On the away fixture list next season - TimeTeam play Extreme Archaeology (old codgers! versus the archaeology babes) venue Paris Mountain Anglesey. i think that was one of the better Extreme A. programmes. it had everything - danger - gripping action. WHat a block buster that would be Extreme Archaeology teaming up with TImeTeam could save them from the encroaching grip of Channel 5.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by saffron_hill: it had everything - danger - gripping action./QUOTE]
Did it?

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Originally posted by saffron_hill:
....Paris Mountain Anglesey. i think that was one of the better Extreme A. programmes. it had everything - danger - gripping action.

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Either this was a "Re-mix" or I need to know what you were drinking when you watched this/ posted this.

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could save them from the encroaching grip of Channel 5.

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There is no evidence of Time Team moving to Channel 5. There have been no rumours of Time Team moving to Channel 5. There has been no public interest expressed by Channel 5 in Time Team. There has been no suggestion by Channel 4 of dropping Time Team.

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Originally posted by Jean Manco:

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could save them from the encroaching grip of Channel 5.

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There is no evidence of Time Team moving to Channel 5. There have been no rumours of Time Team moving to Channel 5. There has been no public interest expressed by Channel 5 in Time Team. There has been no suggestion by Channel 4 of dropping Time Team.

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That's you told, saffy

Trouble is it has the ring of one of those "I have every confidence in X" speeches made by Prime Ministers a week before X "resigns" to spend more time with his/her family. Or even someone else's family.

(JUst teasing Jean)

There's a rumor going round the archaeological community that that Time Team will end in 2007.

Of course this has been an ongoing one since about 1997 so really Time Team should have finished in 1999,2001,2003 etc

Fil2 - Problem is that in the past when I've ignored something that seems to me obvious nonsense, I later find that at least one person took it seriously because there was no denial.

I've predicted for years that Time Team will end when its producers decide to end it. Of course C4 could decide not to commission any more series. But TT has been so successful for them that it's hard to imagine that. So as the 'cast' gets older, the producers will have to decide whether to call it a day, or keep going with new people. Personally I'd prefer it to stop.

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Originally posted by Chris D:
There's a rumor going round the archaeological community that that Time Team will end in 2007.

Of course this has been an ongoing one since about 1997 so really Time Team should have finished in 1999,2001,2003 etc

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Hmmm. Quite possible that contracts are up for renewal around then.

Ultimately it's more a commercial decision than anything else, in my opinion. I think C4 will hang on to a programme called Time Team as long as it's of use to them in terms of ratings, prestige and, I guess, book (and DVD?) sales. Who gets the money for the Discovery repeats C4 or the production company?

m i m

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Quite possible that contracts are up for renewal around then.

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That's the most likely basis of the recurrent rumours. The series is commissioned year by year, but C4 tends to commission Tony for a couple of series at a time, which in this case takes us to the filming of series 14 in 2006, which will be shown in 2007.

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Originally posted by Jean Manco:So as the 'cast' gets older, the producers will have to decide whether to call it a day, or keep going with new people. Personally I'd prefer it to stop.

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I'd agree without hesitation.

But then, Blue Peter should always have Val, John and Pete presenting! Everything since has always felt "not as good as when..." but I daresay those who joined the programme later would feel the same about the presenters who were there when they started watching. It'd probably be the same with TT - us oldies preferring the originals and newcomers preferring any new team!

And just wait until the new Dr Who starts.

ON a serious note what they should be doing is evolving the series into new forms and ideas put into practice so keeping ahead of any competition or rival programmes rather than following a conservative tradition of not changing a winning formula and not upsetting auntie, if a new producer comes along with new ideas that might take TT into new and exciting territory they should go with it - they should bring new people in and if tony robinson wants a break try new presenters etc. todays or yesterdays winning format could be tomorrows pastiche or hollow representation of a great programme. keeping it going maybe a commercial decision but if it doesn't keep up with the viewers and what they want to watch - they wont! what do the viewers like and what do they want out of the programs - they could ask them maybe produce other history or archaeology programmes under the timeteam stable - i am not sure if extreme archaeology was a success though i like the one on paris mountain!

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new ideas that might take TT into new and exciting territory

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Like the Time Team specials, which started in 1999? The Big Dig? The Big Roman Dig?

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maybe produce other history or archaeology programmes under the timeteam stable

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That started in 1998 with History Hunters and Time Team Extra. ExA is the most recent spin-off. All have had their supporters, but none have proved as popular as TT.

Correction. The specials really belong in the 'other programmes' category.

