Ben Robinson is a British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

who currently works for

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. He has appeared as a contributor and presenter for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, ITV and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

History

Robinson obtained a

BSc (Hons) A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Computer Science from

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

(Polytechnic at the time) in 1989. He achieved his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in 2008 while working for

Peterborough City Council Peterborough City Council is the local authority for Peterborough, a local government district with city status in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. Peterborough has had a council since 1874, which has been reformed several time ...

as the Historic Environment Manager. In 2009 Robinson joined

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

as a Team Leader and Inspector of Ancient Monuments. Robinson has worked for

since the 2015 split of English Heritage as the Principal Adviser, Heritage at Risk for the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

Television work

Robinson first appeared on the

programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...

'' in 2005, on a dig at Northborough, and went on to make a further eleven appearances, with his last in 2011 at Litlington, Cambridgeshire. Robinson appeared on the episode "East" of the 2009

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

programme '' Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones''. In 2010 he presented the four-part

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

series '' The Flying Archaeologist''. During 2014 he presented the episode "The Zeppelin Terror" for the BBC Four documentary ''World War One At Home''. In the episode he followed the paths of the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

attacks over the

East of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

. Also in 2014, Robinson co-presented the ITV series '' Secrets from the Sky'' with historian

Bettany Hughes Bettany Mary Hughes (born May 1967) is an English historian, author, and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. Her published books cover classical antiquity and myth, and the history of Istanbul. She is active in efforts to encourag ...

. In 2015 Robinson co-presented the BBC One documentary ''The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King'' with Professor Stephen Church. In 2018 he joined presenter

Alice Roberts Alice May Roberts (born 19 May 1973) is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK from Januar ...

in the six-part

programme '' Britain's Most Historic Towns''. In 2019 Robinson fronted the BBC Four series ''Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village'', a six-part programme documenting the history of the English village in various regions. This was followed by the similar format, ''Villages by the Sea'' later in 2019, which has gone onto a further three series.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Ben Alumni of the University of York Living people 21st-century British historians 21st-century British archaeologists English television presenters Archaeologists appearing on Time Team Year of birth missing (living people)