Julian Richards

"For the film director see Julian Richards (director)"

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

Early career

Between 1975 and 1980 he worked for the Berkshire Archaeological Unit, helping to build the county Sites and Monuments Record, excavating and carrying out a survey of the Berkshire Downs.

In 1980 he joined Wessex Archaeology, then newly created, based in Salisbury, where he ran the "Stonehenge Environs Project", a detailed study of Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape. This gave him his first experience of the media, contributing small parts to programmes about Stonehenge.

With fellow project managers from Wessex Archaeology, Peter Cox and John Hawkes, Richards started AC Archaeology in 1991. This was a small independent organisation, still based in Wiltshire, created when the founders realised they had had enough of working for a large organisation.

After three years he left the word of commercial archaeology and joined English Heritage to work on their Monuments Protection Programme (MPP). Taking him back to his fieldwork roots, he was responsible for inspecting and preparing reports on the protection of important archaeological sites in Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Media career

Shortly after joining the MPP he was asked to contribute to another TV programme about how Stonehenge was built. This led to a new idea for television that eventually became "Meet the Ancestors".

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

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, and he has written books to accompany both series. For Radio 4 he has presented eleven series of "Mapping the Town".

Richards is also responsible for creating two site interactive games, "Hunt the Ancestor" (for which he has won a British Archaeology award) and ‘Viking Quest’ for the BBC History website. He has also been a regular contributor the BBC History website and magazine.

In addition to the British Archaeological Award for "Hunt the Ancestor" he has another for the programme "Chariot Queen". On his personal website he also says that he has a Blue Peter badge.

Julian lives with his family in Shaftesbury, Dorset where he maintains his special interest in the prehistory of Wessex and in particular Stonehenge.

External links

* [http://www.archaemedia.net Archaemedia.net] - Personal site
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/communicate/archive/julian_richards/page1.shtml Transcript of BBC web chat] - November 2001
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/meettheancestors/march_live_chat.shtml Transcript of BBC web chat] - March 2003
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/mappingthetown.shtml BBC Radio 4] - "Mapping the Town" pages
* [http://uktv.co.uk/history/item/aid/535166 Profile] at UKTV History
* [http://www.meettheauthor.com/bookbites/226.html Meet the Author] - Video of Julian Richards talking about his book "Stonehenge: A History in Photographs" (Realplayer)