The Making of Lost Treasures

The making of ...how the series was made - not as daft as it sounds because unlike Time Team each investigation has happened on the hoof more or less in front of the camera rather than 6 months preparation and contrived set up shots for the camera.

Producer of the programme Phil Hirst writes:-

"The North West region has one of the highest concentrations of ancient history in Britain. Amazingly the history lies all around us - in towns and villages, supermarket car parks, gardens, parks, fields, churches. These are lost treasures in forgotten places lying just beneath the surface waiting to be re-discovered.

Because of his 15 years of ground breaking original archaeological research, I looked no further than Mark Olly to put these discoveries into historical perspective. There was little point in regurgitating the tried and trusted routes. Mark calls a spade a spade. And if he needs to dig he will convince the owners that it's a good idea. Our schedule was tight but this made it all the more breathtaking as we made genuine discoveries even as the cameras were rolling.

Mentioning no names, many of the discoveries made on other archaeology programmes are often planned in advance. Obviously we had to plan too. Our focus was originally going to be on new discoveries casting new evidence on old theories. But the emphasis changed and great red lines were drawn through our original cosy scripts very quickly.

On arrival at our chosen locations, we were amazed at how many people were willing to share their own knowledge and discoveries of the area. For instance, as we were filming some gravestones in a back garden in Chester, the next door neighbour invited us into their potting shed to view their Roman artefacts.