Peter Sommer is a British archaeologist,[1] television director and producer, and tour operator.
The documentaries he has worked on include Tales from the Green Valley, a 12 part series about life on a farm in the year 1620 shown on BBC2 in 2005, Weapons That Made Britain shown on Channel 4, Britain's Finest Castles and Britain's Finest Ancient Monuments (Channel Five), Millennium: A thousand years of history (BBC/CNN), Commanding Heights: the Battle for the World Economy (PBS/BBC) and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (BBC/PBS).
Sommer received a first-class degree in Ancient History and Archaeology following by an MPhil. from Birmingham University,[2] before embarking on a PhD. at University College London.
In 1994, Sommer walked 2,000 miles across Turkey,[3] from Troy to the site of the battle of Issus,[4] retracing the route of Alexander the Great. For this journey he received The Explorers Club of America Young Expeditioners’ award.
A freelance writer,[5] who has written on topics including travel,[6] [7] archaeology, and documentary making,[8] Sommer also heads a British tour operator, Peter Sommer Travels, which specialises in expert-led cultural and archaeological tours. Sommer lives in Monmouthshire in Wales.[9]
Sommer was awarded the Learning on Screen Award in 2006 by the British Universities Film & Video Council, for the BBC TV series Tales from the Green Valley.[10] [11] The travel company he founded, Peter Sommer Travels, won the Tour Operator of the Year Gold Award in 2016,[12] 2018 and 2023 and the Silver Award in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2024, given by AITO,[13] The (Association of Independent Tour Operators).