Bonekickers (2008) s01e03 Episode Script

I'm here outside the historic Pump Room in the centre of Bath where the city may have just experienced its first earth tremor in over 300 years.
Earlier, Valentine's Day diners were overcome by a release of highly toxic gas.
Three people are said to be in a critical condition and authorities are baffled as to how this bizarre and frightening events could have occurred.
Have you found what you're looking for, apart from each other? Gillian! Have you seen the local news? No, what is it? A terrible and wonderful thing.
You're in love? God no, not as terrible as that.
Some people have been gassed.
.
.
Of the surrounding region which leads us to understand that a global erm focus sets the em.
.
most important context, and then, yes, I've got a slide I hope it's a monkeyjuggling batons cos I can't see how this funding delegation is going to stay awake.
? Ah, Dr Magwilde, he's boring, make his speech better.
Daniel, there's a very excited man outside looking for you.
With a cheque book.
.
Get your coat, you've pulled.
What's happened? The chance of a lifetime.
You wanna go underground? Ah.
Do you have a late note? Sorry.
I feel a bit sick, I need a smoothie That's what five pints of scrumpy'll do to you.
Oh, I see.
A night of drinking, coy snatched glances the next day.
He can still taste her on his lips What? Was it a? No, no it wasn't.
Was it? No.
He showed me the sights, we popped into The Green Tree All right, losing interest now.
So what's going on? There's a hollow area under these baths we've never had a chance to get at it.
Till now.
You know it's just going to be more Roman remains, Gilly.
We had a bet.
A bet? What bet? It's very complicated but involves Celts and Romans and Gillian being completely wrong.
Well, if I'm wrong I will cough up.
I'm none the wiser here.
Could somebody draw me a picture? Hold it.
Who are you lot? You the engineer? Geologist if you don't mind.
jeff Greenwood.
We're from Wessex University.
Archaeologists.
And bon viveurs.
And in some cases erotic adventurers.
Well the quake dislodged part of the old flooring.
Made a bloody big hole.
We recon a pocket of hydrogen sulphide from the sulphur springs was released from underground.
Obviously, they're going to evacuate the town centre.
No, just the baths.
These seismic wobbles only happen twice in a millennium.
Oh, and it's Valentine's and no-one wants to stem the flow of romantic cash into the shops.
Is it OK if we take a peek? No.
Whole thing's a death-trap.
Needs bracing.
Now if you don't mind, I have about a thousand samples to test back at the lab.
Cheers.
Bracing sounds serious, we're not really going down there, are we? Ben, check your torch batteries.
Locked and loaded.
No, hang on it sounds dangerous.
I'm sorry that your flaming young life is about to be cut short.
But Gillian has a theory and we all have money riding on it.
At least if you perish, you'll perish with your one true love.
There's a honeycomb of tunnels and unexplored areas under the baths.
Back in Roman times, it would have been the perfect place to hide someone.
Hide someone? This is the first time these walls have been illuminated by electric light.
It's limestone.
But it's been hand-hewn.
Not squared-off.
Mmm, not very Roman, Benjamin? I'd say this was Celtic.
The Romans liked to build on top of Celtic sites of worship.
Subjugate the people.
Eradicate their heritage.
That's the Romans - brutal, thorough, effective.
There may be Celtic remnants here, but it still doesn't prove your theory.
Nothing's going to prove that.
What's the theory? What do you think happened down here? Someone was hidden here? Let's dig.
All clear down there? Yes, sir.
Great.
We'll do a quick detector sweep, open a couple of ground-sections and see what gives.
D'you think we'll have time to do all that before we're prosecuted, evicted and sacked from ourjobs? Return, please.
I need you to stop Dr Ergha boring the pants off my delegation this evening.
No, no way, Daniel, I can't.
'We're conducting an ad hoc investigation! You give the talk.
I am giving them the guided tour, so tonight's lecture better be completely wonderful because if they do not open their wallets you'll be looking for another position with a faculty head as sweet and indulgent of your whims as I am.
Ah, what a thoroughly incongruous place to find a inscription.
