiction series, The Adventures of a Dog Called Jack-Jack, features his own dog, who grew up in Africa helping orphaned chimpanzees, but now enjoys coffee shops and croissants.

Ben represents numerous charities close to his heart, in a range of different capacities. He is Patron for the British Hen Welfare Trust, a Patron for Humanists UK, President for the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society, Vice President for the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Patron for the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA), Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society, Patron for the Youth STEMM Award, and a Patron for the Norwich Science Festival.

Ben is an experienced public speaker and educator. He has appeared at numerous festivals (including the Hay Literary Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the NI Science Festival, and the Norwich Science Festival), hosted several charity events, and has given various corporate talks.

Ben is a keen trail and ultra-marathon runner, but still enjoys a good Park Run and a slow dog walk near his Norfolk home, too.

Dr Julian Richards is an archaeologist with over 40 years’ experience in fieldwork and excavation and a writer and presenter on television and radio. An acknowledged expert on Stonehenge and Britain’s prehistoric past, Julian devised, researched and presented seven series of the popular Meet the Ancestors (BBC 2) and the five part Blood of the Vikings (BBC 2); for both of which he wrote accompanying books. He also presented six series of Mapping the Town on Radio 4 and designed the award-winning Hunt the Ancestor game for the BBC History website.

Julian also presented a four-part series, Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited which aired on BBC4.

Julian has published several works about Stonehenge – Stonehenge: The Story So Far, was published in 2007; this was preceded by Stonehenge: A History in Photographs (2004) and the children’s book The Amazing Pop-up Stonehenge (2005).

Julian lives in Dorset where he maintains his particular interests in Stonehenge, the history of ceramics and old cars.

Julian is also an experienced and entertaining public speaker; from after-dinner events (his life in archaeology is summed up in ‘A career in ruins’), to Science or History Festivals and traditional lectures. His credits include lecturing for the Arts Society and speaking at Tewkesbury History Festival.

Mary-Ann is a familiar presence on national and international television and radio, presenting for networks including the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, National Geographic and Smithsonian. She has written and presented radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and hosted podcasts for Audible, Wiley and the BBC.

In January 2025 Mary-Ann presented Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway for History Hit, exploring what is widely known as Britain’s oldest road. She used her archaeological and science journalism expertise co-presenting the popular Smithsonian series Mystic Britain, got hands on with historic boats for BBC Two’s Britain Afloat, and walked in the footsteps of the ancients on the Ridgeway trail for BBC’s Countryfile. Mary-Ann presented Secrets of Stonehenge for English Heritage, is a regular on History Channel’s Ancient Top 10 and Ancient Impossible and was co-presenter on the penultimate series of cult archaeology show, Time Team. She co-hosted the sci-comm podcast, This Study Shows (Wiley), which ran for three seasons.

As an anthropologist, her empathy and insight into human behaviour and culture come to the fore. In 2022 she fronted the audio documentary Walking the Iron Curtain for the BBC World Service, discovering the legacy of the border for people and wildlife. For Living on the Roof of the World (Discovery Networks) Mary-Ann spent seven weeks filming with herders, farmers and pilgrims on the high Tibetan plateau. She was also part of the presenting team for Time of Xi (Discovery Asia), exploring the realities of life in modern China. For BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, she has investigated male circumcision (Why We Cut Men), the global sanitation scandal (A Dirty Secret), and met the military veterans using archaeology to recover their mental health (Open Country: Exercise Shallow Grave). Expedition documentaries for Animal Planet have taken her to the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone (Life After: Chernobyl), and to investigate real cases of extraordinary child survival in Fiji, Uganda and Ukraine (Raised Wild).

Trusted as a warm, informed and agile interviewer, Mary-Ann has chaired public events for museums and institutes including the Science Museum, British Museum and Royal Institution, and presented her own work at literary, science and culture festivals, including Chip Lit, How the Light Gets In and HistFest. She’s also in demand for corporate work, and offers specific expertise in equity, diversity and inclusion.

Mary-Ann’s fourth book, The Briefest History of Humanity was published in 2025 by Pan Macmillan. It explores the science of ourselves – from lowly origins, our species has been so wildly successful, we’ve inadvertently transformed the planet, both for ourselves and all other life on Earth. How did humans do it, was it inevitable, and what might the journey so far tell us about the road ahead?

Mary-Ann’s previous books have celebrated archaeology for a wide readership: Secret Britain profiles mysterious sites and artefacts from around the country; Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape, reveals the history of the countryside, with tips on identifying everything from burial mounds and ancient trails to historic pubs. It was shortlisted in the Current Archaeology Awards and selected as a New Statesman Book of the Year.

Mary-Ann regularly previews the papers for Sky News, reports and presents for ITN Business, has contributed to BBC News and BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. She writes a regularly for TGO magazine and often is commissioned for features by publications including The Telegraph, The Guardian, Countryfile Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine and The Week Junior.

Mary-Ann is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Hill Walking Ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council. She is a trustee of the John Muir Trust, the wild places charity, a patron of the Ridgeway National Trail, and a patron of the Tony Trust, which gives bursaries to underprivileged children to access outdoor adventure. She’s also an ambassador for global sanitation charity Toilet Twinning. Mary-Ann also serves as a member of the Landscape Advisory Panel for Natural England, advising the government’s statutory body on access and equity issues, and people’s engagement with heritage.

Mary-Ann has a MA in Archaeology & Anthropology from The University of Cambridge. She is an experienced cold water UK scuba diver, enthusiastic horse rider and keen walker, passionate about encouraging more people to get outside and reconnect with natural places. She was proud to be shortlisted for Outdoor Personality of the Year in the TGO Magazine Reader Awards in 2021. Mary-Ann is a qualified Mental Health First Aider.