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http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/time-team-should-continue-on-tv.html (http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/time-team-should-continue-on-tv.html)

To be quite honest Time Team has gone downhill over the years, the latest series doesnt really rank with me either i prefer to watch the older ones.  Maybe they could create a modern version and get rid of bloody Baldrick !!!!!

Save Time Team ? You must be joking. You're having a laugh.

I agree dump Baldrick..
Be nice t have a programme based purely on detecting there's enough
Of us out there beach land all looking for that one find... ;D

kick baldrick into a ditch and get some one interesting on there ;D oh yes and charlie dimmocks

Lets start another petition to bring back Two Men in a Trench. Now they were detector friendly, and regularly spoke to them on camera. What's more they never took credit for finding something that the detectorists really found!

Save Time Team _ Why?

I used to be captivated as a lot of people are but then you start listening to the dialog and you realise they take an awful lot
for granted and often slant the finding in favour of the program.

Don't know who's on the current program but some examples of what I mean below.

Carenza says... " We think we may have found something related to a Manor House in trench five"

Phil says... "What we've found could possibly be Celtic in origin".

Tony does a piece to camera.. " Not only have we found the manor house but possibly a Celtic settlement in the grounds".
He does this often. Its as if they have to produce the goods for the viewers..

Don't really take the program as seriously as I used to.
Still, a bit of fun to watch as Phil is a real Character and I want to marry Carenza.

i like TimeTeam like some of you say bring someone new in,use detectorist more often,maybe do a couple of london foreshaw digs,use more young ladies digging :):):)

Well said Cardiffian, they were a great team and well worth the watching.

carenza? , when was the last time you watched the programme....she hasnt been on it for quite a few years

 I did like the program at the start, then it got a bit boring, for instance they dig for a tudor mansion, they have the plans and photo's of the building,and surprise,surprise Phil starts digging and finds a tudor brick and has a orgasm, come on why waste time and money when you know exactly whats under the ground and not that old at that, the worst thing I hate about the program is when they use JCB's to dig and uncover graves,I hate seeing graves disturbed and removed, these people ( yes people) were laid to rest and should not be disturbed, you may say that they come across some graves accidently, but on one program they did dig up a grave yard on purpose.
 That's my rant over but I did enjoy most othe programs.
 Geoff

Totally agree I hope when I am buried
And decides to dig me up place my belongings in a museum and pass me around
I would expect a bit more respect
Just make sure you don't take anything to expensive with you
Alternative I guess is to be cremated
Lol

Anywa y it would be fantastic to to see a metal detecting programme
put on TV
I think maybe that will be in the very near future
As there seems to be a great deal of interest
Lets hope
Regards Mucker

yes the digging up graves bit does my head in too.basicaly just grave robbers.should be called the burk and ohare show

they can go ,they look too much like wino's these days,too much arm waving and fabricated 3d views from a tiny fragment of pottery into a fabulous piece of ceramic, instead of finding the real thing.
what they need to do is more prior research and then dig more worthwhile sites . a lot turn out to be total duffers .so i am fed up watching duffers .

i was at the river thames dig when they were filming it and it was pretty uncoordinated ,with not much going on but a lot of farting around ,baldrik was reading  the SUN newspaper most of the time and minions doing the hard work ,and phil getting filmed with a trowel in hand for a few minutes of video. the detectorists on site were edited out for the TV showings ....

There's only so many pieces of pottery one could look at ,they clearly find much more metal work than they show,and as for any archaeoligist removing skeletons or bones to be placed in a box confined to a museum basement, I should think they have more than enough and it should stop ASAP.

I always find it very amusing when they show Phil or Carenza, who have supposedly been digging for hours, with pearly white fingernails! It's more than obvious that they sit on the sidelines until something interesting turns up and then get in the trench for the cameras.

I admit I used to enjoy the early series when they went out to investigate small sites by invitation. People like you and me who'd noticed something interesting down the lane or in thier garden. They produced some interesting programs that were quite intructive.
Then, like a lot of long running series , they lost the plot. Who wants to see American digs for a start.

They've run thier mile and got old and dusty in the process. Time for Time Team to retire.

Val

I agree with Celtic Spikey, what is the point of removing the remains
of people, and to keep them in  some storeroom. Surely after all
the evidence has been gathered by the archies, the remains should be re-buried.
as a mark of respect.

My two penneth

Time time is still good in parts - sometimes interesting, sometimes same old same old!

Disturbing graves is a 'NO!'

The jcb coming in and skimming the top soil is 'pants' - this is where the detectorists should come in, we could first off all come in and show what would have been missed. After all even if all is found is a 1970's coin, this is still history and would show the viewer that all levels of ground are history.