'Flamma urit semper.
' The Fire Will Always Burn.
Sounds like a bad album title.
So, do you think he wrote it? Long shot.
Come on, let me in on this.
Who are we talking about? What's your theory and what's the big mystery down here? Tell me that's First Century Celtic.
That is First Century Iron Age Celtic.
That's a Celtic belt buckle.
OK, bags, BAGS! This is like a settlements' worth of stuff! Look at this, the Sun God of the Celts.
This is Celtic holy ground This is a most extraordinary find.
OK, but the Romans wanted to eradicate Celts.
Why didn't they just destroy all this? Unless this stuff was buried after the baths were built.
Oh, come on, tell her, Gilly.
OK, here.
What does that tell you? It's a ring.
It's Celtic.
First Century Yeah, we told you that.
It's twisted.
Like it was melted.
And we're not pulling out any pieces of fabric of any kind.
These things were rescued from a fire? And the people that owned them were burnt.
Let's take these treasures back to the van and get the rest of the gear.
There was a Celtic uprising.
It was quashed and the rebel leader was pursued.
The Romans torched any village that may have been hiding Ah, sorry, this is speculation.
We know this from Marcus Quintanus! Marcus Quintanus? All we know is what we get from De Vita Quintanus The Life Of Quintanus.
An obscure Roman inventor and engineer.
Helped build these baths.
Then he went back to Rome and took up a nondescript clerical job but his servant wrote a rather hazy account of his life.
Now some of this was lost when Rome burnt a few years later The Great Fire.
Poor Quintanus himself died in the blaze.
But some of the biography survived.
I picked up a copy, a Victorian one, at auction.
Which is in rotten colloquial Latin and not really worth bothering with But something in what it said got Dr Magwilde here frothy around the nether-regions.
Ouintanus's biographer reckoned he kept two prisoners under the baths.
One of them was a woman.
A 'warrior'.
Or it could translate as 'peasant'.
And it can translate as warrior.
SO.
.
a Celtic female warrior leads an uprising, is beaten But gets away.
Flees south along the only escape route possible, the Fosse Way Which could bring her to Bath.
Where the village that hides her is torched.
She's captured by Marcus Quintanus and imprisoned here? Three points to the pert-breasted tousle-haired siren to my right.
And her name? - Boadicea! - Ooohhh! And you were doing so well.
An 18th century translation error means that everyone gets her name wrong.
Unbelievably beautiful.
Iceni coinage.
Gorgeous! OK.
So maybe the Celts had Iceni with them or maybe they traded with Iceni.
But it's still a connection to Boudicca.
Warrior queen.
It's not proof.
You ain't won no bet, girl.
Let's get the rest of the stuff.
But wasn't Boudicca defeated in battle? Didn't she kill herself rather than be taken prisoner, somewhere in the Midlands? That's what the Romans want us to think.
But maybe her story continues.
The manuscript says he kept two prisoners.
Who was the other? And what did Quintanus want with Boudicca? Probably kept her as a sex slave.
They liked to humiliate the warrior queen by raping her.
Let's just hope she bit off a few Roman bollocks along the way.
What? What is it, boys? It's nothing, it's you and her and the whole It's nothing, are we set? SO good night last night? Oh, here we go No, I'm serious.
Was young Vivienne good company or were you punching below your weight? She was a laugh.
End of.
What did you talk about? You mostly.
Me? Here we go, here's the baggies.
I love that word, 'baggies'.
Bassies So, you going to cough up? You cannot know Boudicca was here.
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.
Or simply go on the evidence in front of you.
You're scared, Ben.
Scared to take a leap.
Ride a little imagination once in a while You know sometimes you sound like your mother.
And that scares me.
It's just one of those after tremors that happens twice every millennium.
Um, you can let go of him now.
Look.
Here.
.
A jawbone, human.
Adult.
Multiple fractures.
Oh, that is lovely.
Right, let's see if we can find the rest of him.
Or her.
I should do a strontium test on one of those teeth.
OK, take everything back to the lab.
We'll carry on here.
Viv, you go with him.
