George McGavin and Alice Roberts front this 2012 BBC Two trilogy that reconstructs three human ancestors in forensic detail. Over three consecutive nights, the presenters join paleoartist Viktor Deak and a rotating panel of 30 specialists to sculpt life-size bodies from fragmentary remains: La Ferrassie 1’s 70 000-year-old Neanderthal frame, Nariokotome Boy’s 1.6 million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton, and the 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis nicknamed Lucy. Each hour blends CT scanning, gait labs and dental micro-wear with on-location digs, revealing how upright walking, childbirth and diet shifted across deep time.
Shot in the round inside a purpose-built studio, the series turns fossil preparation into live performance: Deak layers silicone skin over 3D-printed bone scans while Roberts quizzes Donald Johanson about Lucy’s pelvis and John Hawks on Neanderthal genomes. The presenters also submit their own bodies to comparative tests, with Roberts labouring through a reconstructed Neanderthal birth canal and McGavin climbing cliffs to match Homo erectus stride length. Producer Graeme Thomson keeps the tone clinical yet intimate, refusing to dramatise extinction and letting the silences between bones speak instead.
Broadcast 22–24 October 2012, the show averaged 1.7 million viewers and seeded later BBC landmarks such as Origins of Us.
Production Details
BBC Two / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2012
Producer(s): Graeme Thomson
Main Cast
George McGavin as Himself - Presenter
Alice Roberts as Herself - Presenter
Jez Harris as Self
Viktor Deak as Self
Anna Barney as Self
Marco de la Rasilla as Self
John Hawks as Self
Sandra Martelli as Self
Antonio Rosas Gonzalez as Self
Danielle Schreve as Self
Tanya Smith as Self
Colin Shaw as Self
