0x3 - The Mystery of Seahenge - Holme-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk

December 29, 1999

Last year, on this bleak and beautiful stretch of Norfolk coastline, a local man made an extraordinary discovery. Walking the beach at low tide he found a bronze axe head. Nearby, was a mysterious circle of eroded timber posts half buried in the sand, and in the middle of the circle was a huge upturned tree stump. It’s utterly intriguing nothing quite like it’s ever been found before and everyone wants to know who built it, what it was for and what it originally looked like.

0x4 - York

March 26, 2000

The dig's archaeological highs and lows are crammed into just 60 minutes in York where the finds range from a Roman skeleton complete with hobnailed boots, a Viking's discarded leather shoe, and the pillars of a monastic hospital. But what does all the evidence show? Who were these people and how did they live?

0x5 - The Real King Arthur - Tintagel Castle, Cornwall

December 24, 2000

This king was called Arthur, and his stories known to us all. But actually he’s shrouded in mystery, some people say that he was a chivalrous medieval king. Others, a gritty Dark Age warrior, others again, that he never existed at all. Time Team are setting out on a quest of our own to see if we can find out who he really was. It’s a journey back in time through centuries of myth and legend, on the way we’ll visit sacred lakes, pull our own sword from the stone and uncover the very first archaeological host.

0x6 - The Time Team History Of Britain

December 27, 2000

Time Team takes a trip from the Palaeolithic to the present and plots the nation's past through the finds and revelations made across the last seven series. The Team pays a visit to classic UK archaeological sites, such as Grimes Graves and Bede's World, and examines key digs from programmes past to look at how archaeologists have interpreted the nation's history.

0x7 - The Mystery of Mine Howe - Tankerness, Orkney

December 27, 2000

I’m in a remote farm in the Orkneys on a little hillock called Mine Howe. For years there have been stories around here of tunnels under the roads and mysterious underground rooms, which have never been satisfactorily explained until about six months ago when an extraordinary discovery was made. Acting on stories of a lost secret chamber first found in 1946, a local farmer and his friends set out to rediscover it. What they found was extraordinary. A set of stairs made of stone, disappearing into the earth and leading to a dark and secret chamber. A set of stairs leading into a hillock’s unique. And now the whole archaeological world is agog, everyone wants to know who built it and when and what it was put there for.

0x8 - Behind The Scenes At Time Team

January 7, 2001

This special programme looked behind the scenes at some of the things that you don't usually see in the normal Time Team programmes.

0x9 - The Bone Caves - Alveston, Gloucestershire

March 1, 2001

The Battle of Bosworth was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses. It was the beginning of the end of three decades of treason, rebellion and dynastic warfare. Against huge odds, Henry Tudor won the day to take the English Crown. It was a turning point in English history, the end of the Middle Ages and the savage beginnings of the country we recognise today.

0x10 - Coventry’s Lost Cathedral - Coventry, West Midlands

March 8, 2001

Welcome to what used to be the quiet backgarden of Coventry Cathedral's offices. Quiet that is, until Time Team kick-started an excavation into St Mary's, Coventry's first Cathedral which was ruthlessly destroyed by Henry the Eighth during the reformation. Over three days in 1999 we uncovered the remains of a building which would once have rivalled any Cathedral in England and yet work on this fantastic site had barely begun.

0x11 - The Island of the Eels - Ely, Cambridgeshire

May 17, 2001

Time Team has been following an excavation in Ely, Cambridgeshire, for a feature-length documentary screened on 17 May. It has uncovered a remarkable picture of Ely in past centuries: channels where boats used to moor to load and unload goods; a medieval kiln with huge quantities of high-quality pottery finds; and a number of buildings fronting the road at Broad Street.

0x12 - Dinosaur Hunters - Dinosaur Belt, Montana, USA

December 23, 2001

If you think archaeologists with their strange haircuts and their bizarre dress sense and their obsession with all the rubbish from ancient civilizations are a funny lot, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Phil and I are in Montana, in the wild west of the USA. And every summer, what seem like half the eccentrics in the universe turn up here to dig for even larger remains from times even longer ago. We’re here to meet the dinosaur hunters, we wanna find out what they do, and how they do it and hopefully even have a go ourselves.

