Time Team

Time Team was a popular series on archaeology broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK between 1994 and 2014, and fronted by celebrity presenter Baldrick Sir Tony Robinson of Blackadder.

In each episode, the team's archaeologists have three days to investigate a site not otherwise open for excavation, such as a golf course. The sites have generally never been explored with modern techniques, and often not at all, making this programme one of the few examples of genuine scientific research being televised. At some of the sites, have made discoveries of national historical significance.

The success of the programme inspired multiple imitators, such as Meet the Ancestors and House Detectives. There have also been several Spin-Off programmes, and live episodes; in 2006, for example, they broadcast live coverage of the team digging up the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It continues into the 2020s as a group of several YouTube channels funded by both advertising and user contributions (usually via Patreon). As of 2025, they have been involved in a multiweek effort to excavate previously-untouched sections of the famous Sutton Hoo site, during which they uncovered the previously undiscovered bottom of a brass Byzantine bucket pulled up by a plow in the 1980 and now on display in the nearby museum.

The programme does not follow the normal tropes of TV fictional archaeology, but it does follow the standard structure, with a teaser and a cliffhanger question before each ad break.

Not to be confused with the American cartoon Time Squad.

Tropes used in Time Team include:
  • Reality Show: Real archaeologists, on real sites, under a real deadline.
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