Having read the posts and hearing the call for a great idea, 'a detectorist tv programme' there is only one way the tv programmers would heed this idea - it's simple really
.
We as a collective need to get using our mobile phones - videos -  and post all digs and finds on 'you tube' under one title, rather than seperate postings -  for all detectorists to post -  for example 'Detecting Britian'  or 'Britain under the radar' once posted. we hit view the footage again and again until your fingers bleed. The more 'hits' the film produces more interest. You tube has produced many a 'tv idea'
TV Programmers all view You tube for new concepts - if you want a tv programme to coin a phrase 'You make it happen'

I will be sad to see it go but as has been said the "good"  programs seem to have ended 5 or 6 years ago. I'm no great lover of Tony Robinson but I feel he was one of the people that made the program, as with many television series' of the past when you change the presenter, the whole feel of the program changes and usually fails.
As for a television series devoted to metal detecting :o :o :o :o :o :o I'd rather watch paint dry, Metal detecting is definitely not a spectator sport ;D
It's also a micro-hobby with only about 12000 regular detectorists and to put this in context there are many many times more bell ringers in the UK than detectorists, which is as about as enjoyable to watch ;D

For those that still don't, won't or can't understand using a JCB..........I despair for you  ;) But to put some peoples minds at rest, what you see on the box isn't the end of many of the digs. Wessex Archaeology follows on many of them with a thorough excavation.
As for digging graves :-\ As a general rule graves are not disturbed unless they are in danger or for research or come across by accident and many of these are recovered up after recording.

My mother when buried was buried with two roman coins in her hands (both Aeternitas types, one with an elephant on it) and a replica neolithic bowl. Always an (amateur) archaeologist.

I've got a couple of solidus for my turn.

Agree ref the diggers. The drivers they use are specialists who can skim off a quarter of an inch at a time if they need to.

balls to time team ,bloody grave robbers :o

I hope I never find human remains!!!!!  :o

i have but thats for another time ooooh :o

i have changed my mind ,without timeteam on telly it would be bleak ,so they need to specialise more in their prior planning to get a good dig instead of a flop ..

May the programme RIP.

The participants did our hobby NO favours infact some of them made our life very difficult over the years.

Especially old stripey. :-X ;)  Jerry.

lol u need to get out more  :D

With all due respect, Chef, I would dispute your figure of 12,000 metal detectorists in the UK. DetectingWales and DetectingScotland have about 3,000 members between them and by your figures this would be a quarter of the total detecting population. As popular as DW and DS undoubtedly are I think it unlikely that our membership covers such a large proportion of the total detectorists in the UK.

It's pretty much impossible to give a completely accurate figure for the number of detectorists in the UK but I would say it would be nearer 50,000 than 12,000. And the number has been rising strongly over the last couple of years with all the publicity surrounding high profile metal detecting finds such as the Staffordshire hoard.

I would not characterise metal detecting as a 'micro hobby'. It is a pastime indulged in by a respectable chunk of the population and is one of the few hobbies that actually makes a decent contribution to human knowledge. To back this up I would point once more to the Staffordshire hoard - The most significant archaeological discovery of recent times in the UK - made by a metal detectorist.

Geoff

Geoff you have missed the important term "regular" those who detect over twice a month. Yes hundreds come in to the hobby each year and there are just as many leaving, there are probably thousands of machines lying about in attics, garages etc.
As to the figures of DW and DS membership, 80% of those are non contributory, many were probably those who had the idea of starting detecting because of the hoards you have mentioned but it passed as a whim and they never did anything about it, if you were able to check how many registered members are "active" participants of the hobby then I think you'll find from the figure of 3000 you would soon be look as a sobering figure of a few hundred.
These are estimated figures by the retail trade not a number I conjured up by the way.
You may not characterise it as a "micro hobby" but even if your number of 50,000 was close it would still be way short of bell ringers and model aeroplane enthusiasts and would still be a micro hobby.
To correct you slightly, metal detecting "CAN" contribute to human knowledge, unfortunately if you view the PASS statistics regular contributors by county run in the hundreds not thousands, so lets hope it's only around 12000 or we are eradicating more knowledge  than we are adding.
And on a final note, the Staffordshire hoard was the most significant "treasure find" not archaeological find, as it has added very very little to the knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon period.

i can think of quite a few gents with machines but nowhere to use them even though they are old hunters of many years experience  ,if a good site comes their way they would be off like a shot .they pursue other hobbies in the meantime.

Exactly Galoshes, there must be thousands.

Getting on for half a million page views per month for the two sites would tend to dispute this. If people are interested enough to read the sites, even if they don't post, there's a good chance they get out and do a bit of metal detecting when they can. In my view that makes them active metal detectorists.

