'I really hate sun block' says comic

Frank Skinner has revealed that he ended up in A&E with severe sunburn after working on an archaeological dig in extreme heat.

Speaking on his Frank Off The Radio podcast, the comic revealed he was taking part in the ‘brilliant’ event as a ‘bumbling amateur’, just  for the experience. But the heat was so much it was ‘a bit Victorian prisoner, get them out labouring’.

To the shock of co-hosts Emily Dean and Pierre Novellie, he said: ‘I really hate sun block so I don’t normally use it. I just think, "Keep an eye on the clock - 20 minutes on my front, 20 minutes on my back.

‘But it was so hot last Monday I actually ended up in A&E I was so badly hurt.’

He did say he was wearing ‘a big khaki wide-brimmed hat lest I die’ but noted that: ‘It was so hot that the regular archaeologists were saying, "Phwoah, it’s bloody hot isn’t it!". I though, "If you guys are noticing it…"

Speaking more about what he was doing, he explained: ’I was exhuming an Anglo-Saxon body…  I can’t say exactly where because detectorists go in and steal things – not that I don’t like detectorists but there’s bad sheep in every flock. 

‘So I was in Kent, which is a big Anglo-Saxon thing because it’s quite near - not too far to come if you’re coming from Europe – and I arrived last Monday.

‘I was given a mattock [a hand tool used for digging similar to a pickaxe] and grave, but it was only about two inches deep. So I had to skim the top… 

‘You’re working away and then a skull appears and then it had crossed legs - it was very laid-back. These would have been 6th Century.’

He also revealed he got blisters – which he dubbed ‘nerd blisters’ –  from using the tools.

Published: 7 Jul 2025