Neil Oliver
| Neil Oliver | |
|---|---|
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Oliver in 2006
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| Born |
21 February 1967 Renfrewshire, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation | Television presenter, author, archaeologist |
| Years active | 2002–present |
Neil Oliver (born 21 February 1967) is a Scottish television presenter, archaeologist and author. He is best known as a presenter of several BBC documentary series, including A History of Scotland, Vikings and Coast. His long hair is a distinguishing feature.
Oliver was born in Renfrewshire and grew up in Ayr and Dumfries where he attended Dumfries Academy. He then attended the University of Glasgow to study archaeology. His passion for journalism was sparked at Napier University, Edinburgh, by his shorthand teacher, Elizabeth Banks. He subsequently worked as a reporter on the Annandale Observer in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway.
Oliver's television debut came in 2002 with BBC Two's Two Men in a Trench, which featured Oliver and close friend, Tony Pollard, visiting historic British battlefields and recreating the battle situations using state of the art archaeological techniques. In addition to the TV series, Oliver co-wrote the two accompanying books.
In 2005, he wrote a tie-in book for the Channel 4 documentary, Not Forgotten, which was presented by Ian Hislop. Oliver then became the archaeological and social history expert on Coast and in the next series he replaced Nicholas Crane as the show's main presenter and remained as such for the third and fourth series.
In 2006 Oliver appeared in two more documentary series, Channel 4's The Face of Britain and BBC Two's Scotland's History: The Top Ten. In August 2006 he also appeared on the special "Big Royal Dig" edition of Channel 4's Time Team, in which he presented a dig at Holyrood Palace.
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