# TimeTeam to return?



## Brian G Turner (Dec 14, 2020)

There's a suggestion that TimeTeam may be relaunched, perhaps in a new format:








						The Return of Time Team?
					

Time Team, the highly successful archaeology tv program on Channel 4 has announced a possible return to the trenches with a crowdfunding Patreon campaign to relaunch the show. - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News




					www.heritagedaily.com
				




Directly from the TimeTeam website:




__





						Time Team - Time Team joins Patreon and introduces Classics
					






					www.timeteamdigital.com
				




and their new Patreon page:








						Time Team is creating Archaeology and History Content | Patreon
					

Become a patron of Time Team today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.




					www.patreon.com


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## mosaix (Dec 14, 2020)

Read this yesterday. Great TV. Let's hope it returns.


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## Stephen Palmer (Dec 24, 2020)

Agreed. Some truly inspiring and wonderful telly.


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## CupofJoe (Dec 24, 2020)

Huge fan though I was, I'm against it.
The last few series were getting a bit thin. And the old gang has moved on...
I'd like to see an archaeological show that covers real digs from beginning to end.
I'd like to see something like _Digging for Britain_ but on a bigger scale. Give the cameras [and maybe a drone or two] to the diggers and let them record as they go along. Then edit it into a show which takes the time to look at one site each week but covers a season's worth of activity. The TV budget can be used for extra graphics and gismos...
All that said, I freely admit I'll watch if I can. 
But no Tony Robinson, no watch...


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## AnyaKimlin (Dec 26, 2020)

Honestly, I think we would be better highlighting local teams, local digs and local museums. 

They're going to need support after Covid.  It would be great if they could highlight the new technologies.


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## CTRandall (Jan 6, 2021)

Along the lines of what @AnyaKimlin said, DigVentures is a crowd-funded group that does stuff around Britain. This seems the natural21st century iteration of Time Team. They did a (socially distanced) dig last autumn near me but I didn't find out about it until it was done. I'm hoping they'll return sometime soon.


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## svalbard (Jan 6, 2021)

CupofJoe said:


> Huge fan though I was, I'm against it.
> The last few series were getting a bit thin. And the old gang has moved on...
> I'd like to see an archaeological show that covers real digs from beginning to end.
> I'd like to see something like _Digging for Britain_ but on a bigger scale. Give the cameras [and maybe a drone or two] to the diggers and let them record as they go along. Then edit it into a show which takes the time to look at one site each week but covers a season's worth of activity. The TV budget can be used for extra graphics and gismos...
> ...



Time Team for me was Tony Robinson, Mike Aston, Phil Harding and Carenza Lewis. I still enjoy watching the re runs of the classic line up. Have to say wasn't a fan of the later seasons.


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## Edoc'sil (Jan 6, 2021)

I have to concur @svalbard, I loved the old time team and I think the later ones failed at giving me the same response. I liked some of the technological advances but the charisma and the enthusiasm wasn't the same. I'm excited there may be more, but I hope they take what was good from the old episodes and combined them from what was good about the later ones. Who knows maybe this latest chapter will end up being even better!


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## Stephen Palmer (Jan 6, 2021)

Agreed, the original team was the best. I did also like Francis Pryor, who has written some terrific archaeology books, especially _Home._


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## Brian G Turner (Jan 6, 2021)

John Gator with his geophysics, and Stewart Ainsworth with his landscape archaeology that often explained so much.


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## Dave (Jan 6, 2021)

Stephen Palmer said:


> Agreed, the original team was the best. I did also like Francis Pryor, who has written some terrific archaeology books, especially _Home._


I've read his book, _The Making of the British Landscape: How We Have Transformed the Land, from Prehistory to Today_ 

I do think there is a problem with the concept of the TV show - rush in somewhere, work under time constrained pressures (sometimes artificially imposed by the TV programme itself) and then move on somewhere else.


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## Foxbat (Jan 8, 2021)

Dave said:


> I do think there is a problem with the concept of the TV show - rush in somewhere, work under time constrained pressures (sometimes artificially imposed by the TV programme itself) and then move on somewhere else


As much as I like the show, I agree. When I was still at school, I volunteered and spent a few of my weekends working on a nearby dig looking for Roman artifacts. What the show doesn’t really display is all the weeks  spent digging and finding nothing. Real life, unfortunately, can’t be edited.


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## mosaix (Jan 8, 2021)

I do think the time constraint is a necessary evil. I can imagine the site director saying at the end of day three "This is so exciting, maybe we'll just extend that trench another metre or two..." And then again at the end of day four and day five...


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## Vladd67 (Jan 8, 2021)

I remember years ago chatting to an archeology student at a party and she had been on a couple of Time Team digs and said how unpopular Tony Robinson was with the archaeologists. He spent most of the day sitting in a land rover drinking coffee being the moody celebrity, then came bounding uninvited into people’s digs generally getting in the way and treading on peoples work . Of course the poor guy could have just been bored between shots, but for a lot of the diggers they wished he wasn’t there.


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## Dave (Jan 8, 2021)

mosaix said:


> I do think the time constraint is a necessary evil. I can imagine the site director saying at the end of day three "This is so exciting, maybe we'll just extend that trench another metre or two..." And then again at the end of day four and day five...


Does it really need to be ever so exciting? 

I'm trying to compare with something else that takes time and thinking _Gardeners World. _Would the the director extend a rose garden because Monty Don was enthusiastic? Or would they just leave the plot and move on to another garden because the seeds hadn't germinated yet? "Yes, there probably are some great Dahlias in there somewhere, but we just don't have months to wait for them to grow!"


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## Foxbat (Jan 8, 2021)

Thought some folk might find this interesting. Note one of the _do nots _(I’m looking at you Tony Robinson): DO NOT walk over your, or anyone else’s, nicely trowelled area. Many a friendship has been broken this way



			https://www.yac-uk.org/userfiles/file/YAC_Leaders_Weekend_Fieldwork_Guides.pdf


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 22, 2021)

Looks like it may just be digital only - ie, YouTube. Also, no Tony Robinson. But a big dig already starting:








						Time Team to dig for Roman villa at Fiennes’ castle
					

The nation’s favourite history programme Time Team is back on digital platforms - and the first dig will be an enormous Roman villa on the…




					www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk


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## mosaix (Mar 23, 2021)

Excellent. I hope a TV channel picks it up as well.


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