Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on British Channel 4 from 1994.
Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each
episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of
three days, with Robinson explaining the process in layman's terms.
This team of specialists changed throughout the series' run, although has consistently
included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor
and Phil Harding.
The sites excavated over the show's run have ranged in date from the Palaeolithic right
through to the Second World War.
In October 2012, Channel 4 announced that the final series would be broadcast in 2013.
Series 20 was screened in January–March 2013 and a number of specials are planned
to be screened into 2014.
Format A team of archaeologists, usually led by either
Mick Aston or Francis Pryor, and including field archaeologist Phil Harding, congregate
at a site, usually in the United Kingdom.
The site is frequently suggested by a member of the viewing public who knows of an unsolved
archaeological mystery, or who owns property that has not been excavated and is potentially
interesting.
Time Team uncover as much as they can about the archaeology and history of the site in
three days.
At the start of the programme, Tony Robinson explains, in an opening "piece to camera",
the reasons for the team's visit to the site, and during the dig he enthusiastically encourages
the archaeologists to explain their decisions, discoveries and conclusions.
He tries to ensure that everything is comprehensible to the archaeologically uninitiated.
Excavations are not just carried out to entertain viewers.
Tony Robinson claims that the archaeologists involved with Time Team have published more
scientific papers on excavations carried out in the series than all British university
archaeology departments put together over the same period; and also that, as of 2013,
the programme had become the biggest funder of field archaeology in the country.
Time Team developed from an earlier Channel 4 series, Time Signs, first broadcast in 1991.
Produced by Taylor, Time Signs had featured Aston and Harding, who both went on to appear
on Time Team.
Following that show's cancellation, Taylor went on to develop a more attractive format,
producing the idea for Time Team, which Channel 4 also picked up, broadcasting the first series
in 1994.
Time Team has had many companion shows during its run, including Time Team Extra, History
Hunters and Time Team Digs, whilst several spin-off books have also been published.
The series also features special episodes, often documentaries on history or archaeology,
and live episodes.
Time Team America, a US version of the programme, was broadcast on PBS in 2009, and co-produced
by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Videotext/C4i.
The programme has been exported to 35 other countries
In February 2012, it was announced that expert Mick Aston had quit the show due to format
changes.
The disputed changes included hiring a former model as a co-presenter, the letting go of
other archaeologists, and what he thought were plans to "cut down the informative stuff
about the archaeology".
"The time had come to leave.
I never made any money out of it, but a lot of my soul went into it.
I feel really, really angry about it," he told British Archaeology magazine.
Time Team producer Tim Taylor released a statement in response to the news reports saying "His
concerns are of great importance to me.
We have addressed some of them", and that "you’ve not heard the last of Mick on Time
Team".
Other team members The regular team also includes:
Stewart Ainsworth, landscape investigator John Gater, archaeological geophysicist
Henry Chapman, surveyor Victor Ambrus, illustrator
The original Time Team line-up from 1994 has altered over the years.
The historian Robin Bush was a regular in the first nine series, having been involved
with the programme through his long friendship with Mick Aston.
In 2005, Carenza Lewis left to pursue other interests.
She was replaced by Anglo-Saxon specialist Helen Geake.
The team is supplemented by experts appropriate for the period and type of site.
Guy de la Bédoyère has often been present for Roman digs, as well as those involving
the Second World War such as D-Day and aircraft.
Margaret Cox often assists with forensic archaeology, and other specialists who appear from time
to time include Bettany Hughes and David S. Neal, expert on Roman mosaics.
Local historians also join in when appropriate.
More recent regular team members have included archaeologist Neil Holbrook, Roman coins specialist
Philippa Walton, and historian Sam Newton.
Younger members of Time Team who have made, or currently make, regular appearances include:
Jenni Butterworth Raksha Dave
Rob Hedge Brigid Gallagher
Cassie Newland Katie Hirst
Alice Roberts Barney Sloane
Faye Simpson Matt Williams
Tracey Smith Production
Time Team is commissioned by Channel 4 Television and made in partnership between VideoText
Communications Ltd and Picturehouse Television Co. Ltd.
Recently formed Wildfire Television was involved in the production of The Big Roman Dig and
The Big Royal Dig.
It is produced by Tim Taylor, the show's originator, with Associate Producer Tony Robinson.
Sites
Sites may be suggested by landowners, local archaeologists, academics, interested bodies
or members of the general public, and have included everything from the Paleolithic period
to World War II.
For example programmes have featured the excavation of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, Roman
villas and medieval churches.
Several excavations have resulted in the discovery of sites of national significance.
DVD releases Complete series have been released in Australia
starting with Series 15 in 2010.
