Dan Snow

Dan Snow will give a dramatic personal account of History Hit's experiences on the Falkland Maritime Heritage Society's Endurance 22 expedition to find Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance in one of the most inhospitable and marginal places on Earth. After a month of searching the vast frozen wilderness of the Weddell Sea, time was running out, so when the live video feed from the undersea probe finally picked up the shape of something man-made on the seabed, they were exultant. Endurance was the principal ship used by the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition but became stuck in pack ice in the Weddell Sea on January 18, 1915‚ where she and her crew would remain until the ship was crushed and ultimately sank on November 21, 1915.

Family Ticket: 2 adults, 3 children; Child Ticket: aged 5-15; Under 5: FREE

Each week on Channel 4's The Great British Dig, a team of archaeologists descend on streets and gardens the length and breadth of the country to discover the treasures we have been living right on top of without realising. Finds include the actual frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain, the Tudor palace of an Elizabethan spymaster and a prehistoric village under a school playing field. In conversation with Dan Snow, on-screen expert Dr Chloe Duckworth will explain the team's techniques in uncovering a lost world of human stories just a few shovelfuls beneath our feet and offer practical tips for anyone wanting to give it a go themselves.

Our ever-popular comedy history panel show returns with Fast Show comedian and author Charlie Higson as quizmaster. We are delighted that Have I Got News for You team captain Ian Hislop is back to face our other team captain Dan Snow. Devised by Justin Pollard from AI, there will be sixty minutes of quickfire historical humour with new rounds and challenges for the teams providing another hilarious Friday evening at the festival.

From the Bronze Age to the era of the ocean liner, Tom Nancollas will discuss with Dan Snow the ultimate British vessel by divulging the eleven relics of Britain's historic ships which, together, tell the monumental story of Britain's seafaring past. Weaving together stories of great naval architects and unsung shipwrights, fishermen and merchants, shipwrecks and superstition, pilgrimage, trade and war, he will celebrate the richness of Britain's seafaring tradition in all its glory and tragedy, triumph and disaster, and ask how we might best memorialize it as it vanishes from our shores.