A Roman archaeological site in Oxfordshire is one of nine to feature in the Big Roman Dig by Channel 4's Time Team.

Hosted by Tony Robinson - who starred as Baldrick in TV's Blackadder - the programme will feature teams of archaeologists, historians and members of the public.

The programme, which starts on Saturday and runs until July 9, will be broadcast live as the team seeks to uncover and understand 400 years of Roman occupation in Britain -- finding out what the Romans did for us.

The site chosen in Oxfordshire is at Frilford, near Marcham, and will be transmitted over two days from next Thursday. Students from Oxford University's Continuing Education Department have been excavating it for four years.

A temple has been found along with shops and a stone-built circular feature. The temple has been scheduled as a protected building, but archaeologists are exploring other structures too.

Last year's dig uncovered a stone-lined drain and stone walls standing five or six courses high. Site director Gary Lock of Oxford University thinks it may be an amphitheatre.

He said: "This is a very unusual thing to find in the middle of Roman countryside. In fact it's a very unusual site altogether, and nothing like it has been discovered in Roman Britain.

"The structural preservation is very good , and it has produced a large number of finds including metal artefacts, pottery, coins and animal bones."

The other eight Roman sites to feature in the programme are in Somerset, Hertfordshire, Carmarthenshire, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Cumbria.

There is a famous passage from the satirical film Monty Python's Life of Brian: "But, apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" Time Team says the Big Roman Dig aims to find out some of those answers.

Log on to the website at www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/ and follow the links to vote for your favourite find. The winner will be announced on Saturday, July 9.