Real-life Archaeologists rarely become household names. Mick Aston is an exception. A defining voice in the development of Time Team and stalwart of the show since its first season in 1994, Mick’s resignation earlier this year ignited a media firestorm. He was in the news again in July after receiving a lifetime achievement award at the British Archaeological Awards. CA caught up with Mick earlier this year at his Somerset house to hear his reflections on archaeology past, present and future.
CA: How did you get into archaeology?
MA: My dad was a big influence. He was a fantastic professional cabinet maker. All the furniture in this house was made by him and yet in writing he could hardly string a sentence together. He was ignorant in that original sense of the word. But he was desperate to know more, and realised that unless I was going to be on the factory floor with him, I had to get educated. So he was over the moon when I passed the 11+ exam, and completely gaga when I got into university – this was another planet for people like him.
One Christmas, it was probably 1962 or 1963, I got two books. One was a list of scheduled ancient monuments in England and Wales– hardly a gripper of a Christmas present was it? – and the other was the Collins Field Guide to Archaeology, by Eric Wood. What was nice about Eric Wood was that he didn’t just talk about famous monuments, he included bomb craters and dew ponds – all the stuff you actually come across when you’re wandering about the countryside. I thought that was wonderful. And because of the list of scheduled monuments I decided to go and see them. That meant bunking off school, or at least when my class went on a trip, I went off on my own personal one. It usually involved a combination of buses, walking and trespassing. I’m a terrible trespasser, always have been, I don’t really acknowledge private property at all!
After I’d exhausted all the sites nearby I discovered the CBA list of excavations. The nearest dig was at Wall in Staffordshire, and it was run by a chap called Jim Gould – a school teacher who dug at weekends. A bypass was about to be built, so they were digging on the line of that. On the first day Jim said to me, ‘can you clean up this Roman road?’ so I looked in this hole, and there was just gravel all the way across. I couldn’t see a Roman road at all. But Jim was an excellent teacher, who patiently explained that the gravel was the road! Not long after I went to university at Birmingham to study geography.
At Birmingham you could take archaeology as a subsidiary for two years, so I did that – though it was all Classical Mediterranean stuff. But Philip Rahtz had just been appointed and was living in this lilac caravan on the university carpark. There were all these letters about him in the university newsletter, asking ‘who is this long-haired, bearded hermit in the carpark?’ Anyway, Philip put up this little sign saying ‘anyone who wants to go digging, come to me on Saturday.’ I thought ‘that sounds good.’ That was the beginning – and what an introduction!
I turned up early – as I was a young, enthusiastic man – and was offered a cup of coffee. So then I needed to go to the loo. The loo door was covered in pictures of various ladies, some of whom I recognised. I thought to myself ‘this is a very interesting world I’ve dropped in on here’. And then off we went in his little Renault camper van. Every time we went around a bend, a draw in the kitchen unit opened, and it was full of every type of contraceptive you can imagine. Then we’d go around another bend and it would shut again! For several years we spent our weekends and vacs and non-term time travelling from site to site that needed digging because it was going to be destroyed. It was one rescue dig after another.
Excavating with Philip was like an apprenticeship. We learnt archaeology by doing it, and that’s how we taught the volunteer diggers at Shapwick and teach the volunteer diggers at Winscombe [Mick’s field projects, Shapwick is now finished, while Winscombe is ongoing]. One of the things that troubles me about some universities is that you ask departmental staff what their field project is, and they don’t have one. They’re not going out. How can you possibly teach it if you’re not doing it? I think it’s really worrying.
CA: Was it this desire to reach the widest possible audience that led you to develop Time Team with Tim Taylor?
MA: I saw it as an extension of my work as an extra-mural tutor. Time Team was a way of reaching 3 million people rather than 30 people in the village hall. But it didn’t alter the fact of what I was trying to do. Archaeology is not essential. It isn’t something that we need. The fact that some of us have done it for a living means that we are really fortunate. But if it comes to council housing, or hospital beds, there wouldn’t be any question. There are things that are more important. We need to make people realise how interesting it is, and we succeeded.
