20 years is a great run for any show on TV. does anybody really care what those idiots say surely it is what the public want that matters but no channel 4 has a foolllll running it.. heavan forbid we should have a great program T T ware we think and enjoy it plus it is great family veiwing and may i say also very interresting. But would be top stuff if BBC 4 could pick it up and get things back on track. They should have known how appealing it would be. Thank you to everyone who made this such a wonderful programme. .As always it will, I supposed be replaced by some run of the mill program, American sit com or soap. Meanwhile Tonys role transformed from a quiz master to translator of all things archaeological for a general audience. I think he was a lovely man SO SAD ! I am 81 & have watched & enjoyed TT for many years. This so Heartbreaking. Time team is one of the programs I love to watch. I have watched Time Team from day one, and now my 11 and 9 year old daughters love to watch it, in fact my youngest commented she would like to be an archaeologist when she grows up, and this is from watching Time Team, I cannot believe Time Team has been axed, its a national institution. I would just like to thank Tony Robinson, Mick Aston, Phil Harding and all of the crew at Time Team for many years of fascinating TV. I wish that ABC in Aus would start at the beginning and replay them all. Gutted that Time Team has ended! The fun gone out of Sunday teatime! The Twitter page has been great up to now. I completely agree with you Lauren. I am sooooo sorry the series is over. So my husband looked for more info. How come journalists never seem to tell us these sorts of things? Thank you for educating and entertaining me over the years. Look at Lee Bradys comment 23rd Jan. Theres a link for a petition hes got started. His Uncle, my brother, has to dig up a dig with him when he comes on holiday and he is in there like a professional. Tim Taylor recalls that some archaeologists were initially, quite fairly, a bit sceptical. One aspect that some treated with suspicion was the three-day deadline. 7 comments. The show ran on the chemistry among the original team, and failed to work as they left or lost interest. While I wont be involved in the new sites, I was delighted to accept the role of honorary patron of the Time Team project. So so sad, the only one of its kind and they axe it. You talk rubbish mate! Its a shame yet highlights the offensively patronizing view metro-based TV people have of the general public. How outrageous to think that the 45s are not a worthy audience. The thing that should be axed is the TV exec that made that decision. And they have taken it off and broken up a brilliant team. Telly Tubbies. I agree what will replace it I can see more reality programmes cooking programmes selling houses nothing to work the mind channel 4 must be out of thier tiny mind. I have watched Time Team from the beginning and love the earlier episodes and although its sad that its going it has changed considerably.Not the same without Mick his enthusiasm makes for great watching. Its brilliant and helps this Singapore based Brit to feel less far away. How many people can look back on a twenty years span of such a masterful contribution to human culture? Whilst on youtube, also check out dig ventures; another fantastic project with another familiar face. 32. It is to the Channels credit that it did this despite much of that outlay being channelled into post-excavation work that never appeared onscreen. What is the point of Channel 4, if not to do something different? I have been planning to return for several years now for a holiday and to catch up with friends and relatives. Log in or sign up to leave a comment. That has gone now, so im going to just have to watch all the reruns on Discovery history ( and there are quite a few of them) and be happy. If Channel Four thinks TT too expensive there is mileage in the Return To format for some digs showing some of the original programmes and then updating on subsequent research. Time Team's Stewart Ainsworth on How To See Time In The Landscape. This photograph was taken at a recent catch-up with some of the Team: John Gater, Helen Geake, Carenza Lewis, Tim Taylor, Dani Wootton, Jim Mower, and Stewart Ainsworth, all of whom are . Shots of him in woodland seeking out raw materials for a reconstructed axe allowed the audience to witness the hands-on practical process. So sad to see my favourite programme on Channel 4 being axed. The beginnings of Time Team: season 1 stalwarts (from left to right) Mick Aston, Victor Ambrus, Phil Harding, Geraldine Barber, Carenza Lewis, Tony Robinson, and Robin Bush. Subscribe to Current Archaeology the UKs favourite archaeology magazine and like thousands of other people you too can get details of all the latest digs and discoveries delivered to your door, every month. TV is a wasteland and TT was an oasis in it. When I signed there were 1,600 names. I am sure the essence of archeology would be attractive to a core audience once again. Cheers. A political gesture aimed at building up regional television, Time Team was picked because it seemed a safe pair of hands. She was replaced by Helen Geake, Anglo-Saxon specialist. Disgusted, Mick walked out, explaining later For some reason they didnt think oh, wed better run that past Mick. Hes the archaeological consultant, he might have an opinion about that (see CA 271). I found TR irritating at times but accepted him as part of the show. Apart from the marvellous people who made up the Time Team over the years, the way they used the magic