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Tori Herridge

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

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 Anjana Khatwa

Dr Anjana Khatwa is an Earth Scientist specialising in bringing stories about the origins and formation of natural landscapes to life for a wide range of audiences.

Anjana appeared as a ‘super-contributor’ on BBC Four’s three-part series, Beach Live, where she was the show’s resident Geology expert, engaging audiences with her insight and knowledge about geology and fossils. She has also appeared several times on ITV’s This Morning and Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh; My Cornwall with Fern Britton and Lighthouses: Building the Impossible both on Channel 5; Villages by the Sea for BBC Two; and Britain’s Novel Landscapes for Channel 4.

Anjana has appeared as a regular expert contributor on many natural history programmes such as BBC Two’s Fossil Detectives, The History Channel’s How the Earth was made, ITV1’s Treasures of Britain and Treasures of the Earth for PBS.

She is an established expert in learning, engagement and inclusion within natural heritage, museums and the geosciences with multiple publications and articles in leading journals and popular magazines such as Nature Geoscience and BBC Wildlife. In November 2021, Anjana was longlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize, a biennial literary prize for nature writing. In 2023, she was selected as a judge for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for nature writing. In 2025, Anjana published her debut book, The Whispers of Rock, a global story of how rocks have not only shaped our world but also our lives.

Anjana has won multiple awards over her stellar career in the geosciences including the Royal Geographical Society Geographical Award, the RH Worth Medal by the Geological Society of London and the prestigious Halstead Medal from the Geologists’ Association. In 2020, she won a National Diversity Award as a Positive Role Model for Race, Faith and Religion.

Born and bred in Slough, Anjana had a humble upbringing in an urban environment but grew to love the natural world through holidays to places such as Kenya, which is where her family originate from. Anjana has a BSc. in Earth Science and a Ph.D. in Geography where she specialised in glacial geology. Her diverse background and voice bring a unique perspective to her work.

An experienced, passionate and inspiring public speaker, Anjana delivers lectures and speeches that are witty, light and insightful. She is in particular demand for her thought-provoking lectures about the role of women and minorities in science, careers in the geosciences and new perspectives on understanding the geological sciences.

Anjana lives in Dorset with her husband and their three children. She enjoys an active lifestyle which includes running, swimming and exploring the countryside. Her favourite pastime is hunting for rocks and fossils along the Jurassic Coast.

Her website is www.anjanakhatwa.com