0x13 - The Big Dig in Canterbury - Canterbury, Kent

April 15, 2002

I’m right at the top of Canterbury cathedral and a few hundred feet below me, the most ambitious urban archaeological project the country’s ever known, has just begun. One eighth of the entire ancient city is gonna be excavated to make way for a huge new shopping centre. The Big Dig as its known locally is right down there in the centre of town. So it should be jam packed full of exciting archaeology from the present day, back to the Romans and maybe even beyond. The Archaeologists are up against the clock though. The developers want them off site as quickly as possible. The Time Team are gonna be following the progress of the big dig both onsite and behind the scenes and were gonna be helping the local team to reconstruct the 2000 year story of this historic piece of Canterbury real estate. Oh… And we’ve got just nine months to do it.

0x14 - Londinium, The Edge of an Empire - London

April 22, 2002

2000 years ago, London didn’t exist. It was created by the Romans in the first century AD. They settled just over there in what we now call the city. It started as a simple bridge over a river, but within a hundred years had become a bustling city with a population of 30,000. But it was a long way from Rome, and Londinium has always been considered a bit of a frontier town, an unsoffisticated outpost perched precariously on the very edge of the Roman empire, until now. Over the last nine months, archaeologists from the Museum of London have been working on a site right in the heart of the city, and what they’ve discovered, suggests that Londinium was in fact one of the most soffisticated and advanced cities in the whole Roman empire.

0x15 - The Wreck of the Colossus - St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly

October 31, 2002

HMS Victory, probably the most famous English warship of all time. Everyone knows the story of how the Victory, under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson routed the French at the battle of Trafalgar and how Nelson died a national hero. Quite rightly, this is a perfectly preserved piece of our maritime heritage, but what happened to the other ships under Nelson’s command, where are they? Well, the simple answer is, they’re all long gone. Either destroyed in battle, lost at sea, broken up or just rotted away. Well, maybe not quite all. This is a story about the underwater excavation of one of Nelson’s lost ships. It involves Nelson’s mistress, Emma Hamilton; her husband, amateur archaeologist, Sir William Hamilton; a priceless collection of antiquities; a shipwreck and the discovery and raising of one of the most important pieces of maritime art ever found in British waters.

0x16 - Ten Years of Time Team

December 27, 2002

Ten years ago university lecturer, Mick Aston was teaching archaeology to classes of just 30 students. Now, thanks to television, Mick, Tony and the team reach an audience of over 3 million. Time Team, Channel 4's award winning archaeology show is ten years old.

0x17 - Hadrian's Well

April 10, 2003

A team of expert engineers, archaeologists and craftsmen are about to join forces in an epic archaeological experiment, to build a full size working replica of a Roman water lifting machine. At almost 4 meters in height, capable of raising 7000 litres of water per hour, this was ancient cutting edge technology. But no-one really knows how it worked or what it really looked like. What we do know is that the machine has to be installed and working in the Museum of London in three months time.

0x18 - Big Dig, The Hole Story - Canterbury, Kent

December 29, 2003

Digs at Great Easton, Leicestershire; Wolverhampton; Barnet; Oakamoor; Preston; Cheltenham; Upminster and Groundwell Ridge in Swindon.

0x19 - Sheffield Steel City - Sheffield, South Yorkshire

March 22, 2004

The team followed ARCUS, the Archaeological Research and Consultancy at the University of Sheffield, on some of its excavations into Sheffield's industrial past. Early death, deadly machinery and the worst man-made disaster in British history were revealed as Time Team documented the work of the archaeologists who have spent more than six years digging through the remains of a city that was once the biggest producer of steel in the world.

0x20 - The Crannog in the Loch - Loch Tay, Perthshire, Scotland

April 19, 2004

Loch Tay, and the kind of view that draws people to Scotland. But the landscape isn’t the main attraction for archaeologists Nick Dixon and Barrie Andrian, who are much more interested in what they can see in the shallow waters around the edge of this loch. In this time team special documentary, you’ll be submerged into the world of underwater archaeology, and visit an Iron Age house that hasn’t been seen since prehistoric times. Are you ready? Stand by to dive into the Iron Age.