of television to highlight features of the dig, overlay geophys visualisations onto the site, extend a fragment of a pot into a full representation, and so on, made this program an exemplar of how to produce truly educational television; and the way the passion of the Team members and their expertise was allowed to shine, coupled with a witty front man, showed that educational does not have to mean dull or dumbed down. The cast and crew were pretty obviously seriously digging their roles, (bad pun semi-intended sorry about that sort of). So we manage to get something enjoyable, which at the same time is also useful. How will I live? Pay per view TV? About the same time I discovered TT and became a dedicated viewer and have viewed all their programmes thanks to More Four. Have a look again at the programme where Phils DNA results come in and watch Tonys reaction. I loved Mick and Phil and Stuart et all, picking on Matt for any rotton job. We love Time Team and are astonished at its demise. This is in no doubt as a direct result of the post production. anyone want to correspond about this i would like for them to write me. Unlike many here, I think Mary Anne Ochota was a qualified addition to evolve and maintain the momentum of the series. Please read. Who made the decision to axe time team but it is a mistake they will regret. Most of these posts hope that the Beeb could resurrect TT somehow, but AN ENORMOUS THANK YOU TO THE CAST AND CREW FOR THE FABULOUS YEARS THEY HAVE GIVEN US. Not everyone takes change happily., The comments below have not been moderated, By Mick the Dig joined Time Team early on as our resident excavation supervisor and was personally responsible for Time Team's biggest ever hole - at Blaenavon, Wales (an honour that looks unlikely to be beaten any time soon!). thank god for the repeats. Find out more here. Stewart has been interested in history since the age of eleven, after reading a book about Horatio Nelson. Tony Robinson, global warming? Here we chart the highs and lows of a revolutionary format that aimed to bring archaeology to the people. 200k an episode? Its interesting that Ch 4 is dropping a program on history and education, are they really dumbing down to suit a younger age group whose programs contain bad language smut and sex, bad attitudes and a large sense of self. Tim Team has finally brought British history into focus for me. Just a thought/ John. Your contribution to TV and Archeology is now history itself! Would love to see a new Time Team series up and running again especially now theyve found King Richard llls body, also instead of 3 days to uncover make it a 5-7 days to uncover maybe Geo-physics could find out a lot more information so here is a challenge to all the mainstream TV channels bring back Time Team! Tim Taylor explains because weve involved Wessex Archaeology in our work for the last 10 or so years the reports are really good quality. Most days, I have been watching the TT repeats on More Four in the afternoons. share. will take it on. Rest in peace, Mick, you added more to peoples lives than you probably ever realised. (and its cost increases). What a wonderful 20 years we/they had. Tony Robinsons role seems to one of a viewer who does not completely understand what is going on although logic says he must have a reasonable knowledge of the subject. Self Show all 7 episodes Started watching British TV while on exchange with the RAF. Available to view on 4oD (www.channel4.com/programmes/timesigns/4oD), watching it now provides a salutatory lesson in just how revolutionary the Time Team format was. What a bore YOU are! document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a3c3c528f5d4ab9be4dd73fd43d71409" );document.getElementById("ac59ec51d8").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Latest news from our sister site, the-past.com. Off now to have a quick dig in my garden then on to Salisbury to stalk Phil Harding.intelligence soooo sexy. By the way I am 52, so I guess I am too old for channel 4, but tell my kids that. and which would be the best way to alienate the people working on the programme. When he took this pitch to various studios, however, no one wanted to know. I want Time Team brought back. Try Dig Ventures, an online crowd-funded Archaeology site. Much has been said about this show on this site but I think that all of you would be best served by reading what Raksha had to say. It remains my all time favourite reality TV show and I really miss it. I loved it. Am now in the process of buying the DVDs. The huge plus for archaeology in general has been the raising of the profile of a branch of science that prior to this program was the province of a fairly small group of people. I also helped out at two hisoric sites with two different groups of 11-13 uear old kids who spent half a day five days in a row learning what archeology is. Its a wonder one isnt constantly tripping over roman floor tiles and Anglo-Saxon wine jugs every time one steps out of ones door. Its prototype was Timesigns, a four-part series that aired in 1991. Hi Serena, you can find a complete episode and series guide of all 230 programmes plus the specials on this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Time_Team_episodes Plenty more to come for you yet, if only More 4 would stop repeating the same episodes over and over again and show some of the others they could keep you (and the rest of us) happy for years to come. A viewers petition is probably the most difficult to achieve. It was a formula that worked for the target audience and trying to attract a different audience by