The Great British Story: A People's History is a 2012 documentary in eight parts written and presented by Michael Wood looking at history through the eyes of ordinary people airing on the BBC.

Episode one: Britannia

This episode deals with the period in Britain from the fall of Rome when in the early fifth-century towns were abandoned but the Roman lifestyle continued especially in Wales and the north and when early Christian saints, Patrick, Columba, and Mungo began to establish churches in the north from which modern settlements grew. Anglo-Saxons from Denmark and Germany began to arrive in large numbers in the east, having under the Romans been only labourers, to establish the English. More Christian missionaries arrived from Rome and by the time of Bede who recorded there were five languages in the land; British (Welsh), Scottish (Irish), Pictish, Latin and English. The village and people of Long Melford, in Suffolk, and their dig of nearly forty test pits, was featured during the first four episodes. Michael Wood and Carenza Lewis filmed, discussed, and analysed finds, which included numerous Roman artefacts, including pottery, and even part of a Roman road was discovered, during filming in July 2011. The Melford Parish Council was featured in the programme, as was the annual Street Fair celebration, and a Roman Spatha sword, found in a villager's garden.

First broadcast 25 May 2012

UK Viewing figures: 1.66 Million

Episode two: Tribes to Nations

Bede having identified the four peoples of Britain in hundreds of different tribes. Britons to the west, Picts to the North, Scots from Ulster now in western Scotland and in the south English from the Anglo Saxons. The Anglo Saxons were making laws based on monetary compensation for injury. With no cities monasteries became the hub of Arts and Crafts as British and Anglo Saxon culture with Roman ideas became the centre of western European civilization.