Years ago I was talking to a friend who has to advise on archaeology for gravel companies. She dreaded it, because it often involved selling the importance of archaeology to these big, self-made entrepreneurs. That could be hard. Then one day she went into a meeting and rather than being hostile the gravel company executive just said ‘Oh, is it like that programme with Baldrick on it?’ And she said ‘Well yes’. So they said ‘That’s all alright then. We know all about that.’ It’s a great example of how Time Team was reaching people that didn’t know or care about archaeology before.
But even though Time Team built up an incredible audience, the archaeological world never really ran with it. All the public interest generated in that first 15 year period was wasted. Our colleagues were too busy saying ‘you can’t do it in three days’, or ‘I don’t like the way you’ve done that.’ Nit picking really, but it could get nasty. If you went to a pub and mentioned Time Team to a bunch of archaeologists you’d instantly have a fight on your hands. People who got what the programme was doing thought it was great, but others just said ‘you can’t do archaeology like that’. I feel as though I’ve suffered from that for 20 years.
Professor Mick Aston
Born 1st July 1946
OxfordCityand County Museum Field Officer: 1970-1974
County Archaeologist for Somerset: 1974-1978
External Studies Department, Oxford University Tutor in Local Studies: 1978-1979
Extramural Department, Birmingham University: 1979-
Extramural Department and Archaeology Department, University of Bristol: 1979-2004
Time Team: 1994-2012
CA: Did you enjoy your time on the show?
Time Team are a great gang when you get them together. There are some real party people. And there was always a subtext of some running joke going on. It was really funny. I do miss that side of it. And there’s a real focus to what they’re doing – none of them is motivated by money or anything like that. It’s all the archaeology – and getting the story out of it. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t like that. And the things that would emerge over those three days, you’d get to the end and think ‘that was bloody fantastic. All that stuff we know now, fancy sorting that out.’ They’re very fast and effective. The diggers know they’re going to be interrupted with the filming, because it takes a lot of time to film the stuff. And they have to make up that time. They work very fast and accurately. I think it’s tremendously impressive. Those were the days, in many ways. But not anymore I’m afraid.
CA: Why did you decide to leave Time Team?
MA: It wasn’t that enough was enough. They had me down as archaeological consultant. I’ve always taken that to mean they can have endless advice and guidance out of me. The phone would go at all times of the day and night – a director, producer, researcher wanting to check things. I’ve always been there for them. I saw it as part of my job. If you want to guide it properly, you’ve got to be available. Then in September or October two years ago they had a meeting at Channel 4 in which they decided to play with the format, bring new presenters in, and get rid of five people on the archaeological side. And for some reason they didn’t think ‘oh, we’d better run that past Mick. He’s the archaeological consultant, he might have an opinion on that.’
I don’t play games like that. If they’d have said ‘Mick there’s a meeting in London, and we know you hateLondon, but it’s really important. It’s about the future of the programme, so we want you to be there.’ Then I would have gone. But I wasn’t given the option.
CA: You’ve talked about a feeling that despite inspiring a new generation of archaeologists you have not left a legacy. Why is that?
MA: I don’t mean Time Team, I mean my life in archaeology. A lot of people write to me and say I’m wrong, but what will the situation be in 10 years time? There’ll be no legacy because the profession never picked up on it – cashed in if you like – and developed what we did with Time Team. It’s the same with extramural teaching. So it all feels like a waste of time. All the public education I’ve done will come to a grinding halt with me. So there is no legacy. And that really makes me angry and sad. I’ve spent much of the last 10 years looking for someone to replace me and I can’t find anyone. No one leaps out as the one to be the next celebrity archaeologist, if you like. It’s partly because extramural teaching has stopped. Running those courses was great training for television, because just like extramural teaching you never know where the brick bats are coming from next!
CA: As a celebrity archaeologist, your predecessor was Mortimer Wheeler…
MA: Surely not. I’m not in the same league. And we’re not the same sort of person. He was perfect for ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral’ in the 1950s. I might have been alright for Channel 4 in the 1990s. But what we need now is someone who’s good for X in the 2010s. Someone who will be as unlike me as Mortimer Wheeler. Whoever spots that person will be onto a winner. And I could give them some very good advice! Because I now know after 20 years what my mistake was.
