The Ancients tells of finding the world's oldest surviving trees in wild Tasmania, of their exploitation and loss to fire even as their eminence was revealed, and of people offering hope for their future.

In wild Tasmania there are trees whose direct ancestors lived with dinosaurs. Many alive today are thousands of years old, and some are aged ten thousand - or greater. They are mostly hard to reach, hidden among forests or on remote mountains, survivors of past human exploitation and fire.

Prize-winning nature writer Andrew Darby set out on an improbable odyssey to discover these, the world's oldest surviving trees. First he probed the little-known King's Lomatia, perhaps the oldest single tree of all. He sought out primeval King Billy, Pencil and Huon pines, with their vivid stories of admiration and timber profit. Then he plunged into the world of the giant eucalypts, of a 'mother tree', the Myrtle Beech, and of Australia's only endemic winter deciduous tree, the golden Fagus.

On this island-wide journey he found the people who discovered the ancients, scientists and nature-lovers who teased out their secrets and came to venerate them. Mainly defenceless to fire, these uplifting trees face growing threats under climate change. But their protection is becoming more sophisticated, offering hope for their future - and ours.