But I want to stay on the dig.
Dolly gives good strontium, watch and learn.
That ground was shaking like a kid's fun-house at the fair.
I think we should at least tell somebody Ah, that would be tricky as we are down there illegally after all.
Arrests would be made.
A show trial.
We'd find ourselves deported to the University of Holyhead or some similar gulag.
I just wonder if staying down's a bit crazy? Well, her mother would've stayed.
What did you know about her? Karen Magwilde? Brilliant.
Liked her picture in the papers, even at university.
You were at uni with her? A spring chicken like me? Don't be ridiculous.
But you've met her? What is she like? It's ancient history.
I like ancient history.
Karen forsook academic inquiry for daydreaming.
Developed an obsession for something.
.
something spurious.
In Gillian's flat, there's this room.
The walls.
.
they're covered with pictures of All you need to know is that Karen's quest wrecked her.
It lost her her credibility and she suffered a breakdown.
It was tragic.
And now, I worry for Gillian, I really do.
Why? Sometimes, Vivienne, men become distracted around you, you may have noticed.
This is because they are trying to function while wondering how you'd appear in the shower soaping your naked body.
This has a point I hope.
These thoughts render them incapable of rational judgement.
My point is that a little imagination can be a dangerous thing.
Trust me on that.
Have you got any Valentine's yet? No, because I'm not a preening twelve-year-old schoolgirl.
Did you? I haven't checked my in-tray.
So Quintanus probably brought her Possibly brought her Possibly brought her to this Celtic holy place.
Why? I mean, yes, there's evidence of a Roman presence with the inscription and that but Do you really buy that she was his sex slave? Well we know from his servant's manuscript that he was a confirmed atheist.
And these are Celt things She buried them.
To put the dead to rest.
And maybe.
.
maybe he let her! It's coming from the shopping centre.
Check out those crazy acoustics.
Gilly, Quintanus did not bring Boudicca down here, he could have paraded her through the streets of Rome in chains.
He'd have been a hero.
Well, he didn't.
See, there you go again, that's a whopping great leap Oh, Mr sodding practical.
'Did you know your Christmas tree's at forty degrees?' You still bang on about that, well it was.
First Christmas at university digs.
I just don't think it's a nice way to treat your neighbour.
Slagging off her decorations Look, I noticed it was leaning, and Ijust came along.
.
It was a good thing I had the special base.
Oh, ho ho, yes, I wondered when we'd get to the 'special base'.
That thing with ratchet and clamps.
I mean where did you get that, the Inquisition? Oh, and then did you ask me to your room to listen to music? Oh, yes, so sweet.
And I start going out with a man who listens to George Michael.
And I start going out with a girl who likes Queen.
Anyway, it wasn't George Michael.
- Er, Faith? - Ohh Oh, yeah, you've got to have Faith, Mr Practical.
A bit of solidity was what you needed in your life.
You had your mum.
.
Oh, yes, OK, my mum, yes, she'd gone loop the loop.
Well, that was then.
My tree is straight, metaphorically speaking.
Oh, my God! Look! We'll feed a fibre optic down and we can have a proper look, Gilly, what are you? No, no.
.
What are you doing? Give over, you George-Michael-loving crazy boy.
We don't know that it's safe No jury would convict me.
Gilly get back up here.
Gilly, come on, we have to go.
Gilly, come on! Gilly! Gi! Oh, God, oh, no, Gilly.
Gilly come here come on, come on, let's get you up.
Come on.
Look, look, look at me, look at me, come on, focus, look at me come on just stop groping me! Yeah, you're OK.
It's blocked up top.
We can't get out that way.
Hey, look.
'Flamma urit semper.
' The Fire Will Always Burn.
This writing's starting to look obsessive.
They went deeper.
Why? HEY! HEEEYY! HELP! ANYONE! We're too deep for anyone to hear us.
What? Too deep for anyone to hear, which is exactly what they wanted! The authorities are not ruling out an after-tremor.
The gas leak itself has landed fifteen people in hospital.
Two are thought to be in a critical condition with the remaining Now, I want you to cut a decent sized section.
