Dan Jones hits the road …

… Walking Britain’s Roman Roads, in fact.

It is quite a good series, in which Jones explores some of the most important of these, together with some aspects of Romano-British Society. The first episode takes him the length of Watling Street, the first part of which is now he M2, during which he visits the basement of a Kent tattoo parlour, where the floor shows the original markings. Other episodes shows the roads that crossed at Eboracum, including Dere Street and Ermine Street (parts of the A1(M)), and Hadrian’s Wall. Fosse Way runs from Exeter, through Aqua Sulis and Ratae to Lindum – at the third of these, he stands outside the Cathedral, by the Vaughan Porch, although Richard III resisted the opportunity to emerge and remonstrate with his calumnator (left). At Aqua Sulis, he experienced a massage alongside a female historian, flaunting his own tattoos in a way his mentor (Starkey) wouldn’t. The series ends at Stane Street, or at least the London-Chichester stretch that marks the Romans’ departure.

Obviously, Jones doesn’t walk the whole length of each road but drives most of the way, with his clothes and glasses on. It is good to see him presenting more appropriate programmes, as opposed to this one and this one, which he and Rob Bell ought really to have exchanged.