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Anthropologist Professor Alice Roberts and historian Dr Yasmin Khan explore the tale of two of Britain’s greatest cities - how one became the capital of a global empire and the other the workshop of the world - through the giant excavations being undertaken at either end of the first stage of the HS2 rail project.

They begin by digging deeper into the fortunes of rich and poor in Georgian London through the excavations at St James’s burial ground next to Euston station that will make way for the new HS2 terminus. They are on the hunt for the lost explorer who extended Britain’s empire across the globe.

Several Georgian celebrities were known to have been buried in St James’s, but many of the graves may have been lost to Nazi air raids and the extension of Euston Station in the late 19th century. One such celebrity was black champion boxer Bill Richmond. Born into slavery in colonial America, Richmond gained his freedom fighting for the British in the American War of Independence. His remains may have been lost to the Euston extension, but there are higher hopes for another celebrity – one of the most illustrious explorers of the day, now largely forgotten in the country of his birth.

The episode reveals how many of the poor Londoners buried in the cemetery suffered brutally in its workhouses. Yasmin examines the remarkable workhouse records for St James’s Parish. Within the records, she follows the remarkable story of one family.

After more than two years, the gigantic dig reaches its conclusion, with the 50,000 or so skeletons being prepared to be reburied in the cemetery in Surrey that actually took over from St James’s Gardens when it was closed in 1854.

Up the line at another mammoth dig, the team uncover how Victorian Birmingham grew into a boom town of the Industrial Revolution. On Park Street, archaeologists are excavating a 19th-century burial ground. In Birmingham, 98 per cent of the thousands buried within the cemetery have no markers. For Alice, this represents an opportunity to examine the bones in order to tell the stories of the city of a thousand trades.

Yasmin explores the high infant mortality when she is shown the skeleton of an infant with rickets. It inspires her to explore conditions for children and their families in this crucible of the industrial revolution.

Back at the excavation, Alice explores how skeletons are being discovered with mysterious cut marks and with hands, feet and spinal columns missing. It is a mystery that Alice solves in the final episode of the series.