Time Team

There is far too much rubbish on television these days. Thank goodness therefore for wonderful, engaging, intelligent programmes like Time Team (and its spin-off Extreme Archaeology by the same producer Tim Taylor).

Presented by Tony Robinson (of Blackadder fame) the premise of the programme is to bring together a number of Archaeologists, experts in various fields, to try and investigate a particular problem in three days.

The team works on various of locations, mainly in the UK but occasionally abroad. They investigate a wide variety of historical periods from stone age man living in Cheddar Gorge, through Roman villas up to an American World War II bomber which crashed in South East England.

The expertise and resources, both human and technological, that Time Team can bring to a dig means that they can often discover more about a site in the three days than the local archaeologists had been able to find out in previous years. In fact local archaeologists often invite the team to investigate problems that they haven't been able to deal with themselves. At the other end of the scale the team sometimes investigates anomalies that viewers have found in their own back gardens.

Another important part of the programme is a task or reconstruction relating to the dig. For example when working on Josiah Wedgewood's first kiln, the team showed the process that he went through to produce his pottery. In another episode when excavating a Roman villa, they produced a reproduction of a mosaic.

Overall this is an extremely intelligent programme with a superb presenter and interesting experts whose obvious enthusiasm really comes across when they are describing what is going on.

Finally it is worth mentioning the excellent 'Time Team Live' digs, where Time Team have conducted an excavation over the course of a few of days with a number of live programmes over that period where they give an update of what is happening and what they have found.

What is so wonderful about this programme is the thrill of discovery. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen and the direction of the programme can change halfway through based on the evidence that has turned up. Its a long way from the latest boring, predictable soap opera!

I've gone through the twenty years at least twice, and always come back. The talented and interesting "regulars" are a main reason for the show's continued popularity. Literally, it is timeless--not depending on the current news, celebrities, or fashions. It is educational, and it also would appeal to fans of mystery stories, because each episode involves a mystery and you participate as clues are dug up. The regulars are probably good friends, and not just good actors. Finally, each episode is independent, so you don't have to watch them in order and if you miss one or more episodes, you don't need to catch up on the story. I'm a permanent fan.

Time Team has now entertained the likes of myself for 10 years. With episodes like the 2 visits to Turkdean or the Mosaic at Dinnington or even the thousands of tons of soil moved to reveal the viaduct in Wales, how can you help but be in awe at the speed Tony, Mick, Carenza, Phil and all the hard working diggers excavate sometimes hard to work sites. I haven't missed many episodes and if I have it will only be some of the very early ones. I hope they never stop making this unmissable piece of entertaining education.

An archeological dig in your back yard, as you discover what happened in your back yard 350 or 3500 years ago, if you live in England, where your history didn't begin 400 years ago. The dig begins today, and they fill the whole thing back in, after they've been at it for three days. The excitement of the discoveries uncovered as they occur, the involvement of the property owners and the neighbors as they find the history around them.

The uses of computer animation to show how things used to look (or might have looked!) and the technology that allows the scientists to 'look' into the ground even before the first shovel full of earth is turned over.

The show is seen in the US on the History Channel International channel, and is well worth looking up.

This is the show to watch and it had to be a dream job for the professionals working on this show for 20 years. All the different sites they got to dig that would take most archaeologists several lifetimes to visit. Don't let Phil Harding's happy go lucky attitude fool you, he's as smart as anyone in his field, possibly smarter. Mick Aston is another incredibly knowledgeable part of the team and the team leader who got the shaft later in the series by Channel 4 causing him to quit when they brought in some spokeswoman former model - on an archaeology show, I don't blame him. There are several other professionals that are regulars on the show who are also very well versed in their fields of expertise and they occasionally bring in specialists like pottery or weapons specialists and an osteoarchaeologist on occasion. The end of one episode a man said he learned 3 things in the 3 days the Time Team was there and the 3rd and final thing he learned was Phil Harding could really put back the beer, which is hilarious and not surprising. He's my favorite person on the show, and he will be yours too. Almost the entire series is available on Amazon Prime video.