.
Ah, hard at work, I see.
Please don't mind our special guests.
Professor Parton and his assistant are working on strontium analysis.
Professor? Oh Well, there are traces of the isotope strontium in everything we eat and drink.
Up until the age of about 12, this strontium builds up in our teeth, but it remains for thousands of years after we die.
Food and water from one valley will carry a different strontium signature than food from elsewhere.
But the interesting.
.
Thank you, Professor, it's not The Open University.
Would you remind doctors Ergha and Magwilde where they need to be tonight.
Lecture theatre being impressive.
Shall we go and have a look at the library.
'.
.
Geologist jeff Greenwood that perhaps this is the result of a leaking gas main.
'I think that's unlikely.
This gas has a distinct sulphurous odour.
'It's possible that there are large untapped pockets, but more tests.
It sounds like there's something really bad down there.
I think we should call them.
Oh, they're probably bimbling about or on a sarnie break.
This is where the real work is done.
Maybe this means I won't have to do that bloody speech tonight.
Ben! BEN! It's purple tesserae.
Well, wow, I'm going to die looking at the rarest Egyptian porphyry I've ever seen¡£ We're not going to die Gilly, our way out is blocked by a ton of rock, a ton of rock! Gilly, that would crush us if we sneezed too loud.
Why didn't you listen to me? Why can't you just learn to wait?! So we're looking for isotope levels associated with alluvial deposits.
Characteristics of East Anglia.
Boudicca's stomping ground.
Precisely.
We want a strontium 87 to 86 ratio of about 7.
08.
No! Hell's tits! 7.
05 which suggests volcanic activity.
- Not Boudicca? - Not even close.
This jawbone is distinctly bloody Roman.
Quintanus? Marcus Quintanus.
Magnificent! No, we know he went back to Rome.
He died there.
But how reliable is this manuscript of yours? Meaning? Well, we've found part of a Roman skull.
And Boudicca was no shrinking violet.
Did she kill him down there? Okay, kill me.
I deserve it.
You know Quintanus laid loads of mosaics.
Look.
Look at the mirror in her hand.
It's like the one they found at the Birdlip dig.
The kind of mirror only possessed by a queen.
A Celtic queen.
Ah, no, no that's insane! She killed herself in battle! An ignominious end.
One the Romans could've invented because, because really she escaped.
Gregory Scimmietta mia.
Salsicciotta, bella.
Gloria, you look ravishing as ever.
Oh, well, the cruel passage of time.
No, no, I can only see the top of your head Oh, ah! Bellissimo.
So you call me because the fire of your loins is lit once more? Never went out, my love.
No, my motives today are purely professional.
Marcus Quintanus, the engineer and inventor.
Now, I know he is supposed to have died in Rome, but could he have been killed here, underneath the baths? He, of course, died in the Great Fire of Rome.
Well, it was the Christians' revenge, of course.
Nero kept tarring them and setting them alight so he could read at night.
We have a small team in Italy who take an interest in The Life Of Quintanus.
And there are spaces and holes.
But on the matter of Ouintanus's betrayal of Rome Betrayal? My text says nothing about any betrayal.
Your copy of The Life? 19th Century.
Ours is 17th.
More complete.
Now, this earlier version ofthe text - you're sure it says that Quintanus returned from Britain to Rome? Yes, and he died in the Great Fire.
But before that he did something.
The servant writes of a terrible betrayal of Rome, but we do not know what it was but I will fax to you, scimmietta mia.
Mmm.
You are my sun, my moon, my stars.
But I ask What is it you have found? Ah, Celtic goodies.
Maybe even Iceni.
We found these also.
In Roma.
Iceni coins, in Rome? Where?' I don't know, but I will contact you.
It's all a fascinating mystery.
Like the passion we have for each other.
- Ciao.
- Ciao, bella.
Quintanus returns home and commits an act of betrayal against Rome? Why? Well, I know this guy.
What's wrong? Why are you crying? Cupid fires his arrow at Boudicca?! Quintanus didn't imprison her down here he brought her here to protect her! Th-That's ridiculous.
