Michael Wood - Historian and BBC Presenter

Michael David Wood (born 23 July 1948 in Moston, Manchester) is an English historian and broadcaster. He has presented numerous television documentary series.

Wood was educated at Manchester Grammar School and at Oriel College, Oxford. His special interest was Anglo-Saxon history. In the 1970s Wood worked for the BBC in Manchester. He was first a reporter, then an assistant producer on current affairs programmes, before returning to his love of history with his 1981 series In Search of the Dark Ages for BBC2. This explored the lives of leaders of the period, including Athelstan, King Arthur, and Eric Bloodaxe.

Wood quickly became popular with many viewers for his blond good looks (he was humorously dubbed "the thinking woman's crumpet" by British newspapers[citation needed]), his deep voice, and his habit of wearing tight jeans and a sheepskin jacket. However, his ability to present history in striking and memorable ways has drawn a diverse audience. He has more than 60 documentary films to his name.[citation needed] Many of his recent documentaries are based on India including the latest The Story of India (2007).

Wood's work is also well known in the United States, where it receives much airplay on PBS and on various cable television networks. The series Legacy (1992) is one of his more frequently broadcast documentaries on U.S. television.

In 2006, Wood joined the British School of Archaeology in Iraq campaign, aiming to train and encourage new Iraqi archaeologists, and has lectured on the subject.[1]

His partner for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s was journalist and broadcaster Pattie Coldwell. He currently lives in North London with his wife, television producer Rebecca Ysabel Dobbs, and two daughters, Minakshi and Jyoti.

Television series
1. Great Railway Journeys (1980)
2. In Search of the Dark Ages (1981)
3. Great Little Railways (episode 3) (1983)
4. In Search of the Trojan War (1985)
5. Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England (1988)
6. Art of the Western World (1989)
7. Legacy: A Search for the Origins of Civilization (1992)
8. In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997)
9. Conquistadors (2000)
10.In Search of Shakespeare (2003)
11.In Search of Myths and Heroes (2005)
12.The Story of India (2007)

Documentaries
1. Saddam's Killing Fields (1993)
2. Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail (1999)
3. Gilbert White: Nature Man (2006)
4. Christina: A Medieval Life (2008)

Bibliography
1. In Search of the Dark Ages (1981)
2. In Search of the Trojan War (1985)
3. Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England (1988)
4. Legacy: A Search for the Origins of Civilization (1992)
5. The Smile of Murugan: A South Indian Journey (1995)
6. In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997)
7. In Search of England: Journeys Into the English Past (1999)
8. Conquistadors (2000)
9. Shakespeare (2003)
10.In Search of Myths and Heroes (2005)
11.India: An Epic Journey Across the Subcontinent (2007)