In 1943 Brigadier Wheeler was called away from the battlefields of North Africa and Italy to become Director-General of Archaeology for the Indian subcontinent.
Tonight the second of Chronicle's two films on the life of our greatest living archaeologist takes him from a Roman trading station on the Bay of Bengal to Mohenjo Daro - queen of cities of the great Indus Valley civilisation.
Back in England, in 1954, he was voted Television Personality of the Year for his starring role in Animal, Vegetable, Mineral; almost 20 years later, on the steps of the Parthenon, he still holds an audience in the palm of his hand.
At 82, Sir Mortimer Wheeler is still crusading, still voicing his battle cry: 'One's whole life is devoted to recreating the past and making it live.'
Introduced by Magnus Magnusson

(Colour)