No, that's what happened.
She stayed down here and he carved his feelings on the wall and laid these little love patterns.
Little love patterns? Gillian, a Roman for an Iceni? It makes no sense.
That's right, because love makes no sense.
You know it's not practical, it follows no rules.
You know love is at a forty degree angle and it can not be straightened.
They are the two prisoners mentioned in The Life Quintanus and Boudicca.
Trapped by their love.
Ben There's a breeze coming through these tesserae.
And there's something nastier coming the other way.
What, it's gas? Gas! It's gas! Where's it coming from? Everywhere! The walls it's seeping in everywhere! Why's it coming now? It's diffusing through the fissures in the rock.
DO it! DO IT! The gas is heavier than the air.
We need to find a way above it.
Keep moving.
Gillian, keep going.
Archaeology department, hello? 'Hello, can I speak to Dr Magwilde, please?' She's not here, I can take a message.
'Oh, that will be perfect.
Ask her if she's received the book.
' The book? Hello? I think we're OK.
I think we're OK.
It's way behind us now.
Boudicca in love with a Roman?! Admit it! Look, I'll admit it's a love story, yes.
We don't know it was Boudicca or that it was Quintanus.
All we know is that we're being pursued by sulphuric gas Ben.
.
this is a.
.
My God, I don't believe it.
What does it look like to you? Looks like an apple.
Maybe the high mineral content in the water over the centuries, created this mineral fossil.
Look at that! It's beautiful the atmospheric conditions stopped it rotting preserved it.
It hasn't affected these.
No, only organic material.
No idea.
Some sort of burial ritual? Canopicjars For ashes or organs or something? There's liquid in this one.
It's two chambers.
There's water in one and some kind of tar in the other.
A pyrophoric reaction.
Good word-use.
Why, thank you! Oh, God! - You all right? - Yeah, are you OK? Yeah, yeah I think I lost an eyebrow.
So, when the liquid from the two chambers are mixed It's a weapon.
It's kinda like a Roman hand-grenade.
Something that would come in handy if you're going to torch a Celtic village.
If these are Quintanus's weapons, what was he trying to protect? just please be careful.
Saltpetre, quicklime.
.
it's basically napalm.
You need sulphur to make this.
Quintanus must have stockpiled it.
There could be tons of this stuff hidden down here.
Moisture is added through the rocks over centuries and produces the gas.
The gas builds up, it explodes, boom! That's your earth tremor.
Gillian we can't stay here Oh, my God! They must be buried out there.
It's a minefield.
That's the gas Eventually that stuff's going to catch up to us and we'll pass out.
Yeah, we're in big trouble, I'm glad you've worked that out now.
It's Vivcalling, please.
I still can't raise the others.
Marvellous! Whole pieces of the Quintanus manuscript I've never seen.
Good old Gloria.
This page it's got writing across it at right angles.
It's all faded.
It's a palimpsest.
Written at right anglesjust like the ancient Archimedes manuscripts.
So the original layer was scrubbed out and written over? When the fax machine scanned it, it flooded the document with light revealing whatever lay beneath.
According to this, Quintanus, the architect and engineer also designed a remarkable new weapon.
Good God Cassius the General ofthe Ninth Legion made him test it on the villages they suspected of harbouring a warrior Celt.
The settlements along the Fosse Way that Gillian was talking about? He was made to burn them in their hunt for Boudicca.
No wonder Quintanus preferred to remain an atheist.
Who would want any god judging them after that? Forgive me.
Ben, we have to go across.
I'll go first.
No, no, no! No, I have to! I got us into this.
Yes, you did but I'll get us out.
Right OK No, erm, don't get too close to me, OK? In case I Well, in case.
You should have gone first.
I am.
But you didn't.
What are you on about? Valentine's Day.
The gas has gotten to you.
Down here, Ben, in this dark, terrible place, two people needed each other and they fell in love and they tried to protect that love from a cruel, heartless world.
? With their minefield of I'amour I swear if you keep going, I'll step on a bomb deliberately.
I knew you wouldn't do it.