CA: Go on!
MA: The first was that I should have got an agent – which I’ve never had – and taken the time to make sure it was someone who understood what I was trying to do. The second is that I should have become an Associate Producer on Time Team. Then I would have been part of the decision whenever there were changes to the personnel or format of the programme. As an annually hired presenter I was in a very weak position. So those are the two mistakes that anyone else should get right.
CA: Looking back over the last 40 years, how do you view the changes in archaeology since you started out in the 1960s?
MA: A lot of it is for the good. You see the big development sites of today and there is no way we could handle those without the organisations we have now: The York Archaeological Trust, the Oxford Unit, Wessex Archaeology and so on. If you look at the training and technology those people have, I am full of admiration for that. I remember when stuff used to fall out of the side of motorway trenches because there wasn’t anybody to dig it. There was no evaluation of what archaeology might be there or anything. It’s so important that’s changed.
The sad thing, I think, is despite the public interest in archaeology we don’t seem to be able to harness it. I don’t know why, because so much work does need doing. If every parish had a project like Winscombe going on not only would we learn a lot, but the spin-offs in terms of social cohesion and the involvement of people would be absolutely phenomenal. You need the big units to do the big projects – but there’s shed loads for everyone else too. There really is.
As CA thanked Mick and packed up its kit, he added a final thought.
MA: A lot of what I’ve said here is very heartfelt, you know. It could get me into trouble. I’m too honest. I say what I think, not what I think I ought to say. It’s a great weakness really.
This interview was published in CA 271.
As a disabled person, totally confined to my home, I found the format of the TimeTeam programme perfect.
I loved everyone on it, – they became friends to me, – I enjoyed the banter and most importantly I learnt so much. It enabled me to pass on the information to my freinds and family.
I was bitterley disappointed when they changed the people involved. They were all complimentary to each other. Why on earth change it? Ditching Mick Aston was despicable. Everlasting shame on you Channel 4.
I think you will be missed very much on Time Team by all who love archaeology xxx
Hello Mick, I shall miss you very much on Sunday Afternoons, What was that saying my Apprentice Master kept saying, Oh yes “If it ain’t bust don’t fix it”. Channel 4 please note change is not always progress.
KK
Wow – great interview, but Mick you have left a legacy and that is all of the people (like me) who you inspired not only to take an interest but also to take it up as a new direction in life. I’m in my forties and I thought to myself if he can run around the country doing what he does then I can do it too! I threw in my office job and have been studying Archaeology in Australia for the last 3 years. That is your legacy – you can’t see it, but it is a field which is growing bigger everyday. Without the publicity for archaeology which is generated by people like you – less and less would be known, more of our breathtaking history lost, and much less funding over the past decade for projects which the public now see’s as important to our culture and identity.
…It’s a much bigger picture than channel 4 will ever see – but that is their loss & now maybe you will have time to visit down under
It’s a shame that Mick thinks he hasn’t left a legacy. I would suggest that there are thousands of people who now have the bug.
I was an armchair archaeologist and it was certainly true that Time Team was the cause. I watch the repeats over and over again, and this has given me a basic general knowledge of the theory and practice of the subject.
As a result I got involved in the community project at Whitehall Farm Villa for 5 years, went on a flint-knapping course, and became a metal detectorist. My finds were recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme too.
I suggest none of this would have happened without Time Team.
I’m glad that the programme appears to be returning to its roots though. I hated the last series: cheesy and dumbed-down.
I can understand why Mick has been hurt, but it seems the bitterness is eating him so it would be good for him to forgive and move on
I for one am grateful for his cheery wisdom, so generously given
Ditto – you have already left a legacy Mick inspiring muggles like me to embrace archaeology. I am a Surveyor and have spent my life looking at buildings. I’m now trying to find a way of getting in to building archaeology, mainly inspired by you! So thanks. Keep up the good work.
I have a couple of photos of the Jim Gould dig which we were on at Wall, Mick. Many congratulations on your award!
I have a couple of photos of Jim Gould’s dig at Wall, Mick. Many congratulations on your award!
