Has Time Team Been Axed?

[duckweed]

It's all part of Time Team tony Robinson rushing around like a mad thing. Usually  a dig is slow and painstaking and everyone moving round at a leisurely pace. Doesn't make good television. Since Time team started departments at University that were due for closure due to lack of interest have not only stayed open but got increased funding. Is anyone really naive to think programmes are just shot as it happens and then edited? Its a mixture of shooting as it happens and some restaging. Just like in these auction programmes they always finish with the item that makes the most money.

[muppetprincess]

Time Team is one of my favourite shows.  I appreciate that the filming is not "live", as in, the cameras are always rolling.  Tony rushing about isn't my favourite part of the story, but others may like this.  it's great to hear about the universities receiving funding for their history/archaeology departments, anything which increases young peoples' interest in history is OK by me.  might even lead to more interest in the REAL genealogy, ie, peoples' lives, rather than just name grabbing.
Jude

[LizzieW]

Is anyone really naive to think programmes are just shot as it happens and then edited?

No I'm not naive enough to think that, what I was saying was that the impression is given that something is found and then Tony rushes over to look at it, (even if filmed some time later) when what happened (at least on the programme I was on) was that something was found and quite a long time later Tony was filmed rushing - but not actually to the thing that had been found - what was the point of that, if they want him to run, why not get him to run to the part of the field they want to film.  Like Jude, I don't like the parts of the programme where Tony is rushing about and, as it comes across in the programme Phil did get slightly annoyed with this.

Lizzie

[silvery]

It's exactly what annoys me.   Tedious film of Tony rushing about, generating (they think) an air of real excitement.   Yeah.   

[Redroger]

Real archaeology can be very slow. Just spent two days at Kimmeridge Bay as part of Poole Harbour Copperas and Alum project, cleaning a face for future sampling. (Yes we had a permit from EH). Total finds in two days work, one stainless steel knife, one pork chop bone, and one newly dead seagull. But that's all too often real archaeology.

[duckweed]

Yes that's why I think they do pretty well with their finds. I find it quite astonishing what they do find.

[Redroger]

Sometimes, but not in my experience often, there are plenty of finds.Maybe they're just lucky!!

[Ruskie]

Don't care - I love Time Team. Have been watching it since it first started and never tire of it. It's great viewing. 

[Ringoroses]

Real archaeology can be very slow

.

Yup, just like real genealogy - which can take many years of hard slog , nothing like the two week shoot crammed into a one hour programme that the Beeb puts out  on WDYTYA.

"x has found in the census in rainy London that her long lost ancestors came from Timbuktoo, so she's just flying off there straight away (first class of course) to speak for a minute or two to a local expert who just happens to have done a mountain of research on her behalf. And here it is, all tied up in a pink bow with chocolate on the top..."  

Jealous? Me....?