- Neil Oliver
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Neil Oliver Born 1967
Ayr, ScotlandOccupation Archaeologist, journalist and television presenter Neil Oliver (born Ayr, 2 March 1967) is a Scottish broadcaster and author. He grew up in Ayr and Dumfries before attending Glasgow University to study archaeology. He is best known as a presenter of the documentary series Coast.
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Television career
Oliver's television debut came in 2002 with BBC Two's Two Men in a Trench, which featured Oliver and close friend, Tony Pollard, visiting historic British battlefields and recreating the battle situation using state of the art archaeological techniques. In addition to the TV series, Oliver co-wrote the two accompanying books.
In 2005, he wrote a tie-in book for the Channel 4 documentary, Not Forgotten which starred Ian Hislop. Oliver then became the archaeological and social history expert on Coast, then in the next series he replaced Nicholas Crane as the show's main presenter and remained as such for the third and fourth series.
2006 saw Oliver appear in two more documentary series, Channel 4's The Face of Britain and BBC Two's Scotland's History: The Top Ten. As well as this, in August 2006 he appeared on the special "Big Royal Dig" edition of Channel 4's Time Team, in which he presented a dig at Holyrood Palace.
Oliver was a contributor to BBC One's The One Show in the summer of 2007. That year he also appeared as one of the presenters of BBC Two series The History Detectives.
Oliver's series A History of Scotland began airing on 9 November 2008 on BBC One Scotland and was broadcast throughout the UK in 2009. The series also has links to radio, online and Open University materials. Like Coast, the programme is a co-production of the BBC and Open University.[1]
On 23 March 2009, Neil Oliver presented a programme on Cleopatra on BBC One. In February 2011 he presented A History of Ancient Britain' on BBC Two.[2] This was followed later in the year by A History of Celtic Britain. He also provided the voiceover for VisitScotland's 2011 television advertisement.[3]
Personal life
He lives in Stirling with his wife Trudi and their three children.[4]
In 2010 he assisted at the launch of the Ask Scotland virtual reference by speaking out in support of the new Scottish library service.[5]
He is a patron of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers.[6]
Publications
- A History of Ancient Britain (2011)
- A History of Scotland (2009)
- Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys (2008)
- Coast from the Air (2007)
- Not Forgotten (2006)
- Castles and Forts (with Simon Adams and Tony Pollard) (2006)
- Two Men in a Trench II: Uncovering the Secrets of British Battlefields (with Tony Pollard) (2003)
- Two Men in a Trench: Battlefield Archaeology - The Key to Unlocking the Past (with Tony Pollard) (2002)
References
- ^ BBC - Press Office - Celebrating Scotland's History
- ^ BBC - BBC Two Programmes - A History of Ancient Britain, Series 1, Episode 1
- ^ "eUpdate: New VisitScotland TV advert". VisitScotland. March 2011. http://visitscotland.briefyourmarket.com/Newsletters/VisitScotland-Local-eUpdate---March-2011-/New-VisitScotland-TV-advert.aspx. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ A Life in the Day: Neil Oliver - Times Online
- ^ http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/library/asklaunch
- ^ Association of Lighthouse Keepers
External links
Categories:- 1967 births
- Living people
- Alumni of the University of Glasgow
- People from South Ayrshire
- Scottish historians
- Scottish television presenters
- People educated at Dumfries Academy
- Historians of Scotland
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