Hi Mick
Firstly, in dealing with the issue of legacy, whilst you feel that you not have an immediate successor I would argue that every person who has watched Time Team will push the preservation of our history forward. The children watching you today will be the adults who make decisions in the future and your contribution should not be underestimated.
Secondly C4 obviously could not find a shield boss in a trench with a metal detector if they think that they have changed the programme for the better. Just ask the viewers! I can only hope that common sense prevails, the participants jettisoned for the sake of “progress” are returned and that you also return to contribute both to our entertainment but more importantly to the education of so many people.
I do thank you for the hours of pleasure you’ve given so many of us and hope that you find a way to return to our screens again as soon as possible.
My daughter was inspired by time team to join YAC, fortunately very well run by a keen & experienced team locally. While she did A-level history, she is not persuing into uni level, she has wonderful memories of meetings & activities, not to mention encountering Mick on a couple of occasions (not YAC). Thank you for your enthusiasm Mock.
professor mick, you, Phil harding and baldrick etc are time team…with out all of you its a wasted format….I can only hope that you return to TV teaching us all….the supporting team you have had working with you for years has made it brilliant teaching.we know you all as friends we have never met…thats good teaching !!! ..Even when a site wasnt a success you made us think about the what ifs what whens…we as viewers are the losers….as we have lost a valuble teacher…..i hope you return to us all soon…
Great people, Great times. Many of us have had years of enjoyment watching you all.
I am reminded of the old biblical adage that man shall not live by bread alone. I cannot recall how many times that I have said to my wife, O great, we can watch another Time Team again.
Many thanks Mick.
Mick, You will be surely missed I have watched time team since the beginning and not to see you and the old gang Phil Harding and Tony in particular pulling each others legs of where to dig who was right and who was wrong.You are a true gent and will be missed.hope to see you on TV again
mick.
your legacy survives you in the 200plus Time team programmes. You are and will remain an inspiration to people across the generations. keep going and get back on tv asap.
Dear Mick,
The brick is not the house… the atom not the clay… but some gems can still be found in the dirt that leave more than a lasting impression… they are our heritage.
Love you.
An ex-archaelogist.
Mick, Tony, Phil and the rest of the team were informative and entertaining. They were the reason my wife and I watched Time Team. I perfectly understand Mick’s frustration at the changes Channel 4 made, but time and time again in TV we see the twisted adage “if it ain’t broke, lets break it”. Another good TV programme shot to hell by those who feel they must interfere. We wont be watching any new Time Teams.
Mick, I’m in my mid 40′s now and only just discovered this amazing show this year. Every week I wait to see a new episode that our local channel (TVO) has purchased the rights to show us here in Canada. I even watch them on line when I need my fix! It is because of you, Phil, Tony and the others that I have become such a Time Team junkie. So it was with a sad heart that I found out, just today, that Time Team will be no more. Right now TVO only has up to season 18 so I haven’t seen the show fall appart. I wish they had more of the earlier shows so I could watch it all.
I heard the news of Time Team’s demise before Christmas and feel very sad about this. Watching time team has been required viewing for my husband and I since the very first programme, Professor Aston – there will be a lasting legacy and that will be the love of history and archaeology that you and your colleagues have instilled in the minds and hearts of your viewers. THANK YOU!
Mick, Phil & Tony will be sadly missed, your years of bringing history alive will stay with many people for the rest of their lives.
Clarke Mooney Dec 1st 2012 sums it all up so well and says what many have thought for years.
Does anyone know what happened to the individual or individuals behind the decision to change Time Team for the worse? Did they ever acknowledge their mistakes and apologise? Did their superiors in Channel 4 take any responsibility for allowing the poor judgement to prevail?
If those concerned didn’t see that they got it badly wrong, and if they didn’t feel remorse about the way they treated Mick, then as Andy above says, they wouldn’t be able to find a shield boss in a trench with a metal detector; and they certainly won’t care what the majority of Time Team viewers feel. But then, what they lack in vision, they make up for in neck.
For me, it’s not enough to thank Mick. I’d like the other half of the story, and to see that apology written large. And then perhaps everyone will be able to move on.
