Basic training
In a nutshell, Michael Wood is the writer and presenter of many critically acclaimed series on television, including Art of the Western World, Legacy and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. Educated at Manchester Grammar School, he went on to Oriel College, Oxford, where he did postgraduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. His early publications include In Search of the Dark Ages and Domesday. More recently he published a series of medieval essays under the title In Search of England.

From book to broadcast
As is the norm nowadays, if you have a flair for making history appealing to a wider audience, it is inevitable that the world of TV soon comes calling. Sure enough, Michael is author of over sixty TV films which have been shown worldwide; these have included travel and politics with works such as Saddam's Killing Fields - an award winning account of the destruction of the Marsh Arabs of South Iraq - and Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, which was a study of the abuse of history and archaeology under the Nazis. More recently he wrote and presented Conquistadors, a four part series following four epic journeys during the Spanish conquest of the New World.

Watch your back, Palin!
As you may have guessed from the kinds of works mentioned above, Michael also adores travelling and he is fascinated by Indian civilisation in particular. Over the years Michael has made a dozen visits to India and in addition to his films, Darshan and Legacy, he has written The Smile of Murugan, about a small town in Tamil Nadu and its annual pilgrimage. Apparently his daughters - of which he has two - have already caught the bug and are fledgling travellers themselves!

Uncovering the Bard
One of Michael Wood's most celebrated pieces of historical television is the much acclaimed In Search of Shakespeare. This four-part series explored the life of the world's greatest and most famous writer, and it wasn't easy; "what we know of the events of the first 28 years of his life" Wood asserted at the time, "could be written on the back of a postage stamp". Plus, the crucial ten years of 1582-92 - between his marriage and his emergence as a playwright in London - so far yielded only three authentic documents that name him. This was the first time that a full-scale life of William Shakespeare has been attempted on TV and Wood created a truly unique experience.

A Distinguished Fellow
Clearly all this hard work has resulted in Michael becoming a big player in the field of historical writing. Indeed, in 2001 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and this year he was asked to chair the judging panel for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize, which is the UK's most important prize for non-fiction. So what's next for Mr Wood? Where can he go from here? Well, fans of his boundless knowledge and enthusiasm need not panic as he is currently working on a book and a four-part TV series, Great Mysteries, which will be shown in 2005.