dumbing down the content was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. John and his team must have walked miles. I download everything I can from the internet and watch on American PBS stations when I can find it. I WONDER what rubbish they will put on instead. The money was well spent, and today only five Time Team sites remain unpublished a record that shames many UK units and academics. While viewing it might be a bittersweet experience we should enjoy the moment while we can. For those people who wish to view old episodes back to day 1 surely all you need to do is put channel 4, possibly you may need to add UK.com, if overseas, into your search engine,register on line,confirm e mail address and then enter Time Team in the search box.You can even view Time Signs the original pilot series. Time Team: Created by Tim Taylor. With Season 20 airing next year, and a series of one-off specials running into 2014, there is still new Time Team on the way. Maybe it was better to end the show before they replaced the entire cast with celebrities from TOWIE. Learned lots of the history of the show from these posts but I dont know whether Ive seen the cleavage or whether Micks absence from a dig is because hes doing something else, on hols etc or because hes gone. Now everyone knows the word geophys. That a pile of random rubble is a wall, a stain in the ground is a ditch and Tony Robinson is a supercilious pot bellied bore. Good bye Mick. He joined the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (now part of English Heritage) in 1985, and is now head of its Landscape Investigation Team based in York, England. Learning? Our investigation of the villa and the landscape it occupies will aim to preserve and enrich our understanding of the past and the people who inhabited it. In terms of Cotswolds villas Time Team has probably covered more of them than anyone else. It opened my eyes up to so much of the UK, in particular my ignorance of Roman settlement. This is just swell. Time Team (Collection 2) - 11-DVD Box Set : Tony Robinson, Phil Harding, John Gater, Stewart Ainsworth, Mick Aston, Victor Ambrus, Henry Chapman, Ian Powlesland, Matt . I dont understand what purpose that serves, but there you have it. I wonder if channel programmers read these blogs? Wasnt TT the only reason to watch Channel 4 ? All the repeats are still amazing, I also watch ime team every day without fail. Requested by a commissioning editor to wear more colourful clothing Mick turned up in the most garish garment he could find as a joke, only to be told it was perfect. It is about time ABC Australia got there act together and started to replay ALL the episodes, from the first, so that we dont all go crazy from withdrawal symptoms. Hmm, lets take a show that works, tinker with it, decide the audience is wrong, treat the intelligent people in the cast and crew with disdain and see what happens. Great work mate, youre a champion. Only a fool would get rid of an engaging program like TT. (especially phil, that crazy bloke,lol).I hope channel 4 regret the decision to axe the show. They were digging Roman ruins in someones back garden and explaining in detail what they were doing and what it told them hooked then and there. What a shame to see TT let go. The same has been witnessed with the BBC. This informative, interesting program has long been a favourite amongst all ages of our family. Yes, the interest remains for the show. Yet despite bringing the past to life using the familiar ingredients of excavation, landscape survey and reconstructions including Phil felling a tree with a flint axe Timesigns is a very different beast. It wasnt perfect but the catty remarks are uncalled for. And the team. What that will show in Britain will start another flood of interest in archaeology with all local likely sites of archaeology being revealed.. Time team might be gone but something like it will be back pretty quick I suspect. You wonder what kind of palsy comes over TV programers when they occasionally axe the best shows, shows with strong, solid substance!!! ABC altered the format marginally and called it At the Movies. I was disappointed with the change in format, it was like losing family. How very sad. In a nutshell, that is the most relevant comment I have read on here. Such mass-production was only possible with more rigorous processes guiding filming. Stewart Ainsworth (born 26 June 1951) is a British archaeological investigator who was regularly seen on . Yet time and time again they did it with grace, charm, humor and knowledge. Interesting, in these days where we (oldies) are not responding to adverts as much as the supposed young and affluent to think of alternative crowd-sourcing models for financing programs that we like. Self - Aston Eyre, Shropshire (1998) . After playing a critical role in many of Time Team's digs, from the caves of Cheddar to the jungles of Nevis, Mick . Arrr! The utterly ridiculous Dig by Wire (S19E01) would have put me off permanently had it been the first episode I had seen (What, helicopters dont work on Gateholm?). I cant help being captivated by the digs. It is to bad that the show was cut, there are so much more to find, discover and educate us all. Take up the mantel!! It excited the viewers, gave a good history of The United Kingdom, and made one waiting for the next episode, all due to the enthusiasm and clever programming of the show. You can find her message at https://digventures.com/2013/03/tools-down-for-time-team-raksha-dave-on-the-end-of-an-era-and-her-new-adventure/. 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