A FINAL EPISODE? Fans from all over the world have been signing an online petition to see Time Team come together one final time to do a Time Team special dig episode in memory of the late Professor Mick Aston. Michael Antony Mick Aston, FSA (1 July 1946 – 24 June 2013) was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. As an academic, he taught at a number of universities across the United Kingdom, and helped popularize the discipline among the British public by appearing as the resident academic on the Channel 4 television series Time Team from 1994 to 2011. Through the series, Aston became well known to the viewing public for his trademark colorful jumpers and flowing, untidy hairstyle. He also published a number of books on the subject of archaeology, some of which were written for an academic audience, and others for the general public. In June 1988 the producer Tim Taylor invited Aston to work on a new four-episode television series for Channel 4 called Time Signs, broadcast in June and July 1991. The series focused on the historical development of the area about to be flooded by the Roadford Reservoir in Devon, making heavy use of archaeological data. Aston brought archaeologist Phil Harding into the project in order to explain techniques of experimental archaeology to the audience. Meanwhile, in August 1989 Aston was promoted to the position of Reader in Landscape Archaeology at Bristol University. He also continued to write on the subject, authoring the book Monasteries (1993). Aston and Taylor subsequently decided to work together on a new archaeological television series, devising the format for Time Team. Whilst Taylor organised the film production side of the project with Channel 4, Aston located suitable sites to excavate, and gathered together a team of specialists to appear on the show, among them field archaeologists Harding and Carenza Lewis, artist Victor Ambrus, and historian Robin Bush. He knew the actor and television presenter Tony Robinson after they had met on an archaeological course in Greece, and successfully requested that he present the show. From an early stage, they had agreed that every episode would feature a practical process or a re-enactment alongside the field archaeology. Time Team was first broadcast in 1994, and would attract around four million viewers per episode, with Aston becoming an icon to the viewing public. Writing in The Guardian, Christopher Dyer noted that Astons unkempt hair and beard, multicoloured sweaters and Black Country accent made him instantly recognisable to the British public, describing him as a popular success who had attracted a large public following. Aston acted as chief archaeological adviser to the program until the end of series nineteen, starring in almost every episode, although he would later comment that when it first started he had no idea it would continue for so long. Aston enjoyed working with the Time Team crew, commenting that they were a great gang... There are some real party people. Aston saw Time Team as an extension of his work as an extramural tutor, telling a 2013 interviewer that it was a way of reaching 3 million people rather than 30 people in the village hall. Commenting on the popularity of Time Team, and its role in exposing the British public to archaeology, in a 2010 interview Aston remarked that My motive was to get as many people as possible interested in archaeology, because we [in the profession] all enjoy it and think it interesting. That was my personal aim… and on that basis I think it is a success. Time Team encouraged wider public interest in archaeology and led to increasing numbers of students applying to study archaeological courses at British universities, while subscriptions to Current Archaeology magazine quadrupled to 18,000 in the shows first five years. In Autumn 1998, Channel 4 started a Time Team fan club, which had 16,000 members within a few months, while Aston became a supporter of the Council for British Archaeologys Young Archaeologists Club (YAC), and with Harding gave regular talks to YAC branches. Aston found himself giving up to 20 public lectures a year on the subject of Time Team, describing the public feedback as embarassingly encouraging. new.archaeologyuk.org/news/mick-aston-time-team-special-dig-campaign You can also support & sign the Petition here. Facebook: https://facebook/RipMickAston Twitter: @TimeTeamFans #archaeology #archeology #Mick_Aston #Team_Time
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 11:03:39 +0000
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