0x21 - The Ten Million Pound House - Ightham Mote, Kent

May 3, 2004

Hidden away in Kent is an architectural gem. A house that has some how survived with a little bit of every fashion imposed on it over seven centuries. This is Ightham Mote near Sevenoaks, bits of it date back to 1320 and officially it’s the most complete moated medieval manor house in the UK. At least it was until the National Trust started it’s most ambitious and expensive restoration project to date. Since 1989 this building has been literally taken apart brick by brick and beam by beam revealing the hidden history of the house for the first time. In this special Time Team documentary you will discover along with me that this is a totally different kind of archaeology. You’ll learn something about the twenty generations who lived here and see some of the things they deliberately hid away.

0x22 - D-Day - Normandy

May 31, 2004

60 years ago on D-Day, the allies invaded Nazi occupied France. The invasion force made up of a 150,000 US, British and Canadian troops, was the largest in the history of western civilization. The Americans were to land on Omaha and Utah beaches, Canadians on Juno and the British on Sword and Gold. Almost half of the total troops were British and among them were the 400 infantrymen of the first Dorset regiment. They landed here on Gold beach on the 6th of June 1944, and this is the story of their day.

0x23 - The King of Bling - Prittlewell, Essex

June 13, 2005

It might not seem it, but this damp piece of unprepresessing scrub is at the heart of one of the most important discoveries in British archaeological history. Just below the surface here, diggers found the tomb of an Anglo-Saxon King, crammed with ornate finds from across Europe, and that was just the start, of a fascinating detective story. Who was this mysterious King? Archaeologists have spent the last twelve months unpicking this site and pouring over the finds trying to find hidden clues which could reveal the identity of the person who was buried here, and Time Team has been with them all the way.

0x24 - Britain’s Lost Roman Circus - Colchester, Essex

June 20, 2005

Tony Robinson, Phil Harding and Guy de la Bedoyere tell the story of the discovery of the only Roman circus ever found in Britain, just outside Colchester's Roman walls. They investigate the history of the circus and explore the rough, tough world of chariot racing.

0x25 - Life on the Edge 1000 Years BC - Washingborough, Lincoln

June 27, 2005

Three thousand years ago the River Witham, just outside Lincoln, was a busy place. In the cold wet Autumn of 2004, archaeologists were given just six weeks to rescue the fragile evidence of a major Bronze Age settlement, before it would be buried under tons of clay when the river’s flood defences were strengthened. With frequent visits from Tome Team regulars, Mick Aston and Phil Harding, this Time Team Special follows the progress of this extraordinary dig, and witnesses the spectacle of literally thousands of prehistoric finds being unearthed and analysed.

0x26 - Durrington, Somerset - Durrington Walls

November 28, 2005

Stonehenge may be Britain's most famous henge: a massive monument and ancient construction that is shrouded in mystery. But a mile away is an even bigger henge: Durrington Walls. In a major excavation this summer, archaeologists linked the two monuments and revealed an extraordinary and sophisticated picture of Stone Age life. The henge at Durrington was a mile round, a gleaming white bank of chalk sitting in the Wessex landscape. Leading down to the nearby river, a road was uncovered: the first Neolithic road to be discovered in Europe. Down that road would have tramped thousands of people, carrying the cremated remains of their recent dead. Can the team prove it was the start of a journey for the ancestors' spirits down the River Avon to the permanent memorial of Stonehenge? Even more remarkable, inside the henge was a huge wooden monument with 160 trees arranged in perfect circles. The piles of finds indicate the aftermath of great feasts, so to understand the monument better, Time Team takes on the mammoth task of building a full-size replica. It is impressive and the theories flow thick and fast. Could the midwinter alignment mean this may be the first recorded "Christmas", 2,500 years before Christ was born? Prod: Sian Price; Exec Prod: Philip Clarke.

0x27 - Dinnington, Somerset - Big Roman Villa

January 8, 2006

Tony Robinson presents the story of the excavation of a big Roman villa in Somerset, originally discovered by Time Team in 2002 and revisited in 2005. The programme demonstrates how the villa grew from a small farm building to a fine stone building, and how that was expanded again and turned round to face the busy new Fosse Way.

0x28 - Buried by the Blitz - Shoreditch Park, London

October 29, 2006

In order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE day, archaeologists from the Museum of London enlist the aid of dozens of volunteers to excavate Dorchester Street in Shoreditch, London.

0x29 - The Big Royal Dig - Windsor Castle, Palace of Holyroodhouse and Buckingham Palace

December 31, 2006

A special edition of the archaeology programme to mark The Queen's 80th birthday. Tony Robinson and his team of historians are granted exclusive access to investigate three royal sites - Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and The Palace of Holyroodhouse.

