Time Team

A collection of resources relating to the hugely successful Channel 4 TV series and issues associated with archaeology and TV

Time Team on Channel 4
The Channel 4 website for the TV series with a range of resources, including an introduction to the team, information about episodes, and links to programmes supplied via 4oD.

The Time Team Club
A website for the Time Team Digital Club, with a variety of background information, a host of videos about various excavations, techniques (the Masterclasses, as well as some tongue-in-cheek philosophy), etc. You're welcome to join, but most of the resources are available without signing up.

Mick's Resignation
Mick Aston resigned from Time Team in 2012 expressing dissatisfaction with the way the programme was developing after 19 years. Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology, who broke the news, covers the developments in the press (click the images to go to the newspaper articles). This was subsequently followed by the resignation of one of the other presenters ... the first real signs that all was not well in Time Team world. Soon after, Channel 4 declared Time Up for Time Team.

The Rise and Fall of a Phenomenon
An article in Current Archaeology on the axing of Time Team, which includes a brief history of the programme. The same magazine had earlier interviewed Mick Aston following his resignation from the programme and his receipt of a lifetime achievement award for his long-term commitment to public education, not least through Time Team itself.

Current attitudes towards televised archaeology in Britain (pdf)
An article by Ceinwen Paynton - a Time Team researcher - in which she looks at the impact of archaeology and history programmes on public perceptions.
(C. Paynton 2002 'Public Perception and "Pop Archaeology": a survey of current attitudes toward televised archaeology in Britain', The SAA Archaeological Record 2 (2), 33-36, 44.)

Trench Warfare? Archaeologists battle it out
An article by James Mower who discusses the sometimes difficult relationship between Time Team and professional archaeologists.
(J. Mower 2000 'Trench Warfare? Archaeologists battle it out', Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 11, 1-6.)

Archaeology and the Media
A debate held in 2012 at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, looking at the extent to which the public desire for information about the past is served through print and television: the panel includes the former commissioning editor at Channel 4 (lasts for one hour).

Television archaeology: education or entertainment? (pdf)
A short unpublished conference paper by Don Henson which briefly considers the treatment of archaeology on British television. An earlier, slightly different, version of the paper is also available. Don Henson is Director of the Centre for Audio-Visual Study and Practice in Archaeology (CASPAR).

Bonekickers: informing, educating, entertaining?
An article by Greg Bailey, Don Henson and Angela Piccini which looks at how archaeology was controversially presented through a BBC TV drama series rather than the more traditional documentary-style of television programme.
(G. Bailey, D. Henson and A. Piccini 2009 'Bonekickers: informing, educating, entertaining?', in S. Lemaitre (ed.) Proceedings of Archaeology and the Media Conference (Brussels, ASLB Kineon).)

A Survey of Heritage television viewing figures
A 2007 study looking at who is watching the multitude of heritage programming on British television, undertaken by University of Bristol and TRP (Television Research Partnership) with BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) data, for the Council for British Archaeology and English Heritage. A PDF version of the report is also available.
(A Piccini 2007 A Survey of Heritage Viewing Figures (Council for British Archaeology Research Bulletin 1)).

Archaeology on the Screen
A paper by Julie Schablitsky and Nigel Hetherington which looks at how archaeology is interpreted and presented in films and television. It includes a discussion of Time Team America - the US version of Time Team produced by PBS. Note that you need to access this via a GU computer or log in with your GUID to access the chapter.
(J. Schablitsky and N. Hetherington 2012 'Archaeology on the Screen', in M. Rockman and J. Flatman (eds.) Archaeology in Society: Its Relevance in the Modern World (Springer, New York), pp. 139-152).

Public Archaeology
The Public Archaeology journal has published several papers on archaeology and television. For example:

• Christine Finn looks at the way archaeology has joined gardening, cookery etc. in terms of TV programming and what this requires of the subject (C. Finn 2001 'Mixed messages: archaeology and the media', Public Archaeology 1 (4), 362-268).
• Karol Kulik discusses the boom of archaeology programmes on British television around the millennium, with a tripling of archaeology documentaries between 1998 and 2002, and argues - contrary to some - that this was achieved without over-sensationalising the subject (K. Kulik 2006 'Archaeology and British Television', Public Archaeology 5 (2), 75-90).

Note that you need to access these papers via a GU computer or log in with your GUID to access them.

Archaeology and the Media (pdf)
A report of a symposium discussing archaeology and television with a wide range of speakers, and reviewing the relationship between archaeology and television over a long period and a broad range of programmes.
(P. Gathercole, J. Stanley and N. Thomas 2002-3 'Archaeology and the media: Cornwall Archaeological Society-Devon Archaeological Society joint symposium', Cornish Archaeology 41-42, 149-160.