PROBABLY Oxfordshire’s best-loved historian, Janina Ramirez, returns to our screens this evening with a swashbuckling look at the world of archaeology.

The Oxford University academic, presenter and author stars in Raiders of the Lost Past on BBC2. The documentary, which playfully references the Indiana Jones blockbuster, sees the art history expert picking out extraordinary moments and objects from history while on the trail of great explorers.

Ms Ramirez, who lives in Woodstock, begins the series on the Greek island of Crete, pursuing the trail of the millionaire who discovered the mythical palace of the Minotaur and the first Western civilisation – but who is now mired in controversy.

Janina Ramirez on the island of Crete for her new show Raiders of The Lost Past. Picture: Alleycats TV

Janina Ramirez on the island of Crete for her new show Raiders of The Lost Past. Picture: Alleycats TV

Next week she heads to Scandinavia with an investigation of an astonishingly well preserved Viking vessel discovered in a burial mound in Norway which dates back 1,000 years.