0x30 - The God of Gothic - Ramsgate, Kent

March 1, 2007

Tony Robinson talks us through the renovation of, perhaps, one of the most important homes ever built: Augustus Pugin's home in Ramsgate. In the mid-19th century, Pugin reinvented a medieval style of architecture that became known as Gothic Revival. Best known for his work on the Houses of Parliament, he built the Grange in Ramsgate in the 1840s using his own money and with, as he put it, "not an untrue bolt or joint from foundation to flagpole". Amazingly, the house was about to be destroyed in 2004 when the Landmark Trust set about restoring it. Time Team follows the transformation of the property and visits other Pugin creations around the country. It promises to be an intriguing mix of Grand Designs and Restoration - what could be better?

0x31 - Britain's Drowned World

April 24, 2007

Until about 8,000 years ago Britain was part of the European continent. Then the ice melted, rivers flooded, seas rose and, hey presto, the land that joined us to France, Holland and Denmark disappeared under water. The excitable Tony Robinson and his team of eager archaeologists set about investigating the vast, flat landscape that's now under the North Sea and the English Channel. But it's one of the most difficult archaeological sites to work on. While the local fishermen regularly bring up ancient bones from the seabed, Robinson and co merely bring up their dinner. It's worth the discomfort though: vast mammoth bones, the jaw of a sabre-toothed cat, a lion's canine and sophisticated tools are among the treasures that enthusiasts have uncovered.

0x32 - Jamestown, America’s Birthplace - Virginia, USA

May 1, 2007

The Time Team archaeologists make a 400th-anniversary visit to Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Jamestown is the birthplace of the United States and brought the country the English language, as well as the English legal and political system. Piles of perfectly-preserved 17th century finds are pulled up from a disused well, bringing the team closer to the men, women and children who founded.

0x33 - Secrets of the Stately Garden - Prior Park

August 27, 2007

Tony Robinson takes us on a grand tour around some of our finest stately gardens, where he visits extraordinary grottoes and fanciful follies, and uncovers sexy secrets concealed in apparently classical designs. He starts at Prior Park garden near Bath, where a two-year project is underway to reinstate Alexander Pope's Wilderness and the 18thcentury Serpentine Lake and Cascade. But he also travels to the breathtaking Hadrian's Garden near Rome, the inspiration for so much that we see in the "traditional" English garden.

0x34 - Codename: Ainsbrook - Thirsk, Yorkshire

January 14, 2008

Time Team reports on a prickly issue in the world of old artefacts whilst on a secret investigation into a possible Viking boat burial in Yorkshire. After metal detectorists make a major discovery of coins, silver and swords a small team of archaeologists set out to uncover the source of these remarkable objects. The programme lays bare the uneasy relationship between archaeologists and the UK's 50,000 metal detectorists, some of whom are unscrupulous when it comes to exploiting their finds. The battle lines are drawn (then pegged out, excavated and displayed) between two camps with different priorities: the archaeologists and the metal detectorists. The former want to preserve ancient relics to be studied; most of the latter do, too, although an unscrupulous few would rather make money by selling their precious finds without declaring them to the experts. The issue comes to the fore at an investigation into a possible Viking boat burial at Ainsbrook in Yorkshire.

0x35 - The Real Knights of the Round Table - Windsor Castle, Berkshire

February 25, 2008

Under the Queen's private lawn at Windsor Castle lie the foundations of one of the most enigmatic - and significant - buildings in English history: the Round Table. The building was lost until Time Team excavated its remains and proved its existence. But finding the building was just the beginning of the story. Built by Edward III on the grounds of what is now the Queen's private lawn at Windsor Castle, the huge building stood for only half a century, yet was a stepping stone in Edward III's success. Robinson embarks on a journey of discovery that takes him back into the heart of medieval chivalry.

0x36 - The Lost Dock of Liverpool - Liverpool, Merseyside

April 21, 2008

The team are given access to the largest dig in the programme's history as they scour the 42-acre site of the Paradise project in Liverpool to unearth the secrets of the new European Capital of Culture. Interestingly, they discover that a similar state of redevelopment existed 300 years ago as the small seven-street town on a muddy pool was transformed from an industrial backwater into a world-class port. Whilst excavating within the new buildings sites around the Pier Head the team takes a look at the city’s maritime history.