The Big Dig was partly an extension of the Live, which belongs in the 'evolving the series' category.

i would like to see more programming involving the general public (and not just in large numbers for a short space of time) including digs that people can do so they will learn how. i am sure there are plenty of people out there who would like to get their hands dirty - note i am not saying this must be part of the full timeteam programme treatment! perhaps this would be an idea they could develop in small ways has a spin off from other timeteam activity.
primarily i am personally like a lot of people someone who is into archaeology rather than being a supporter of one tv programme. one item of mine which is fairly political is to change the national curriculum to include some archaeology and ancient history because its an important part of our national identity and culture to know where you come from - not only that i object to people who locally say it is irrelevant to people of other cultures or it doesnt fit into peoples leisure plans or lifestyles (there by implying that only things driven by market forces or tv advertising are important). it is not my number 1 priority personally but plenty of other people with minority interests are catered for by the taxpayer and this is a major pastime these days!

There are thousands of people out there who would love to dig with Time Team. That has been one of the most common responses to the programme. The Big Dig aimed to satisfy that desire to get involved, as far as humanly possible.

From the start Time Team have been explaining archaeological methods by showing what happens on a dig. Time Team books like Archaelogy is Rubbish spread the word. So I suppose it is only natural that people then look to Time Team to help them get hands-on experience.

But TT is not set up to provide training excavations. And I'd say that people seriously wanting to learn to excavate are better off doing it away from the TV cameras and the pressures of making a programme.

i didnt say it should it follow the usual format or be with the original presenters? they ought to try a pilot to see if a training dig made good tv but only for the archaeology not reality tv - i am not a fan of reality tv - if i had to pay to watch channel 4 i wouldnt watch it even timeteam would not be worth the subscription. if the bbc did away with the license and ihad to pay a subscription i would rather spend it on a sub to a good archaeology magazine

I don't think a 'training dig' would make particularly good viewing myself. And what 'lucky' site gets to be hacked into by these neophytes? How many times have we heard Tony say "I can't see it" when Phil tries to point out two very subtly different shades of brown to him? There would be a lot of that, I imagine.

I'd rather see it all done by people who already know what they are doing, have studied their history, earthenware forms or whatever and can explain what it is they're finding in a coherent and accessable way. As it is, the one hour format only leaves us time for 'edited highlights' of a dig - a few seconds of turf removal, then cut straight to the finds tray or the deep trench with nothing in it but 'the nacheral', then off to the next trench.

Besides, there has to be a band of people out there trying to make a living out of training these techniques; you can't expect them to give all their trade secrets away cheaply like that


EF

Ooh Saf, my first training digs would have made good tv. I can't reveal what happened on the first, at Swanscombe in the early 70's because the moderator would turn terminator, but the second involved some crazy stuff on ropes, half way down a damn great quarry face in Mendip and had much in common with Extreme Archaeology. Sadly, by contrast, most training digs are rather low key affairs, at least until you get down the pub after hours. I think people would find they'd rather watch paint dry.

well the truth there are not many amateur digs nowadays and developers are only interested in one thing. there is no way amateurs could be involved in a major way with the superior digs that are going on here at the moment for safety and confidentiality reasons.
what tends to be forgot is how much ignorance today about history or matters intellectual a fact which is not helped by the media - it doesnt pay to be clever does it - its not seen as being cool. take new labour for instance. i am sure my generation who are baby boomers see channel 4 differently. i am sure they would like timeteam to be more like reality tv. i say why not do something serious with archaeology occasionally even if some people watching dont have a long enough attention span. think how much better timeteam would be if they didnt dumb it down!

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Originally posted by saffron_hill:
think how much better timeteam would be if they didnt dumb it down!

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Why is making something understandable necessarily dumbing down? And secondly is Time Team 'dumbing down' to use the phrase, any more or less than when it began?

I and probably many others knew little about archaeology when we started watching Time Team. Therefore putting over the techniques and theories of archaeology using analogies that we could understand persuaded us to keep watching. After 13 series or so I suppose we feel that we are becoming more knowledgable, especially since many have been encouraged to either go on a dig, study it or take more of an interest at a museum or reading about it. However there are plenty of people still tuning in for the first time or occassionally.

As for filming a training dig, I think some that I have been on would be good TV, but from an entertainment angle, capturing the spirit and camaradrie. The actual archaeology was relatively slow by necesity, since the object was the teaching. If I want to watch archaeology on TV I want experts telling me what is happening. Although if TT did ask for volunteers I would be in the queue!