PROFESSOR Alice Roberts has delved into the secret lives of extinct woolly mammoths, traced the rugged coastline around Britain, gone in search of mysterious ancient Celts and charted more than seven million years of human evolution.

Her latest project Tamed is no less fascinating as she draws on archaeology, history and genetics to explore how once wild species – from dogs, cattle and horses to wheat, potatoes and apples – have become closely allied and intertwined with our lives.

"It ranges from dogs which are, of course, domesticated wolves," she says. "All the way through to crops such as potatoes, maize and wheat, and how these species changed as they were used and domesticated by humans. Also, how they changed us and impacted on the course of human history."

Then there is the way humans have tamed ourselves, evolving from hunter-gatherers to our modern-day existence where almost everything we desire is readily at our fingertips.

Are these changes to our detriment? Roberts certainly doesn't think so. "It is essential to us working together, forming the kind of society we have at the moment and incorporating with each other. It is a very positive thing."

In order to live in close contact with lots of other humans, she explains, we have needed to become more co-operative and tolerant of one another. "We have self-tamed so that we are nice to each other rather than being antagonistic," says Roberts.

Another aspect that piqued her interest is the success of humans as a species. "We originate in Africa and there were a range of apes similar to us that were in existence for millions of years before modern humans come along," she says.

"If you go back five million years ago, there is nothing really there to say this species is eventually going to colonise the world. It is not until later we see that. I think the increase in brain size is tied up with an increase in co-operation. Social learning from each other is really important as well."

Roberts, known for her presenting roles on BBC's Coast, Horizon and Digging For Britain, as well as Channel 4's Time Team, has enjoyed playing detective in this vein.

For a long time, she says, scientists believed that different species originated from a fairly small area and then spread out into other territory without much inter-breeding. Advances in genetic techniques largely over the past five years have challenged that hypothesis.

"We have learned that species have a much bigger homeland than we originally thought," says Roberts. "That goes for humans too. We used to think it was tucked into the north-eastern corner of Africa. Now we are looking at pretty much all of Africa as being the homeland of modern humans."

A similar thing happened with wheat. "The first genetic studies early this millennium suggested that wheat could have come from a tiny little area in southern Turkey," she says.

"But the latest genetic studies have shown that it actually does comes from a much larger area, right across the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.

"What we find with these different species, whether they are plants or animals, including us, is that as they spread out from their homeland, they interbreed with other species."

Until recently, says Roberts, we had a very simple story about human evolution which is that our species hadn't interbred with other archaical wild species as we spread out across Africa, then Europe and Asia.

"We have had this huge breakthrough – a revelation bombshell – that there was plenty of interbreeding. We interbred with Neanderthals and we interbred with mysterious people called Denisovans found in Siberia. Anywhere there was anything vaguely human we interbred with it."

The humble apple did pretty much the same thing. Roberts describes how geneticists studying mitochondrial DNA initially came to the conclusion that Kazakhstani apples spread across Europe and didn't interbreed with any other wild apples.

"But when you look at the whole genome and not just that little bit of mitochondrial DNA it turns out that the eating apples we have in our gardens and supermarkets are actually more crab apple than original Kazakhstani apple.

"As they spread across Europe they interbred with all the wild crab apples on the way."

There have been growing concerns voiced about the many health issues associated with a modern sedentary lifestyle. Is there an argument for us humans to become slightly more untamed again?

"In terms of a philosophical principle there is no reason to become wilder," says Roberts. "We are born into a particular environment. We grow up in that environment and we adapt to it.

"Of course, the skills we have are going to be very different from the skills of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. I don't need to be proficient with a bow and arrow in order to survive.

"What I need to know is how to earn some money and go to a supermarket and buy my food. That is my environment. Being able to shoot an animal with a bow and arrow is superfluous.

"There are arguments that we have maybe become a bit soft, but we are perfectly suited to our environment at the moment. Philosophically there is no reason to be wilder."

Yet, on the other hand, she does believe it is important to address our need to connect with nature. "It is generally agreed that this is good for us as individuals to be outside and in open, green spaces," she says. "We are seeing that with the rise and popularity of things like forest schools."

That is certainly something Roberts can relate to. Growing up in north Bristol, she says, much of her childhood was spent playing in the wooded estate near the family home.

"I have amazing memories of spending a lot of time outside," she says. "I knew it like the back of my hand and all the paths through the woods. My brother and I had what we called 'dens' which were trees that we liked climbing.

"I had a dog called Poppy from the age of eight so I was always taking her out for walks. That was really important to me as a child."

Roberts, 44, is the eldest of two children. Her mother taught English and arts, while her father still works as an aeronautical engineer.

She knew early on what her own vocation would be. "I decided at the age of 11 I was going to be a doctor," she says. "I had no ambition to be pretty much anything I am doing now, but my career has gone in wonderful directions."

Roberts did train and work as a medical doctor, then moved into university lecturing before going on to carve out a prolific television career.

Tamed: Ten Species That Changed Our World marks her eighth book to date.

She wears many hats including being the first-ever Professor of Public Engagement in Science at Birmingham University.

"It sounds like lots of disparate subjects – anatomy, physical anthropology, the study of disease in ancient bones and evolutionary biology – but, actually, it all comes together and overlaps."

Her path into TV presenting was by accident rather than design. Roberts credits what she describes as "an enduring fascination with old bones and ancient skeletons".

She had been writing reports for Time Team which, in turn, led to onscreen work. Roberts is sanguine when asked if she imagined the way things would pan out.

"No, not at all," she chuckles. "As I finished university I was quite sure I was going to end up as a surgeon. So I am, I suppose, a failed surgeon. I can see that alternative career and I think I would have been really happy as a surgeon."

Her first brush with fame was appearing on the cover of the Radio Times after winning a Blue Peter Young Artists competition in 1988.

To her eternal chagrin, the artwork didn't quite get the grand showcase it had been promised. "The competition was to design the cover of the Radio Times," she says. "Then they obviously decided that they wanted the presenters on it and as a kind of sop said: 'Well, you can be on it too …'"

As for her lovely painting? "It appeared in a frame on the cover, but it should have been the whole cover. It was a picture in the frame with the three presenters and then I was looking round as though it was in a gallery.

"It was an amazing experience to meet them all, particularly lovely Caron Keating who was just wonderful. I was a slightly awkward 14-year-old and she was so kind and lovely. I treasure that memory of meeting her."

Roberts partly paid her way through an anatomy degree by designing a range of dinosaur cards for WH Smith. These days it is mostly arts and crafts at home with her two children, although she is doing an ink drawing every day for October.

"I discovered this thing last year called Inktober," she says. "I missed October 1 so I will have to do an extra one at some point. It is great because I had stopped making time for art. I'm reigniting that passion again."

In the pipeline is a new archaeology and history show for Channel 4 called Britain's Most Historic Town, although in recent weeks Roberts has been busy filming series six of Digging For Britain.

"Every year I think: 'It is not going to be as good as last year' and then I'm blown away," she says, referring to the latter programme which is expected to air in December.

"There are fascinating sites and amazing new insights into Neolithic long barrows and the prison hulks moored at Portsmouth in the 18th century."

When we speak Roberts is preparing to do some filming at a museum in Edinburgh. "There is a great Scottish story this year looking into a wonderful hillfort in Fife. I will leave that as a surprise."

Tamed: With Professor Alice Roberts is at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 7.30pm, tomorrow