Time Team

Time Team sees amateur historian Tony Robinson and a team of archaeologists hunt around the UK for interesting dig sites, with the intention of identifying settlements from the past and fitting them into the narrative of British History. The show is filmed in a fly-on-the-wall style with Robinson narrating the team's progress to the camera and interviewing his archaologist team as they dig trenches and perform geophsyical analyses over empty fields in an attempt to identify the boundaries of the buildings they are looking for. The show is something of a slow-burner (archaeology is hardly the most instantly gratifying of pursuits after all) but can sometimes be ...  Read the complete review

Every Sunday night for years and years it's been the same when Time Team has arrived on the channel 4 line up. We have our tea and despite our protests Tony Robinson and co appear. Telling us about how many trenches they have dug up, showing us broken pieces of pottery that have been found and maps which mean absoloutly nothing to me. It first aired in 1994 and is still going strong. I'm starting to wonder about where they haven't dug a hole to search for historical bits and bobs. Presented by Tony Robinson the team carry out archeological digs in different parts of the country. In the space of 3 days they spend a considerable amount of time scraping ...  Read the complete review

Time Team seems to have a big following, but it's not for me. It's always on on Sunday evenings when I want to watch something more exciting, or over Bank Holidays weekends when they have their Time Team specials. For me, Time Team is just a group of people digging in a field. I admit that it does raise awareness about history and can be interesting in a historical context. However, it's the excitement that the people get out of finding a little piece of roman pot in the ground that I don't understand. For the viewer, it just doesn't translate across to the living room or wherever you're watching the programme. Unless you're there, and you've been taking ...  Read the complete review

For whatever reason, Time Team has managed to accumulate quite a following in living rooms around the country. They have been digging it up all over, and coming up with lots of fun stuff that has actually been renewing peoples interest in the past. When I was living in Kings Lynn, they excavated a tiny chapel at nearby Bawsey, and found all manner of wierd and wonderful things. For starters, that the coastline used to come in almost as far, and then that there was more than just this tiny ruined church there. It was really neat. And what about when they went down Cheddar Caves? We went there after the area of the dig had been re-paved and it was like - wow, we're ...  Read the complete review

What with today's reality television shows, soaps and various other celebrity endorsed programmes it is rare that a program about archaeology gets such high viewing figures. Time Team is the show I'm talking about and it has been a real hit with the public, first showing in 1994 there have been over 200 episodes. It is currently shown on Channel 4. Presented by Tony Robinson (the chap from blackadder), each episode follows a three day archaeological excavation, during which various items are recovered by the experts. As they find things Robinson explains the findings and their meaning to viewers in terms which we can understand because it's all about long ...  Read the complete review