I knew you wouldn't propose.
So I went first.
Maybe you could have chosen a more convenient time to discuss this? Well, no, Ben, because actually, this terrible place is all about love.
And I think we're going to die.
I proposed to you .
.
On Valentine's Day 1992 .
.
On bended knee.
And you answered.
And something in me broke.
My life was at forty degrees and yours was straight up but that doesn't mean that you should have said no.
That that was the end of us.
And every year at this time .
.
well, I just think about that.
Look, Gillian just because I said no, it doesn't mean that I didn't by Wet Wet Wet Well, this could not get any weirder.
Come on, all right? Come on That's it, that's it You scared me, Gillian.
You were always so obsessed with your work.
I knew I was going to be second fiddle and it scared me.
It's love.
You're meant to be scared.
.
.
that was a long time ago.
Well, so was all this.
But it can still hurt you.
Oh, my God.
What? Tingling down my spine.
Those hand grenades were booby traps, maybe there's something down here.
Something hidden.
We're close.
Do you believe me? I don't know what to believe any more.
That's OK.
I'll believe for both of us.
So, what have you got? Those who believe go to Minerva's seat where the Sun God gazes upon the face of janus.
Now this is odd because this is mixing Roman gods with Celtic ones.
And this? Incende.
Incende.
'Burn.
Burn.
'Burn.
' What did that inscription say? 'The fire will always burn'.
You see this is good Latin, educated grammar.
So not written by the servant? Perhaps these lines are written by Quintanus? Old Marcus writes a load of inflammatory rant.
Then he goes and does something against Rome, a 'betrayal'.
His slave rubs out all the evidence and dashes off a little whitewash job about all the wonderful weapons his master built for the Ninth Legion.
You got mail.
Oh This is from my Roman goddess, Gloria.
Oh, now this is interesting This coin Her people found some scattered among the remains of Nero's palace.
So did Quintanus throw Iceni coins around in Rome? While Rome burned? And there's another connection, this talks about Minerva's Seat, and the baths were dedicated to the goddess Minerva.
This was her seat.
Let's go and get Gillian and Ben.
We'll show them what we've got.
They'll be glad of a little excitement.
Come on.
What's going on? What the hell's happened? There was an aftershock and it caved.
We've roped off.
When it's light No, hold your horses! - We can't leave them - What? Our friends are down there! They've been down there all afternoon.
Trapped while we've been God damn! Damn it! just wait right there! Don't move! Oi! We've got people trapped down there! We're testing teeth and reading bloody Latin while they've been Gregory, you idiot! Mea culpa! Mea culpa! That's her.
The calcium carbonate mineralised the body and over the years crystals have grown around it.
Queen ofthe Britons.
It's written in some kind of tar.
And he, a Roman, declares her the rightful queen of Britain.
We found her - Can they still be alive? - Of course.
Of course they can.
If there was another exit How can we know? There are no maps, no Roman plans - janus! - What? Those who believe go to Minerva's seat where the Sun God gazes upon the face of janus.
Now Marcus Quintanus wrote that.
And? janus is the god of exits and entrances.
Minerva's seat, that's this place, dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.
This Sun God in all probability was placed on a pediment at the entrance to the baths.
Now that's bizarre! If it's Celtic! Why would a Roman do that? To honour the Celts.
Boudicca! To point to the secret entrance of a Celtic holy place he wanted to preserve.
So there's an entrance.
Or an exit, if you're trying to escape.
Yes! A secret shrine.
How do you think she died? If they were discovered, perhaps she was killed.
Let's hope the jawbone we dug up belonged to the man who found them The bastard got what he deserved.
My Queen Alive In chains Along the via Appia My prisoner Come, or more of your people die at the hands of neat little weapons of Quintanus Queen of the Britons.
You are under arrest So if the Sun God was up there that puts him facing the Abbey.
That wouldn't have been there then.
It was just open land leading down to the Avon.
just the river The river! The Romans sluiced all the waste water from these baths directly from the baths down to the river Avon! - Ask me how? - How? A great drain! They're trying to get us out.
