Bettany Hughes on Britain's Secret Treasures Classical historian Bettany Hughes talks with girlish enthusiasm about amateur archaeology, so much so that at one point in our interview she interrupts me mid-question, and bursts out, "Can I tell you something funny?" We are talking about the presenter's latest history programme, Britain's Secret Treasures, a collaboration between ITV and the British Museum, in which Hughes and a team of experts hunt down 50 of the most startling pieces of buried history dug up by ordinary folk in recent years. "If you were to ask me which was the most recently found treasure in the series," she continues quickly, "well, I - I found it!" During the filming of the series Hughes was taken by two enthusiasts, Bob Middlemass and Rolfe Mitchinson, to an underwater site in Durham, a hotbed of Roman hoards which the two friends have been combing for lost ephemera for 25 years ("their wives love it - it gets them out of their hair on the weekends," laughs Hughes). Within 20 minutes she had found "a beautiful silver coin which dates to the time of Emperor Antoninus" (86-161 AD). Wow! I respond, impressed, and delighted that even a professional historian becomes Gollum-like under the spell cast by a centuries-old object. "I know!" says Hughes, in gleeful abandon of professorial detachment. Her excitement goes some way to explaining why, according to the British Museum, last year alone 97,000 objects were offered up by amateurs to their Portable Antiquities scheme. Of the 800,000 objects the trust has documented, the most mind-boggling artefacts, with the best stories, will be explained in detail in this six-part series, from the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure famously unearthed in 2009, to an antique prosthetic nose. There's even a Roman brothel token on the list. Found by Regis Cursan, a pastry chef who enjoys "mudlarking" in the River Thames in London, it's the first one like it found in the country. Experts guess that the bronze coin was carried over from Italy by a soldier. As to what he could exchange it for, there's no doubt: the universally explicable diagram on its face leaves little room for imagination. During my interview with Hughes, my own in-built metal detector is put to use when I suggest that she is TV's "hottest" historian, which triggers a steely response. Who's identifying me as that? It's in their heads, rather than anyone else's," says the presenter, who was once referred to in this newspaper as "history's Nigella Lawson" (woe is that journalist). In April, Hughes spoke on national radio to defend fellow classicist Mary Beard in the wake of derogatory comments made about her appearance by AA Gill. Thankfully, the saga has not made Hughes the slightest bit self-conscious about how she looks in front of the camera. If anything, an element of staunch denial has crept in. You're a good presenter if you know your subject and you can communicate it with passion. Period. That's all that matters on telly. None would question her passion for this series. She's all for scrubbing up the muddied reputation of the metal detector tribe too, a group unpopular with farmers and archaeologists alike. A self-described "stickler for archaeology happening in the proper way," Hughes hopes the programme will help hobbyists take their role more seriously. "They play a vital part in solving the jigsaw puzzle of this country's story," she says. In proof of her statement, she and an expert panel from the British Museum will announce what they consider to be the most significant of all the finds in the course of the series. The object, the identity of which is currently being kept under wraps, actually "re-writes the story of what it means to be British," she says. Roger Bland, Keeper of the BM's Portable Antiquities, emphasises that the chosen treasure is "of huge historical interest but not worth anything in cash terms." "What we like about this show," says Bland, "is that many of the best treasures have no monetary value at all." His job is to research the thousands of items that are handed in to the trust every year, and ascertain which of them legally rank as treasure, which means either prehistoric base metal objects or gold and silver items over 300 years old. Those which do must, by the Treasures Act of 1997, be offered to a museum for purchase. Of the items documented, only a fraction (last year about one per cent) are classified treasure, but some of the "treasures" in this series are commonplace objects. Their value to historians lies in their interesting stories or locations. Among Hughes's favourite stories is that of the Hockney Pendant, a piece of jewellery now valued at £70,000, which was found by a four year-old. The pendant would have been believed by its original owner to contain a holy relic, probably a chip of the True Cross or Christ's blood. "It would have meant everything to them," says Hughes. And yet, it ended up in a field, lay there for 500 years and was found by chance by a little boy named James. Britain's Secret Treasures, ITV1, Starts Monday 16th July, 8.00pm