New Series of Time Team

[Mikeyboy]

So I turned over the other night adn there was what appeared to be a new series of Time Team.

and it was just somehow wrong. There was a new woman who seemed to have been shoe horned in to work alongside Tony.
There was incidental music during the digs which was very odd.
The weirdest thing though was this intangible feeling that the programme was no longer that serious.

Did anyone else see it and get the same impression?

[tank slapper]

Yes, Mick Aston did and has quit as a result.

[Soovy]

So has the bird.

[Simpo Two]

But can they still reconstruct King Canute's castle from a small piece of Victorian brick?

[Mr GrimNasty]

I think the fundamental problem is that after a dozen series, they have run out of places they are allowed to dig for just 3 days that are likely to be sufficiently fruitful to be interesting.

[Zad]

There are plenty of places to dig, but only so many ways that you can say the same things. Especially if you are going to over-simplify them and assume that viewers can't understand words longer than 2 syllables.

[Mr GrimNasty]

Of course there are plenty of places to dig - but not with sufficient concentrations of artefacts. When it started they would go to sites where they were guaranteed good finds. These days 2 shards of brown pot is a good 3 days' work.

[williamp]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Of course there are plenty of places to dig - but not with sufficient concentrations of artefacts. When it started they would go to sites where they were guaranteed good finds. These days 2 shards of brown pot is a good 3 days' work.

I'm no expert but I am a fan. Is that really the case?? The UK is a huge place, with many thousends of fields. Have they all been assessed as to whether there is acrhaeology there or not, and therefore they know whether its worth a dig??? Geniune question as I dont know.

[Zad]

I think they have fallen into the trap of having a series that is too long, and so not being as discerning as they should be. When it started they had a season of just 4 programmes, which eventually crept upto 8 and then jumped to 13. That is a LOT of digs to research, film, and write up. From what people are saying, it sounds like the regulars just want to move on with their lives now, and the producers have shoe-horned in the usual types of people, reading a clichéd script.

[Mikeyboy]

Zad said:

I think they have fallen into the trap of having a series that is too long, and so not being as discerning as they should be. When it started they had a season of just 4 programmes, which eventually crept upto 8 and then jumped to 13. That is a LOT of digs to research, film, and write up. From what people are saying, it sounds like the regulars just want to move on with their lives now, and the producers have shoe-horned in the usual types of people, reading a clichéd script.

Zad you've hit the nail why it was odd for me. It was more obviously scripted than before. Things like in the one I saw when they made out a farmer had been away and it might mean they couldn't dig his field. Nad yet for dramatic effect, he was back and new Totty could go and persuade him to let them dig..
I don't agreee that they have run out of places to dig. They could even revisit sites if they had to and learn more.
I just think the producers have all just graduated from their media courses and decided we want intrigue and drama, when we didn't. In other words they are not bright enough to think for themselves and work out what about the format worked and what needed changing so just change the things they were taught about at Uni.

[Simpo Two]

Oh no, not another 'If that spade slips and severs a gas pipe they could all die - but - wait - phew, that was close...' programme.

[Mikeyboy]

Simpo Two said:

Oh no, not another 'If that spade slips and severs a gas pipe they could all die - but - wait - phew, that was close...' programme.

Yep, one of those. It even had incidental music to heighten the drama. It was "Police Chase" but much, much slower

[Mr GrimNasty]

williamp said:

I'm no expert but I am a fan. Is that really the case?? The UK is a huge place, with many thousends of fields. Have they all been assessed as to whether there is acrhaeology there or not, and therefore they know whether its worth a dig??? Geniune question as I dont know.

They can't get access to anything scheduled most of the time, it is after all a light entertainment program, and 3 days means there is pressure to be less thorough. They actively try to avoid skeletons/burials (when did they last do one?) because they take so long to excavate properly. It really doesn't leave a lot of potential interest does it?