At this rate they'll kill us.
They're dislodging the pockets in the water-table Water?! Oh, no, no, no, no, that's not good.
Too much water mixing with the saltpetre And we're standing in a big bomb.
- Hey! Stop! - Stop! - Stop drilling! - Stop drilling! Stop! Stop drilling! We may have to blast.
Boudicca! No, no, leave her! Leave her!Leave her! Look at me! Look at me.
Now, that imagination of yours, You have permission to use it.
OK Quintanus brought her here but we know he didn't die with her because he went back to Rome.
OK And he laid traps behind him to kill anyone that entered the caves.
And? And, and.
.
and so there has to be another way out.
Right, come on, we've got to find it.
Gilly, I think I've found it! Shouldn't we tell someone what we're doing? Bureaucracy is overrated.
Come on Give us some help! Did you hear that? Over here.
Ben?! GILLIAN! GILLIAN! HELLO! Ben! BEN! Gillian! Ben! - Here! - Here! We're in here! Where's it coming from? Here! The Sun God! What do we do? Pray? Hold this.
Come on! Come on, come on! Come on, jump! Gilly, Gilly come on.
What the hell were you playing at? Did you break anything up there? No, it was fine.
just a routine dig.
Are you OK? I think so.
I thought we'd lost you.
You don't get rid of me that easily.
Come on.
She lost.
No, no, she won.
Quintanus avenged her.
How? He set fire to Rome.
He knew how to set a blaze.
And before he died, he threw Iceni coins into the ravaged palace of Nero.
Boudicca won.
That's a big 'what if'.
Well, sometimes, in this job, you've got to take a leap.
Your hair What? Three years at uni and you never knew.
What? What we all called you behind your back.
Boudicca, the Celtic warrior queen.
Let's get a drink.
There you go, then.
The human heart, OK.
A tough, blood-drenched organ.
So, in terms of this speech, I've given it some thought.
I think I'd like to say something like this - Most archaeologists believe that the question 'what if?' is not a useful one.
You see, we deal in the tangible, the measurable.
But when we dig into the ground, perhaps we are opening the pages of a book.
And reading the first line ofthe first chapter.
Once upon a time there was a man.
Once upon a time there was a woman.
We can know what height they were.
We can learn what they wore or what they ate.
But can we know what moods touched them? The dreams they had? The loves? What we do know is that people do not fit into boxes and therefore neither does the history they make.
Human life isn't straight and rigid.
It's kinked, it's at an angle.
If archaeologists don't, from time to time, use their imagination, then they are in danger of missing those kinks.
Yes, we need evidence, but evidence will only get us so far.
Then then we need to dream a little.
Because it's by dreaming that we can make that vital leap back into another time.
Dreaming isn't without its risks, its ridicule, its ruin even.
We have to be brave enough to take such a step.
And some .
.
well, some are braver than others.
So, here's to the science, and here's to the scientific dreamers who are invariably the pioneers.
Bravissimo.
Excellent work, doctor.
You'll have them eating out of your shoe.
Let's pop a jacket on.
Shall we? You look like a farmer's son.
You got it then.
What? just wanted to check you'd got the package.
What do you know about it? Just a man called.
But he didn't leave a name.
Who called? Henry Timberdyne? I just told you, he didn't leave a name! Why are you here, Vivienne? This came from the geologists.
The drilling and blasting released crap off the walls and they thought we'd like to see what was exposed.
That sword Yes, that sword.
Or a sword.
Or no sword in particular.
Gilly, a little pioneering imagination is wonderful but it can also be a dangerous thing.
Young Viv worships you, you know? She'd follow you anywhere.
Please be careful where you lead her, eh? Cultural delegation from Iraq.
I am here for something so important.
We were the cradle of civilisation.
We had sex twice.
That's the one.
Babylonian devil worship? If she's with him, her life is at risk.
Do you get to wear a cape and a mask? Damn that woman.
Sorry, mate.
So important a man has died over it? Where is she? I've got an Etruscan spear in my hand and I'm not afraid to use it.
You don't know what's at stake!