How regrettable and disappointing! My husband and I are Time Team addicts, and have enjoyed all the shows and frequently watch re-runs. Even though we live in WESTERN AUSTRALIA, our interest in the archeology (hence the history, sociology and geography) that the Time Team has presented throughout the series has been unimaginably enlightning and educational. Fortunately we are still able to watch Time Team series on the Foxtel History channel. Thank you all at Time Team!
I agree with Robert Newberry!
We too watched from the beginning and have grown old (gracefully!)with Tony.We were amazed that anybody thought they could improve on what to us was the perfect program.Yesterday`s offering was better than nothing, but all of Phil`s good humour and Francis`s expertise could not conceal the lack of the old enthusiasm. Some of the old faces are still lurkiung in the picture, it would make sense for Channel 4 to realise what a good thing it still could have and eat a slice of humble pie!
Mick, all I can say is thankyou. You have left a legacy and inspired me to set my eyes on going to Uni to study archaeology. Even though I live in Australia, I have gained a love for British archaeology through you, and I plan to study that further when I go to Uni. I will miss you, as I will miss all the time team. All the best to you all.
Mike,
You and the Time Team raised the profile of archaeology to the masses.
Before this programme, it was viewed as some sort of obscure past time for academics!
Now it is of interest to millions.
A personal thank you.
Time Team went of the boil wheni t slowly morphed into the Tony Robinson show, All he seemed to do in the later programs was stomp about moaning and groaning and whinging and making sarcastic comments whilst knowing bugger all about archeology, It will be a sad loss when it finally finishes
We’re so sorry to be losing Time Team and all our favourite people, who have inspired and informed us over these years. You have left a great legacy with us and we wish you all the very best in the future.
Thank you so much.
To say you feel you haven’t left a legacy is saddening. You have personally inspired a generation (and I don’t mean inspired to wear stripey jumpers!) You should be very very proud of what you achieved and I’m glad you left when you did as series 19 was not great…!
sheila Madge. Time team will not be the same without you. You will never lose your legacy because we who have been inspired by you will forever be passing it on to the following generations. The TV moguls have no life experiences to know a good thing when they have it in their hands, namely yourself and Phil Harding, true characters. Time team has given me hours of pleasure. Please come back A.S.A.P. I wish you health and peace for the future.
I will miss you. Regards, Sheila Madge.
I would just like to say a heartfelt thanks to Mick and the team for twenty years viewing pleasure. Whenever you would see them in the pub after a dig I would always think “I wish I was there”. A master piece of miscalculation by channel four.
Mick thank you for geting me interested in archaelogy… I have never missed an episode of Time Team and was gutted when you decided to leave…. these people are idiots they don’t know a good thing when they have got it…..
I have just spent a great couple of years as a volunteer in a museum repackaging the archaeological finds.
Mick was a major source of my inspiration.
He may feel that his legacy will not go forward but hopefully everyone he has inspired will, themselves, inspire others…….
Heartfelt thanks
Norma
Sometimes it is very sad to have to part company with good friends, with people with whom you have grown to like over the years and felt accustomed and comfortable with, unlike you Mick I failed my 11+ but still left school in 68 but still able to have left with a good basic education.
Over the years I helped out as a volunteer on a bird reserve, it started in 1984 and ended in 1999, fifteen years of quite hard work at times, yet when I finally hung up my wellies and bid farewell there wasn’t so much as a thank you or a handshake. I have learned over the years that whilst it is nice to reminisce, we have to look forward to the future, many people like myself would join in sharing this frustration you must feel Mick,but just stop and take stock of the immense contribution you have made to our understanding of British archaeology over the last twenty or so years, You have taught us all so very much, made the understanding easier to digest and allowed us all to share a little part of your world within a bigger picture making the hard bits easier and the easier bits even easier to understand, more importantly I’m sure your knowledge will continue to work its magic for a good many years to come, Ps you wouldn’t make a very good bird watcher, your clothes are too bright
Best wishes to you and all your time team colleagues for making our days brighter
Thank You
Good on you Mick for not becoming just another “TV star.” Good for sticking to your principles. Time Team brought Archaeology to the front for those who had never considered being interested in the subject. I notice now that the captions which appear along with the people involved in the programme say “time team archaeologist or “time team finds expert” etc. As if the people were tied to the programme. It seems to lower their qualifications. There is, in my opinion, too much time spent on the programme re-creating tools etc. and less time on the methods of field work. As an amateur who has been involved in Archaeology since the late 1960s I enjoyed the first few series but noticed a decline in programme quality in the last few years. This was not due to the archaeologists but was due to altering the format to suit viewer figures. Channel 4 should count themselves lucky that there are a million people watching time team. A credit to the people in front of the camera and crew, rather than the policy makers. Well done and thanks for many years of bringing such an interesting subject to the public. I particularly enjoyed the very beginning when ordinary looking houses were revealed to be more interesting on the inside than the outside.
