Julian Richards

As of 2005 he has presented six series of Meet the Ancestors, a five-part series Blood of the Vikings in 2002, both for BBC 2. In addition, he has written books to accompany both series. For Radio 4 he has presented eleven series of Mapping the Town.

Meet the Ancestors was commissioned in late 1996. In the spring of 1997 Richards took a year's leave from English Heritage to work on it. He resigned his day job to work full-time in broadcasting and writing when a second series was commissioned.

With fellow project managers Peter Cox and John Hawkes from Wessex Archaeology, Richards started AC Archaeology in 1991. This was a small independent organisation, still based in Wiltshire, created when the founders decided they wanted an alternative to large organisations.

In 1980 he joined the new group Wessex Archaeology, based in Salisbury. He ran the Stonehenge Environs Project, a detailed study of Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape. This gave him his first experience of the media, where he contributed parts to programmes about Stonehenge.

Richards was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire. He studied at Reading University. Between 1975 and 1980, he worked for the Berkshire Archaeological Unit, helping to build the county Sites and Monuments Record. He excavated and carried out a survey of the Berkshire Downs.

Julian C. Richards FSA, MIFA (born 1951) is a British television and radio presenter, writer and archaeologist with over 30 years' experience of fieldwork and publication.