According to your 'twice a month' test I am apparently not a regular detectorist. I'll tell my wife she wasted her money buying me that Etrac for Christmas...

lol...no nor am I ;D and like me yes you probably have waisted money as if you only detect once a month, that's 36 times before your guarantee runs out, just think if your car only allowed you to use it 36 times before the warranty ran out ;D
Lies, damn lies and statistics half a million a month can be done quite easily by 300 members without trying to break any records, do the math. I have an auto reloader on my browser which will give you 14000 hits per month without me looking at anything other than the main page.

lol... Ring up HMV and Jessops and let them know they're saved - Internet traffic has been discovered to be nothing more than a few dozen people sitting in their rooms with auto reloaders... ;D

Got to add my 2p worth here.  A few weeks ago I noticed the Member figure at 1999 and jumped at the chance of welcoming no.2000.  He aint been on since he joined. 
A couple of weeks ago there was another new member 'Douglas' asking for advice on where and how. Waiting for his detector to arrive and doing some home work in advance.
Totally disheartened when he realised you couldn't just buy one and go (wherever you want) he said he wasn't going to bother and would put it straight on EBay when it arrived.
I can think of a few others as well. All excited till they had a go, found nothing and then gave up.
I don't think the number of detectors sold has much to do with the number of detectorists. Apart from which, how many of you lot have got 2, if not 3 machines.??  I've got 3  :-[

Val

I have 1 and that has been for 14 years and I'm very happy with it. (can't afford another anyway if I wanted to.)

theres a lot more people with detectors than you think who go out at night hawking with the night vision gogs on.i have met a few who openly admit it.they are not in clubs or forums

Well in response to Val - we've got 4 detectors in the house at the moment.

I've had a metal-detector of one sort or another for 30 years, but for the first 20 I only ever detected in my parents' back garden.

Then, I bought a C-Scope and foot and mouth turned up, just as i was going to ask a farmer for permission.

It took me another 8 years before I then bought another detector and asked for permission.

I found almost nothing for 2 years - there were plenty of times I almost gave up - now I realise that a lot of me not finding things was because I was useless at it! - for instance trying to detect in a field with knee-high grass, swinging the machine wildly, having a machine that was too complicated sound-wise for me as someone new to the hobby.

It was by joining a club, going on a few rallies, getting advice from some good friends, being persistent (it at least got me outside of the house) that kept me going (plus a previous and current interest in coins).

It was only a year and a half ago that I found my first hammered coin - on a rally, and three years ago I found my first roman. Last year I managed 20 hammereds, about 40 romans including some silvers - I've found about 15 romans already this year, so I'm hooked for a long time now :)

I still get dispirited - there are times I go out and find nothing - I'm not confident in asking farmers for permission so I don't have many sites (although the number is slowly growing), and I've had a few rejections of farmers, which then puts me off apporaching others - and I can cetainly understand the frustration of people getting interested in the hobby - my son things you can dig a random hole in a field and find a hoard....he gets bored after 10 minutes.

On another note - I know many, many people who have tried detecting - and some who were quite serious about it years ago, and still have a detector in their attic, but don't detect anymore - usually because of children / family reasons. I know that some will eventually return to the hobby, but if it stops becoming a regular thing, other activities get in the way.

If Val actually gave 2p for everytime she gave her 2p worth we could actually save timeteam :D

lol  :)

newbies must get disheartened by the pull tabs and foil and beer cans of which theres tons out there even in places so off the beaten track you can figure out how it got there..

Cheeky whatnot Nobby. :D
On a more serious note. If Time Team producers were to step back a bit they could rejuvenate the show. I have a few sites that would bear much closer inspection but the funds are not available. How many more could other members add.
Between us  I'm sure we could keep them going for at least another two series. It could open up a lot of history for Wales that is only hinted at and increase knowlege of Englands history as well.
For a long time though they've only been interested in the 'big digs' what a shame.

Val

they operate under financial restraints so have to show a profit after expenses for accomodation and travel and wages all over the country ,so you wonder how much their company makes each year .if profits were good you feel they would keep going come what may .

still twats lol :D

dont mind baldrick , at least he doesnt f*** around to the point as you want to hurt him ,as johnny vaughn does on mud men ..

fair coment,he still needs a swift kick up the jacksy though :D

There time has gone ,as they have dug every possible type of site.....New programme starting on Sky next week ... done in the proper way ;D

whats that program called Rob ?

Same tired old format with a bland presenter that portrays every detectorist as a get rich quick villain. I wont miss it.

well said bin it get that scottish guy with long hair to do a better program with no baldrick in it  ;D
 we need a british program that follows a differentt detecting club on rallies each week from all over britain,that would be good not bloody speculating grave robbers with stupid jumpers and aussie hats