CH5 - Rory McGrath's Pub Dig (2012)

Give comedian Rory McGrath (Two Men in a Trench) a hard hat, team him up with motorbike-riding field archaeologist Paul Blinkhorn, Saxon and Medieval pottery expert, and get them to dig beneath some of the country's oldest pubs. Archaeology, history, banter, beer – it might just turn out to be a magic formula. Rory and Paul root around beneath some of the country's oldest boozers to reveal hundreds of years of British history. Enjoying a pint or two on the way, they literally dig up the history of the pub. With their team of experts and noisy excavator machines, they dig up our favourite beer gardens and pub car parks to reveal the juiciest stories from our past. No bone, stone or ale is un-investigated in their tireless search for what makes Britain tick. But they're not just on a drunken jolly; pubs are often the oldest buildings in our cities and towns and they sit on undisturbed vaults of archaeological treasure. And, being pubs, the sites themselves conceal the evidence of centuries of carousing, violence, revolutionary plots and a vast array of dirty deeds – the juicy bits of British history. The duo digs through time to expose the smuggling, carousing, the plotting and the violence that has shaped Britain's turbulent past.

Part 1: The Command House in Chatham
Rory and Paul begin their pub dig journey at the Command House pub in Chatham, Kent, digging through 400 years of naval history in search of Henry VIII's lost Tudor docks and relics from the time of Nelson and the British Empire. Surprisingly, no one has dug here before, so this is completely unchartered territory. As the team begin to dig, they come down on the foundations of a huge Georgian storehouse, once filled with the cannon that armed ships like Nelson's Victory , but the ultimate aim is to find archaeology from the time when Henry VIII and Elizabeth I ruled Britain. Finding the lost dockyard would be a major discovery, as it was where the fleet that destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588 was based.

Part 2: Ye Olde Smugglers Inne in Alfriston
Comedian Rory McGrath and archaeologist Paul Blinkhorn root around in the grounds of another British pub. They are at Ye Olde Smugglers Inne in Alfriston, East Sussex, once the home of 19th-century smuggler Stanton Collins. A building has been on the site for the last 700 years. However, as they dig down into the beer garden in search of the contraband that gave the pub its name, all they turn up is piece after piece of Victorian junk, so they turn to the building itself, hearing tales of ingenious tunnels and other escape routes used to avoid the attentions of customs men. The team have only been granted 5 days by the landlord to dig down to the darker times when the sussex Coast was part of the Badlands of Britain and Alfriston was rife with organised crime, smuggling gangs and murderers.

Part 3: The Six Bells in St Albans
Rory McGrath, Paul Blinkhorn and the 'time gentleman please' team dig up the car park of the Six Bells in St Albans, Hertfordshire, searching for Roman treasure. They have high hopes of a good find as the pub lies within the walls of the ancient town of Verulamium and begin by drilling down through 2,000 years of history. They discover an 18th-century lime kiln, evidence of medieval pilgrimages and even a recipe for nettle beer, before unearthing a find beyond their wildest expectations that gets the archaeologists very excited indeed. The team dig through 2,000 years of booze drenched history in search of what could be a major Roman building lurking under the beer cellar.

Part 4: Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn in Banbury
Comedian Rory McGrath and alcohologist Paul Blinkhorn visit Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn in Banbury, Oxfordshire, where Oliver Cromwell was said to have plotted the Civil War Battle of Edgehill and sat in judgement on several Royalist trials. As they excavate the ground surrounding the building, they almost break into a bank vault before firing a 17th-century musket and brewing up some of the town's memorable cock ale. But then they make a discovery that may require the history books to be rewritten. As Pub Dig peel back over 600 years of history they reveal the true extent of civil war destruction in the city and unearth the long lost dramatic remains of the x rated medieval world lurking beneath the streets of modern Banbury.