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Fans of BBC's Digging For Britain were left disappointed when long standing host Professor Alice Roberts announced in February she was stepping down from the a popular archaeology series after 15 years. In her statement she said: "All good things come to an end. I'm kind of sad and melancholy about this but at the same time it's the right time...it's not the end of archaeology on TV for me. I'm looking at fresh new exciting ways of doing that. But it is the end of Digging For Britain for me."

The biological anthropologist, author, and broadcaster (and The Detectorists guest star) is still extremely busy though. Alongside her academic commitments she is also getting set to head out on a 15 date tour around the UK in November. Called from Cell to Civilisation the blurb promises to, "...take you on a journey through 4 billion years of evolution in one evening, blending evolutionary biology, genetics and archaeology and using theatrical sound, light and imagination to bring the science to life in a way that you've never seen before."

It could have all been very different as despite her glittering showbiz career Alice never wanted to be famous and was an academic teenager who originally planned to be a medical doctor - a surgeon in fact.

"When I was 11, I knew I wanted to be a medical doctor. So by 16 I was on that course of learning," she told the Big Issue in 2023. However she explained she was sidetracked into academia which led to her current career. "I didn't stay in medicine and sometimes that's a sort of regret for me... I did what I anticipated would be six months at the University of Bristol teaching anatomy. But that turned into 11 years."

She became hooked on the work and the "massive collection of medieval bones" which are kept in the basement of Bristol Royal Infirmary. This would lead to work on the archaeology TV show, Time Team, initially as a bone expert and later as a presenter.

Other TV jobs followed on shows such as Coast, Britain's Most Historic Towns, Extreme Archaeology, Britain's Biggest Dig, The Day The Dinosaurs Died, Food Detectives, Origins Of Us, and Fortress Britain, among many others. Alongside her presenting work she is also a best selling author of books such as Antatomical Oddities, Buried, Ancestors, and The Incredible Unlikeliness Of Being.

While her professional life seems to be running smoothly her personal life has proved far more erratic. A very public atheist she was brought up in an intensely religious family from which she would become estranged. In 2018 her mother Wendy wrote to The Sunday Times claiming she was "embarrassed" and "upset" by a campaign by her daughter to withdraw public funding for faith schools. Alice subsequently told the publication she was sad about her mother's public declaration.

During an appearance on Radio 4's All in the Mind she discussed why she didn't attend her mother's funeral. "I'd almost thought, 'Well, I shouldn't be feeling sad, because I instigated the separation.' But the sadness is, again, about a relationship that I never really had," she explained.

In a 2024 interview with The Times she confessed: "I've been completely estranged from them for many years." she expanded further admitting: "It's very difficult, because it's very difficult to decide to become estranged. But I think that it's allowed me to recognise, really recognise, the importance of other relationships. I have relationships in the wider family that have actually always been important and I'm very lucky in that respect. My cousin is like a sister. We are very, very close indeed - and my aunt. My aunt has always been an amazing person in my life and a huge source of emotional support and warmth and love."

She also has a happy home life to fall back on. Since 2009 she has been married to fellow archaeologist David Stevens, who she met in Cardiff in 1995 when she was a medical student and he was an archaeology student. The couple have two children, a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2013.