0x37 - Swords, Skulls and Strongholds

May 19, 2008

Britain is a land of monuments and buildings stretching back over seven thousand years, and in many ways they'd reflect the history of its people. Symbols of empire and civic pride from the proud Victorians; Elegance and proportion were defined by the tasteful Georgians; and the Tudors built palaces for prestige; Roman architecture asserted military might, power and civilisation; even our prehistoric ancestors left their mark on our landscape with stone circles, mounds and tombs. But the biggest man made monuments in Britain belong to one of the most mysterious periods in this countries past. These are relics of almost a thousand years of mystrery, superstition and violence, the Iron Age. But for centuries these huge monuments have been ignored or misunderstood. Now though with new excavations and new ideas we can at last come face to face with this huge chunk of our lost history.

0x38 - The Lost World War I Bunker - Flanders, Belgium

November 10, 2008

To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Tony Robinson travels to the Somme. When shelling turned the battlefield of the Somme into a hell on earth, Britain's best miners and engineers created a maze of tunnels and dugouts that would become the setting for a secret war waged underground. One of the last dugouts constructed has been drained of water, enabling the first people to enter it in 90 years. Deep beneath Flanders fields the skilled work of the elite tunnelling companies is revealed to be in a remarkable state of preservation, allowing Tony and the experts to walk into what effectively is a time capsule of the Great War.

0x39 - The Mystery of the Roman Treasure

December 26, 2008

Somewhere in the Roman empire at the end of the 4th century lived a very rich man. The man's name was Sevso. How he got his wealth and what he did during his life are lost in the mists of time. But his name endures. Why? Because he left behind one of the greatest treasures the world has ever known.

0x40 - Henry VIII’s Lost Palaces - England

April 13, 2009

In this feature-length Time Team Special , Tony Robinson and the Team make their inimitable contribution to marking the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne. The team have unprecedented access behind the scenes at Hampton Court where they search for Henry's famous jousting yard and bowling alley. In Essex, the first palace Henry built for himself is revealed and excavated for the first time. They hunt down the site of the extraordinary temporary palace he built at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. A stone's throw from the Vatican in Rome, they discover the Palace that Henry owned, and the one nearby that inspired his greatest feat of building at Nonsuch Palace in Surrey.

0x41 - Journey to Stonehenge - Stonehenge, Wiltshire

June 1, 2009

Time Team's cameras have been with the dig through those six summers. During their excavations the team discovered the biggest Neolithic settlement in Northern Europe, which suggests they have found the place where the people who built Stonehenge were based. But the digs also reveal that Stonehenge was just part of a vast ritualistic landscape where ancient peoples celebrated life and death in great man-made structures. The archaeologists believe that the landscape was turned into a huge and complex special ceremonial route for the remains of the departed as they pass into the afterworld. But these theories are only proved in their last summer of digging in 2008, as the team start to dig in the stone circle itself. The results surpass their wildest dreams and this pivotal excavation finally enables the team to reveal not only when Stonehenge was built and how it was built but, perhaps most importantly, why it was built.

0x42 - Dover Castle - Dover, Kent

December 19, 2009

Dover Castle has dominated the White Cliffs since it was built in 1180 by Henry II. But building it had nothing to do with defending Britain's shores; the story behind its vastly expensive construction is one of royal embarrassment and political prestige. It was the Millennium Dome of its day: vast, ridiculously expensive and built to show off the best we can offer. It looks like a quintessentially English castle, but is nothing of the sort; it's French to its foundations. It provides a fascinating insight into the medieval world. For years now, the castle has been empty, grey and dull: a shadow of its former self. But in 2008 English Heritage decided to undertake an extraordinarily bold piece of restoration. They planned to make over the main rooms of the castle to recreate them as they would have been in Henry II's time. It was a huge, ambitious project, bringing together historians, designers and around 150 craftsmen.

0x43 - Nelson’s Hospital - Gosport, Hampshire

May 17, 2010

In the 18th century the Royal Navy was the most successful fighting force in the world. To maintain this status it desperately needed better ways of looking after its sick and wounded, so in 1746 it decided to build the best hospital the country had ever seen, near the Portsmouth dockyard at Haslar. Costing £100,000, it was the biggest construction project in the country, and for over 250 years Haslar treated sailors from The Battle of Trafalgar to the Gulf War, until in 2009 the hospital closed its doors on the sick for the last time.