My wife and I are very sad with the passing of Time Team. We looked forward to the Sunday afternoon slot and foud it very difficult to watch it regularly once the tv channel started tampering with it – no wonder the audience fell, thank goodnes for re runs. I think Mick aston and others have been treated very badly as they were the mainstays, Tony Robinson acting as the ‘amusing link’with the audience.
I see, or saw, Time Team being to Archaeology as Sky at Night is to astronomy. At least professional Astronomers have had a different attitude than it seems Archeologists have if they hve not considered ‘professional’ enough ,how short sighted, afraid to come out of their ‘ivory towers’and get their hands dirty no doubt.
I remeber seeing aprogramme on which the presenter was talking about a tv company having a meeting wherr he was and being told ‘no more archaeology’.
OK it is probably getting expensive but I am sure those people involved like Mick, Phil and Jonh and Francis could have steered production people towards ways seemsan economical way of presenting ther Discipline. It often seems to ‘the public’who give their loyalty to these programmes, and Licence fees and other disposable income, that they treat us in a cavalier fashion. How many of the public were asked, o, sorry they probably did a’statistcal’ survey on a handful of ‘demographic’ who would have been disinterested anyway.
To mick and any who lost their jobs you have left a legacy,to all those
young people who have been inspired to get involved in archaeology, and
those who retired and got involved in their local history projects , as by looking into the past we can see what influences have affected us to be where we are today, and hopefully we can take more care of tomorrow.
Thank you Mick it’s been a wonderful program & just loved your enthusiasm . I have just watched a dig here in Tasmania & wished you were here as they uncovered walls of the original houses of settlement.oh the other thing is I love the jumper & hats.All the best.
Mick, My family and I have enjoyed every minute, thanks to you and the team. You have opened up a world that most of us would never have had the opportunity to see..
C4 have now pulled the plug, what a cock-up. I wonder how long it will be before one of their big wigs says “OOPS!”
John Simpson, York. Time team was a great programme, and the only part I hated was the incessant babbling of Tony Robinson, interrupting professors and experts to give free reign to his lovey ego. The show gradually became the Tony Robinson show; he became the story instead of the messenger. He is a great presenter, but now nevershuts up talking, most of it attention-seeking twaddle. Iturned the programme over this AM because I found it too annoying.Idon’t blame professor Aston for saying “enough is enough”.
I really wish I hadn’t read this now, as it’s spoiled Time Team for me. All I can think of is how much Tony annoys me now. I’d love to see Mick present his own documentaries with someone like the Discovery network. There is still so much to learn from such a worthy expert. Have a re-think Mick and put out some feelers for others who feel the same as you… please..?
Mick, and gang, I’ve just watched the last programme, greatest hits presented by TR, with minimal comments by archaeologists on an archeology programme, and am deeply saddened by Time Teams demise and the utter lack of foresight or intelligence by C4. Why feel compelled to mess with a successful format particularly without the subject matter experts. Did it never occur to them that those were the people we tuned in to watch. Not the presenter or the latter inclusions but the real archaeologists that had grown with the programme and viewers together!
I have been enthralled by TT since its inception and today can lose myself in repeats on Sky. Fascinating, amusing, educating, frustrating and compulsive viewing. A joy to learn so much about our heritage not from just experts but people who have revelled in translating for the masses.
It has been an incredible journey over the last 20 years and whilst it has come to a premature end I very much hope that someone will feel compelled to pick up the mantle and resurrect TT for our pleasure as well as the preservation of our heritage.
