Alice Roberts’ life after BBC Digging for Britain exit together with estrangement and new tour
BBC Digging For Britain star Alice Roberts fronted the popular archaeology series for 15 years before stepping down
Professor Alice Roberts is embarking on a UK tour later this year(Image: Getty)
Viewers of BBC’s Digging For Britain were left gutted when longtime presenter Professor Alice Roberts revealed in February she was departing the beloved archaeology programme after 15 years.
In her announcement she declared: “All good things come to an end. I’m kind of sad and melancholy about this but at the same time it’s the right time…it’s not the end of archaeology on TV for me. I’m looking at fresh new exciting ways of doing that. But it is the end of Digging For Britain for me.”
However the biological anthropologist, writer, and broadcaster (and The Detectorists guest star) remains busy. Alongside her university work she’s also preparing to embark on a 15-date tour across the UK in November.
Titled From Cell to Civilisation, the description pledges to, “…take you on a journey through 4 billion years of evolution in one evening, blending evolutionary biology, genetics and archaeology and using theatrical sound, light and imagination to bring the science to life in a way that you’ve never seen before.”, reports the Express.
Things might have turned out completely differently though, as despite her stellar television career Alice never aspired to celebrity status and was a studious teenager who initially intended to become a medical doctor – specifically a surgeon. “When I was 11, I knew I wanted to be a medical doctor. So by 16 I was on that course of learning,” she told the Big Issue in 2023. But she was diverted into academia which led to her current career. “I didn’t stay in medicine and sometimes that’s a sort of regret for me… I did what I anticipated would be six months at the University of Bristol teaching anatomy. But that turned into 11 years.”
She became captivated by the role and the “massive collection of medieval bones” housed in the basement of Bristol Royal Infirmary. This would pave the way for her involvement with the archaeology TV programme, Time Team, initially as a bone specialist and later as a presenter.
Further television opportunities emerged on programmes including Coast, Britain’s Most Historic Towns, Extreme Archaeology, Britain’s Biggest Dig, The Day The Dinosaurs Died, Food Detectives, Origins Of Us, and Fortress Britain. Beyond her presenting duties, she is also a bestselling writer of publications such as Antatomical Oddities, Buried, Ancestors, and The Incredible Unlikeliness Of Being. While her career appears to be flourishing, her personal life has been considerably more turbulent. A staunch atheist, she was raised in a deeply religious household from which she would eventually become alienated. In 2018 her mother Wendy penned a letter to The Sunday Times declaring she was “embarrassed” and “upset” by a campaign launched by her daughter to remove public funding for faith schools. Alice later told the newspaper she felt saddened by her mother’s words.
During a Radio 4’s All in the Mind appearance, she revealed why she chose not to attend her mother’s funeral. “I’d almost thought, ‘Well, I shouldn’t be feeling sad, because I instigated the separation.’ But the sadness is, again, about a relationship that I never really had,” she explained.
In a 2024 interview with The Times she revealed: “I’ve been completely estranged from them for many years.” She elaborated further, acknowledging: “It’s very difficult, because it’s very difficult to decide to become estranged. But I think that it’s allowed me to recognise, really recognise, the importance of other relationships. I have relationships in the wider family that have actually always been important and I’m very lucky in that respect. My cousin is like a sister. We are very, very close indeed – and my aunt. My aunt has always been an amazing person in my life and a huge source of emotional support and warmth and love.” She also has a happy home life to retreat to. Since 2009 she has been married to fellow archaeologist David Stevens, who she met in Cardiff in 1995 when she was studying medicine and he was pursuing archaeology. The pair have two children, a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2013.
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