Shadowy figures from the Dark Ages including Ead, Giric and King Constantine will emerge as Scotland's nation-building heroes when a new series of documentaries is aired across British television from next month.

After two years' preparation, Scotland's History will be broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC Two. Presented by the archaeologist Neil Oliver, it sets out to demythologise Scottish history and to introduce unfamiliar characters, as well as the well-known William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Mary, Queen of Scots.

“We've all heard of the big names. We had the opportunity here to come afresh. Many Scots are familiar with Columba and Kenneth MacAlpin — who feature in the first episode — but very few will have heard tales of Ead, Giric and Constantine,” said Neil McDonald, creative director of documentaries for BBC Scotland.

This trio were “crucially important figures”, Mr McDonald said. “They have been overlooked because of a tendency, in Scotland, to cluster around the big names. The end result is not nearly as informed a view of history as people deserve. Within the limited resources of a television series, that is what we are trying to address.”

The 9th-century world of Ead and Giric is revealed through a little-known medieval text held in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Dubbed “Scotland's birth certificate” by Mr Oliver, The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba contains the first documented reference from Scottish sources to a land called “Albaniam”, the Gaelic word for Scotland. Constantine was one of the first rulers of this united territory.

Some academics — such as the late Hugh Trevor-Roper — have bemoaned past accounts of the country's history, insisting that many rested on invented tradition. On the evidence of the first episode, part of which was shown at a private screening in Glasgow yesterday, Scotland's History will not make that mistake.

Opening with the question “So where to begin?” it alights on Calgacus. He was the first Scot named in history, a leader of the Caledonian tribes who made an inspirational speech to his warriors before a battle with the Romans. Apparently, however, his words were written for him by the Roman historian Tacitus in a passage designed to boost the emperor Agricola. There may have been no speech by Calgacus, if indeed he ever existed. As Mr Oliver says in his voiceover: “This is where the mythologising of Scottish history starts. Be warned.”

The same detached viewpoint would be applied to other figures, Mr Oliver said. Mary, Queen of Scots has recently been the subject of fiercely opposing views, with Christine Grahame, the SNP MSP, calling for the bones of this “iconic historical figure” to be repatriated, while the historian Jenny Wormald said the “dreadful woman” should remain in Westminster Abbey. That such differing viewpoints existed was important in itself, Mr Oliver said.

The ten-part series has been co-produced with the Open University, and the programme-makers said they were alive to the fact that they would be covering issues — such as the Act of Union — that were certain to prove sensitive subjects to many of their audience. Mr McDonald said, however, that the programme would have a solid evidential basis.

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