According to received wisdom, native British culture was suppressed by 400 years of Roman rule and the withdrawal of the mighty imperial army in AD 410 threw the country into a state of primitive barbarism, which only came to an end with the invasion by the more advanced Anglo Saxons.
Writer and broadcaster Francis Pryor argues that we have got this version of our history wrong. Francis shows how archaeologists are beginning to reveal that the early history of Britain was a vibrant period in which the population thrived under a series of foreign influences from as far a field as the Middle East and Constantinople without losing their cultural identity.