Michael Wood (historian)

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For other persons of the same name, see Michael Wood.

Michael Wood (born Michael David Wood, 23 July 1948 in Manchester) is a popular English historian and broadcaster. He has presented numerous television documentary series.

Wood was educated at Manchester Grammar School and at Oriel College, Oxford. His special interest was Anglo-Saxon history. This was the field in which he first made his name. He came to the screen in In Search of the Dark Ages, a BBC2 series. It explored the lives of leaders of the period, including Athelstan, King Arthur, and Eric Bloodaxe. Many of his recent documentaries are based on India including the latest The Story of India (2007).

Wood quickly became popular with many viewers for his blond good looks (he was humorously dubbed "the thinking woman's crumpet" by British newspapers^{[citation needed]}), his deep voice, and his habit of wearing tight jeans and a sheepskin jacket. However, his ability to present history in striking and memorable ways has drawn a diverse audience. To date, he has over sixty documentary films to his name.^{[citation needed]}

Wood's work is also well known in the United States, where it receives much airplay on PBS and on various cable television networks. The series Legacy (1992) is one of his more frequently broadcast documentaries on U.S. television.

In 2006, Wood joined the British School of Archaeology in Iraq campaign, aiming to train and encourage new Iraqi archaeologists, and has lectured on the subject.^[1]

His partner for many years was journalist and broadcaster Pattie Coldwell. He currently lives in North London with his wife and two daughters, Minakshi and Jyoti. His younger daughter, Minakshi, is said to have been model spotted by Storm earlier this year and will soon be joining their agency.