‘Episode 3: Island Treasures’, which focuses on archaeological projects across islands in Britain, will showcase two of Jersey’s important Ice Ages sites – La Cotte de St Brelade at Ouaisné and the Violet Bank off the south-east coast.

The team behind the programme, which is presented by Alice Roberts, visited Jersey last summer to film the segment, which also includes Jersey Heritage Let Seymour Tower, where archaeologists from University College London (UCL), led by Dr Matt Pope and funded by Jersey Heritage, stayed while they undertook a survey of the Violet Bank.

The Violet Bank is an ancient landscape now preserved beneath the waves. The inter-tidal reef is revealed at low tide, which is when the archaeologists were able to search for evidence of Neanderthals, aiming to discover more about how they hunted and survived there.

As well as footage of the survey being undertaken, the programme also features Dr Pope and Jersey Heritage’s Curator of Archaeology Olga Finch in the ‘Digging for Britain’ finds tent with Alice Roberts, sharing artefacts discovered on the Violet Bank over the years by archaeologists and Islanders.
Past footage of La Cotte de St Brelade, which Alice Roberts visited with ‘Digging for Britain’ in 2011, is also included in the episode.

Dr Pope said: “It is so good to see our work with Jersey Heritage being shared on a programme as popular as ‘Digging for Britain’. Jersey’s stunning coastal landscapes and deep prehistory regularly bring documentary teams to the Island, a testament to the vivid stories the land preserves.”

The episode will be broadcast on BBC2 at 8pm.