Documentary: A History of Ancient Britain (Series 1)

A BBC documentary series presented by Neil Oliver.

There are four hour-long episodes, which cover the Ice Age, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. (Then there is a second series called "A History of Celtic Britain" which has exactly the same format and covers the Iron Age and Romans).

BBC image from the bbc.co.uk page about the series (episode 3 series 1) - click to visit their page and see short clips from the episodes.

The documentary series is made for adults rather than children, but it is very clearly presented and suitable for any viewer interested learning about history. There is no CGI or the sort of "slow-motion shadows thrown against a cave wall" dramatic film sequences popular in the more "Was Stonehenge built by Atlanteans?" type ancient world documentaries - this is four solid hours of drones flying over English Heritage properties at dawn alternating with Neil Oliver standing on a hill with a raincoat on, telling you about an interesting rock he is holding.

There is no way that Kane, aged five, was going to sit down and watch these episodes in the daytime, as they are way too dry and long and don't include any form of animated alien. However, it turns out that if I very very reluctantly give in to pleas to stay up late and allow him to watch "my TV" with me after bedtime, he will sit quietly and absorb up to 40 minutes of an episode before finally falling asleep on the sofa - which is certainly enough to e.g.: have a quick virtual guided tour around Skara Brae (otherwise too far away to be included on our day-trip schedule).