Since 2005 Neil Oliver has been a part of the highly acclaimed BBC2 series 'Coast'. A second series started in October 2006 and the BBC have already filmed a third. It covers various subjects relating to both the natural and social history of the British coastline. The series is a collaboration between the Open University and the BBC. The Coast team have complementary skills, meaning that between them they can investigate anything from the underwater environment of chalk ledges on the sea bed illustrate how Isambard Kingdom Brunel managed to keep afloat the SS Great Britain when it ran aground of the Irish coast in 1846 trace the history of a storm and a child that changed medical history and look at the future and how new technology can predict erosion of our coastline before it happens. Neil is the lead presenter.

This summer he took part in Channel 4's Time Team, Big Royal Dig digging up the gardens at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. He has been working on a series for BBC Scotland about Scotland's history which starts transmission in November and next year he has a new series called 'The Face of Britain' on Channel 4.

2002 saw Neil co-presenting 'Two Men in a Trench' (Optomen Television) - a ground-breaking project that has done more than any other to bring back to life the fascinating, thrilling and moving tales of derring-do that have characterised British domestic warfare from the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, right up to the end of World War II. The figures that moved across those fields of fire were not anonymous shadows, but real people living through the most traumatic experiences imaginable. Only archaeology lets us touch the traces left behind by the people swept up into those pivotal moments in British history - and in the making of Two Men I helped pioneer the techniques that let us glimpse those long lost moments through the eyes of those who took part. History takes us close to the past, but only archaeology lets us touch that past with our bare hands.

The series were accompanied by two popular books (Michael JosephPenguin) - both of which Neil co-wrote. (During April and May 2004, when the second series was on air, Two Men in a Trench II was the most popular historyarchaeological book on Amazon.com.)

Neil has been a qualified archaeologist since 1988 - and his fieldwork experience has covered everything from the earliest Stone Age of Scotland to the examination of World War II coastal fortifications of Kent and Northern France. If it's been buried in the ground during the last 10,000 years, he's dug it up.

Since the late 1990s hes been the co-founder and co-director of the Anglo-Zulu War Archaeological Project based in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa - a life changing experience in search of the real stories behind the classic film 'Zulu' starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker.

Closer to home, since 2003 Neil's been a member of the All Party War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group chaired by Lord Faulkner of Worcester - a body tasked with researching and excavating the battlefields of World War I. At the moment, he's setting up a project in Paraguay to research and excavate sites related to the Triple Alliance War that afflicted South America in the 1860s.

In the mid 1990s he qualified as a journalist and, in his time, he's worked for The Scotsman, The Herald, The Guardian, The Edinburgh Evening News, The Glasgow Evening Times, The Sun and The Daily Record. During that time, and alongside the general news reporting that was the bread and butter of his day to day work, he also specialised in covering archaeological stories and features.

In 2005 Neil published his book about the First World War called 'Not Forgotten'.

2008 sees Neil Oliver presenting a stunning new 10 part BBC1 series in collaboration with The Open University ''A History of Scotland'' Neil takes us back to the earliest days from AD84 to discover how a nation was born and how the tribes of Caledonia banded together to confront the legions of the Empire. Starts November BBC1 Scotland.