| Time Team | |
|---|---|
| Format | Archaeology |
| Presented by | Tony Robinson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 241[n 1] (as of 8 May 2011) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Tim Taylor |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including adverts) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Channel 4 More4 |
| Original run | 16 January 1994 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Time Signs |
| Related shows | Time Team Extra History Hunters Time Team Digs Time Team America |
| External links | |
| Time Team Website | |
Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features 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 has changed throughout the series' run, although has consistently included professional archaeologists like Mick Aston, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites that have been excavated over the show's run have ranged in date from the Palaeolithic right through to the Second World War.
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, has been broadcast on PBS from July 2009, and co-produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Videotext/C4i.
Various figures involved in British archaeology and heritage management have recognised the influence of Time Team in promoting the discipline amongst the British public. Equally, some figures in academic and professional archaeology have expressed misgivings about the series, arguing that it presents an inaccurate picture of field archaeology to the general public.
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A team of archaeologists, usually led by either Mick Aston or Francis Pryor (the latter usually heads Bronze Age and Iron Age digs), 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, often in conjunction with the local archaeological unit.
At the start of the programme, Tony Robinson explains, in his "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.[1]
The regular team also includes:
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 (such as the Spitfire). 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:
Mick Worthington, formerly nicknamed "Mick the Dig" (to separate him from Mick Aston) as he worked largely on site excavation in the early years, occasionally still appears in his current occupation of dendrochronologist but with his nicknamed changed to "Mick the Twig". He is currently a partner in the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory.
See http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/meet.html for a full listing
Time Team is commissioned by Channel 4 Television (the broadcaster) and made in partnership between VideoText Communications Ltd and Picturehouse Television Co. Ltd (based in London). Recently-formed Wildfire Television was involved in the production of The Big Roman Dig (2005) and The Big Royal Dig (2006). It is produced by Tim Taylor, the show's originator, with Associate Producer Tony Robinson.
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.
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 (2005) 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 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.
On 13 September 2007, during the filming of a jousting re-enactment 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. Paul Anthony Allen (1953–2007), a member of a re-enactment society, died a week later in hospital.[2] Channel 4 stated that the programme would be shown, but without the re-enactment sequence. The episode was transmitted on 25 February 2008 and was dedicated to Allen.
Time Team has been credited with promoting archaeology in the U.K. 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.[3]