Since then, Series 12, Series 14, Series 16, Series 17, Series 18, Series 19 and Series
20 have all been released in Australia.
'Best Of' DVDs were released in the UK over the years however a complete series had never
been released until Series 18 was released by Acorn Media UK on 6 February 2012.
On 15 May 2012, Acorn Media released a collection of Roman themed episodes on Region One DVD.
Other formats
Other shows Time Team's Big Dig was an expansion on the
live format.
A weekend of live broadcasts in June 2003 was preceded by a week of daily short programmes.
It involved about a thousand members of the public in excavating test pits each one metre
square by fifty centimetres deep.
Most of these pits were in private gardens and the project stirred up controversies about
approaches to public archaeology.
Time Team's Big Roman Dig saw this format altered, in an attempt to avoid previous controversies,
through the coverage of nine archaeological sites around the UK which were already under
investigation by professional archaeologists.
Time Team covered the action through live link-ups based at a Roman Villa at Dinnington
in Somerset - itself a Time Team excavation from 2003.
Over 60 other professionally-supervised excavations were supported by Time Team and carried out
around the country in association with the programme.
A further hundred activities relating to Roman history were carried out by schools and other
institutions around the UK.
Time Team Specials are documentary programmes about topics in history and archaeology made
by the same production company.
They are generally presented by Tony Robinson and often feature one or more of the familiar
faces from the regular series of Time Team.
In some cases the programme makers have followed the process of discovery at a large commercial
or research excavation by another body, such as that to commemorate the 90th anniversary
of the ending of the First World War at the Vampire dugout in Belgium.
Time Team usually does not carry out excavations for these programmes, but may contribute a
reconstruction.
Time Team History of Britain saw Tony and the team document everything they have learned
up to now and show a history of Britain.
Behind the Scenes of Time Team showed meetings of the archaeologists, and material not transmitted
during the episode of the dig.
10 Years of Time Team presented a round-up of what has happened in Time Team over the
past 10 years and what they expect to happen in the future.
2007 accident On 13 September 2007, during the filming of
a jousting reenactment for a special episode of Time Team, a splinter from a balsa wood
lance went through the eye-slit in the helmet of one of the participants and entered his
eye socket. 54-year-old Paul Anthony Allen, a member of a re-enactment society, died a
week later in hospital.
Channel 4 stated that the programme would be shown, but without the re-enactment sequence
and the episode, dedicated to Mr Allen, was transmitted on 25 February 2008.
Influence Time Team has been credited with promoting
archaeology in the UK.
In a 2008 report produced by English Heritage, a working group of Palaeolithic specialists
recognised the importance of the show in "promoting public awareness" of Palaeolithic Britain,
something which they argued was to be encouraged.
Cancellation It was announced in 2012 that the final series
would be broadcast in 2013.
In 2008 the show hit the 2.5 million viewer mark, but the audience numbers had slowly
declined with just 1.5 million watching a special called 'Brunel's Last Launch' in November
2011.
Mick Aston left the show, criticising changes in the show leading to less archaeological
material.
In October 2013 the Radio Times carried an interview with Tony Robinson in which he stated
his belief that Time Team had still got life in it and suggested that after a three or
four year absence it could make a return.
He also expressed support for the fan organised Facebook Campaign to bring the Time Team crew
together again to carry out a dig in memory of Aston who died on 24 June 2013.
See also List of Time Team episodes
Time Team America - the American version of the show
Notes ^ This figure includes all episodes and specials.
References Footnotes
Bibliography
Bibliography Current Archaeology magazine
Ambrus, Victor and Aston, Mick, Recreating the Past.
Aston, Mick, Mick's Archaeology.
Gaffney, Chris and Gater, John, Revealing the buried past: Geophysics for archaeologists.
Lewis, Carenza, Harding, Phil and Aston, Mick, edited by Tim Taylor, Time Team's Timechester.
Pryor, Francis, Flag Fen: Life and death of a prehistoric landscape.
Robinson, Tony and Aston, Mick, Archaeology is Rubbish.
Taylor, Tim, with photographs by Bennett, Chris, Behind the Scenes at Time Team.
Taylor, Tim, Digging the Dirt.
Taylor, Tim, Time Team Guide to the Archaeological Sites of Britain and Ireland.
Taylor, Tim, The Ultimate Time Team Companion: An alternative history of Britain.
External links Time Team at Channel4.com
Time Team Digital Launched April 2011, official site, contains latest news from digs
The Unofficial Time Team Website Time Team at the Internet Movie Database
Time Team at TV.com Interview with Brigid Gallagher, Time Team
Archaeologist RadioLIVE interview, April 2010.