I’d like to extend a personal thanks to Mick, and his colleagues (Phil, John, Carenza, Victor, Matt, Racksha, Helen et al) for their lasting contribution and am enjoying TTs discoveries all over again with my Grandson.
Please do find a way back to our screens to continue the incredible contribution already made!
Thanks and very best wishes for your future
i completely agree with this.the presenter was absolutely superfluous.
please resurrect tie tean asap.
thanks.
chris savory
Though it may be of little consolation, there is an American version of Time Team now. Not as much history crowded together, even overlapping like in Europe like we are used to but it has some very interesting things going for it.
having read Andy smiths comments above there is nothing else to say
but just this last thing thank you time team for a wonderful prog. over the last 20 years it will be sadly missed
Hello Mick. i simply loved TIME TEAM. I never wanted it to end – until they changed the format and people. After so many years of making sure I never missed an episode – following the changes I began to loose enthusiasm and interest. It wasn’t the same. So much had been lost by the changes. Who was the idiot who took the decision to make the changes? whoever it was they need to be sacked for their incompetence. I hope they are reading these comments and realizing their terrible mistake. The original team were all great characters and teachers in their own right – but there was another dimension – as a group you all just ‘jelled’ and sparked off one another – sharing a special kind of rapport and humor. After all, it was meant to be entertaining as well as informative. You and Phil always managed to cheer me up and make me smile or laugh.out loud on occasions. We are strangers but I feel I know you so well that I address you all and refer to you generally as”MICK” “PHIL” “CARENZA” “VICTOR” etc. .which speaks volumes about your collective abilities .to ‘connect’ with your audience. I cannot thank you all enough for the sheer pleasure you have given to me and my family over the years and especially to you Mick. I do hope that some sensible person recognizes your worth and puts you back on our screens again.very very soon. The very best of luck with all your current and future projects. I’ll be glued to my tv NOW WATCHING ALL THE RECORDED ORIGINAL TEAM PROGRAMMES. Say Hi to Phil if you see him and ask him how his foot wrestling training is coming along.!!! .
Time Team with Tony Robinson, particularly your good self & Guy’s discussions on Roman Britain, was fundamental in informing my research into the live and times of Celtic Queen Boudicca. Last year I completed a workable draft of a musical based on her life called “Boudicca: First Britannia Queen.” I;m now looking for funding to get it off the ground. It was you and your team that inspired me!
channel four has been going down hill for years, it coincides with the general dumbing down policy that is at present prevailing tv and seems deliberate policy ? probably political
Professor, you and your Time Team colleagues have made a great contibution to the closing portion of my life.
For 27 years I lived away from home for 5 days a week, and weekends were DIYing to keep the house together – no Time Team.
I retired in September 2008, and Time Team arrived in my house. Now, I’m likely to drop off my perch within a year and can’t get about much, so I record every copy of TT which arrives on my Virgin TV, watch it on transmission and rewatch it at another time. I can’t join in a dig because I wasted my time working & supporting a family, but I can be fascinated by the programmmes I see.
I hear criticism of Tony Robinson and he may be a hornet buzzing about, but he asks the “stupid” questions I might be too embarrassed to ask, clarifies what is going on for an ignoramous like me.
If circumstances are as often reported, I shall return from the land beyond the veil, find the driving force behind that stupid decision to leave you out of the meeting, and torment him for the rest of his miserable life.
Frank Croft
I love Time Team, I watch all the repeats when I have time.
Always hoped I could get them onto our farm to look for the hamlet mentioned here in the Doomsday Book, and the investigate the lines of humps and hollows in our woods
Hello Richard, have you looked at aerial photos of your land? That could be a starting point. English Heritage have a large collection also there is a site called Britain From The Air. Field walking could also provide evidence through small finds, such as pottery. Old records in your local Records Office may also help. In other words, there is a great deal you can do yourself. I have found sites through field walking myself. Also through aerial photos, especially if they are taken in dry seasons. Good luck.
Mick, I have always had a keen interest in history but until Time Team came along I never had never given archaeology a second thought. You and the rest of the team made archaeology accessible and certainly stirred something in me. I wish you all the best for the future and thanks for the memories.
Kevin Birkett
Cork
Ireland