There was no denying she was indeed ‘in charge of all this’, although she was beginning to feel less and less like an expert as the days wore on. But she could see that there was no getting rid of him. And Jo still looked perfectly happy chatting away with Crabby. Things couldn’t have gone too badly.

‘OK, Ben. As long as it won’t take long.’

‘Fabulous. Let’s just have you back up by the side of the trench so we’ve got some action in the background.’ He hallooed across to Sophie, who was rummaging round in the back of the four-by-four. ‘Sophie, be a love and bring the kit back up, would you? Clare here is going to do a piece for us.’

When they got back up to the trench, Clare handed Jo the recording sheets and whispered, ‘Everything OK?’

Jo mouthed, ‘A breeze.’

Reassured, Clare turned back to Ben Jackson. ‘Sorry about that. But we need to get on with the job.’

‘No problem, we’ve taken up a lot of your time.’ Waving again, he said, ‘Sophie, Sophie. The wind’s picking up a bit. Can you get a mic on Clare?’

After five tedious minutes of wires, microphones and power packs being passed up, down and through various items of Clare’s clothing with varying degrees of embarrassment on everyone’s part, Ben and Sophie declared themselves to be content with the situation. Clare was positioned in front of the trench with Jo in the background attending to her task.

Ben Jackson said, ‘So just look at me, not the camera, Clare.’

She suddenly had an overwhelming urge to run screaming into the Portakabin. Come on, pull yourself together! You’ve seen David do this umpteen times. How difficult can it be? She opened her eyes wide and took in a deep breath.

Ben Jackson said, ‘Ready?’ Clare nodded. ‘So, if you can just say your name and job title to the camera for me.’

Clare’s mouth was so dry she could barely force the words from her lips. ‘Clare Hills, Site Director for the Hart Archaeological Research Institute.’

‘So, Clare, we’re here at the Hart Unit’s dig site in Bailsgrove. And we hear you’ve made some rather amazing discoveries. What exactly have you found here?’

Where to start? ‘Well, there’s some evidence to suggest that Bailsgrove was an important site before the Romans even set foot in Britain.’ Ben Jackson nodded encouragingly. ‘Some people think it might have been an Iron Age shrine.’

He lowered his voice to an almost reverent whisper. ‘So here, lying just inches beneath our feet, you’ve found a Celtic temple.’

Clare said, ‘Well, we might have. It’s early days yet.’

‘And right in front of us’ – Sophie swung the camera round to focus on Jo in the trench – ‘you’re excavating the burial of a child.’

The camera swung back to focus on Clare. ‘Err, yes.’