This is Basil Brown, the archaeologist who single-handedly changed British history forever.

If you’ve watched Netflix’s The Dig, you may have heard of him… Though his name has faded with time, his story is one full of drama.

On the eve of the Second World War, he was invited to excavate a series of mysterious mounds creating the sharp bank that overlooked the River Deben, one of the main riverine arteries that connects Suffolk to the North Sea.

Landowner Edith Pretty, the daughter of an archaeologist who had spent her childhood travelling the world to see exotic, ancient remains, knew there was something special here.

Within days, Brown struck gold - literally.

In a rescue excavation supported by experts from the British Museum (Brown was, after all, ‘only’ a self-taught amateur), a giant clinker-built ship was discovered, laden with early medieval treasures the like of which had never been seen before. Intricately decorated gold-and-garnet jewellery, delicate drinking vessels, weaponry, even a wooden lyre - all lay hidden beneath the vast mound. This was surely, it was deemed, the burial of a king, a rich and powerful, ‘Dark Age’, king.