Who presented an eight-part series on Roman Britain?
Wheeler became famous in Britain as "the embodiment of popular archaeology through the medium of television". In 1952, Wheeler was invited to be a panelist on the new BBC television series, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?. Based on the American quiz programme What in the World?, the show was hosted by Glyn Daniel and featured three experts in archaeology, anthropology, and natural history being asked to identify artefacts which had been selected from various museums. However, Wheeler is alleged to have prepared for the show by checking beforehand which objects had been temporarily removed from display. The show proved popular with British audiences, and would air for six more years. It brought Wheeler to public attention, resulting in a Television Personality of the Year award for him in 1954. He also appeared in an episode of Buried Treasure, an archaeology show also hosted by Daniel, in which the pair travelled to Denmark to discuss Tollund Man. In 1957, he appeared in a second episode of Buried Treasure, for which he travelled to Pakistan to discuss that nation's archaeology, and in 1958 again appeared in an episode, this time on the site of Great Zimbabwe in Southern Rhodesia. In 1959 he presented his own three-part series on The Grandeur That Was Rome, for which he travelled to Hadrian's Wall, Pompeii, and Leptis Magna; the show failed to secure high ratings, and was Wheeler's last major foray into television. Meanwhile, he also made appearances on BBC radio, initially featuring on the John Irving series The Archaeologist, but later presenting his own eight-part series on Roman Britain and also appearing on the series Asian Club, which was aimed primarily at newly arrived migrants from the Indian subcontinent.
Wheeler