Television

Presenter

'The Queen and her Lover', Timewatch, BBC2, 15 February 2001
Escape From... (7-part series), Five, May-June 2004 (repeated October-November 2008)
So You Think You're Royal? (8-part series), Sky One, May-July 2007
'The Greatest Knight', Timewatch, BBC2, 19 January 2008 (see inset picture)
'Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns', Timewatch, BBC2, 21 February 2009 (see below for details)

Historical Consultant:

The Desert Rats, ITV1, 14 November 1999
'A Very British Mutiny', Timewatch, BBC2, 4 December 1999
'Zulu: The True Story', Timewatch, BBC2, October 2003
'Elizabeth's Lost Guns', Timewatch, BBC2, March 2009

Talking Head:

'A Very British Mutiny', Timewatch, BBC2, 4 December 1999
'The Charge of the Light Brigade', Secret History, Channel Four, 4 June 2002
'Magic of War', Secret History, Channel Four, 2 July 2002
Scotland's Empire, BBC Scotland, March 2003
'Zulu: The True Story', Timewatch, BBC2, October 2003
'The Secrets of Enzo Ferrari', Timewatch, BBC2, 23 January 2004
Searching for Victoria, BBC1, May 2004
Ten Days to Victory, National Geographic Channel, 8 May 2005
Britain's Greatest Monarch, Five, 13 June 2005
Masters and Commanders, BBC4 and BBC2, December 2006
'The Golden Throne', Masterpieces of the East, BBC4, 21 February 2008

On-screen Expert:

Time Commanders (six episodes), BBC2, September 2003-February 2004

Radio

'The Prince Regent', The Long View, Radio 4, 22 October 2004
'What if the Zulus had defeated the British in 1879?', What If?, Radio 4, 26 April 2004
'Zulu', Night Waves, Radio 3, 28 September 2004
'How important is it that films are historically accurate?', Today Programme, Radio 4, 15 August 2005
'The Charge of the Light Brigade', In Our Time, Radio 4, 10 January 2008
'The Retreat from Kabul', Random Edition, Radio 4, 16 January 2008
Broadcasting House, Radio 4, 8 June 2008
'Historical accuracy in feature films', Today Programme, Radio 4, 12 January 2009

Broadcasting House, Radio 4, 8 March 2009

At 8pm on Saturday 21 February 2009, to kick off the new series of BBC2's Timewatch, Saul presented an hour-long special:

Queen Elizabeth’s Lost Guns

Off the rocky coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a 400 hundred year old shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history.

 The most important shipwreck since the Mary Rose, and the only Elizabethan warship ever found, it carried a treasure trove of artefacts, including unique muskets and swords. But most importantly, it appears to have had 12 identical cannon.  

Little remains of the ship and its name is still unknown. But if the cannon are indeed identical, it will mean that Elizabeth’s navy had a revolutionary gun technology way ahead of its time.

Historian Saul David with a team of divers and experts set out to find and raise the ship’s cannon. But they lie in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

By recasting and firing four hundred year-old guns they hope to demonstrate that Elizabeth I was the mother of British Naval dominance.

100ft down, and half a mile out to sea, the wreck sits amid the notorious reefs and currents of Alderney. So treacherous are the waters that the ship was first spotted 30 years ago, but was then lost again, disappearing under a mountain of the sand.

In a ships’ graveyard, the wreck sits amid the notorious reefs and dangerous currents of Alderney. Even modern ships fall prey to these vicious waters.

Now, one of Britain’s most renowned marine archaeologists has re-discovered it.

Presenter and Historian Saul David joins Oxford University’s Mensun Bound who is leading the investigation.

The film follows the team as they dive in search of the wreck and then carefully reclaim these priceless treasures from the ocean bed. They hope to reveal the sophistication of Elizabeth’s navy—and the weapons that may have saved England from full scale invasion.

As well as recovering artefacts, the key aim of the dive will be finding, and then raising two Elizabethan cannon, so that Mensun can test his theory - that the ship had a set of matching cannon. Way ahead of their time, they would represent Elizabeth’s secret weapons—seven foot long muzzle loading, cast iron killing machines, and part of the earliest co-ordinated set ever found and decades ahead of their time. They mark the high point in artillery science, which would not be surpassed for two hundred years.

Rebuilding, Testing and Exploding

Once they are retrieved from the ocean’s depths, they will be brought first to Tower of London where they will be examined and then taken to York for conservation.

The team want to rebuild and test these weapons to gain a unique and valuable understanding of Elizabeth’s naval power. This means forging and recreating sixteenth century cannon and muskets. Then they will be put through detailed ballistic tests to demonstrate their power, capacity, strength and accuracy – and contrasted with those used by Henry VIII’s sailors and soldiers.

They hope that their findings will help reveal how the English triumphed over the invincible Spanish Armada and laid the foundations for an Empire that spanned the Globe.

Just as it is impossible to discuss the English navy under Henry VIII without the Mary Rose, so too it is impossible to consider Elizabeth I’s navy without the Alderney ship. Only 47 years separates the two, but if Mensun’s theory is correct, then in that time, nothing less than a revolution had taken place in gun design, manufacturing and ballistic science.

A Bellwether Media Production for BBC Timewatch