0x44 - The Secrets of Westminster Abbey - Westminster Abbey, London

June 28, 2010

Also known as 'The House of Kings', Westminster Abbey has stood at the heart of the nation for nearly 1,000 years, surviving the Civil War and Reformation. While visitors marvel at the royal paraphernalia and the majesty of the architecture, it remains at the core of the Establishment, and still plays host to the Coronation. For a century, the Cosmati pavement - a huge, mystical mosaic floor in front of the altar at the centre of which the Coronation Chair is placed - has been covered by carpet. Now Time Team cameras are allowed unprecedented access behind the scenes at the Abbey as this extraordinary piece of living history is revealed. As well as exploring the story of the Cosmati pavement, the Team also have access to a night-time search under the floors for lost tombs and graves, a shrine that still attracts pilgrims after 800 years and the 1,000-year-old faked documents that gave the Abbey the right to host the Coronation in the first place.

0x45 - The Real Vikings

October 11, 2010

Tony Robinson, Mick Aston and Phil Harding follow digs around the UK that uncover a vast array of archaeology and provide fascinating insights into our Viking past. Three centuries of Viking occupation left an indelible print on the British Isles. Their legacy has shaped the Britain we live in today and the Vikings have had a huge influence on our culture; from the way we live to the words we use. The Vikings are notoriously known as fearsome, axe-wielding warriors who relished their reputation as bloodthirsty invaders, and the discovery of mutilated skeletons in this Time Team Special does little to alter this reputation.

0x46 - War of the Roses - Bosworth, Leicestershire

March 16, 2011

The Battle of Bosworth was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses. It was the beginning of the end of three decades of treason, rebellion and dynastic warfare. Against huge odds, Henry Tudor won the day to take the English Crown. It was a turning point in English history, the end of the Middle Ages and the savage beginnings of the country we recognise today.

0x47 - The Somme’s Secret Weapon - Mametz, Somme, France

April 14, 2011

Tony Robinson joins a dig in France to investigate a terrifying British weapon that may have been used to fire burning oil at the Germans in the Battle of the Somme.

0x48 - Looking Underground

May 1, 2011

Tony Robinson and geophys boffin John Gater look back over 200 digs at the extraordinary achievements of cutting-edge geophysics technology, which has uncovered lost Roman villas, tombs, temples and ancient monuments, as well as a host of old broken tractor bits and enigmatic ditches. The science of geophys has changed out of all recognition: 20 years ago the team huddled around a dotmatrix printer as it slowly produced a geophysical picture of an abbey hidden underground; now they can produce complex three-dimensional images of whole buildings within minutes. In an effort to finally understand what geophys actually means, Tony buries 10 objects in a field and challenges John to use his technological arsenal to identify them all, without digging. Can geophys now tell the difference between a bicycle and a toilet?

0x49 - Boudica's Lost Tribe

May 4, 2011

Tony Robinson traces the story of the female warrior as he follows an excavation in Norfolk that may hold clues to what happened to her tribe, the Iceni, after their defeat at the hands of the Romans. The presenter visits Caistor St Edmund to investigate whether the Empire crushed Boudica's people or if she herself led them to destruction.

0x50 - The Way We Lived

May 8, 2011

Tony Robinson and Mick Aston dig out the best bits of over 200 Time Team episodes to tell the story of how our domestic lives have changed over 10 millennia. Until about 10,000 years ago our ancestors moved from site to site setting up house where they could find food and water. Then everything changed. People realised they could control the land, stay put and build more permanent and more comfortable houses. Tony and Mick reveal how those very first houses evolved into what we know today, and find out how settling down changed the way we live.

0x51 - Brunel's Last Launch

November 10, 2011

Nowadays, London's East End is synonymous with the 2012 Olympic Games. Cutting-edge engineering and design have transformed the Olympic Park. But 150 years ago, the world was watching for a very different reason, although the spectacle on display was as high-tech as anything on offer today. The East End was once home to the most advanced shipbuilding industry - and best workers and shipyards - in the world. A century and a half ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most famous engineer, was about to launch a ship five times bigger than any that had ever been built before, the most revolutionary vessel the world had ever seen: the SS Great Eastern. Pioneering the transition from sail to steam and timber to iron, Brunel and East London's ship builders created vessels that were bigger, faster and tougher than ever before. But this launch was a disaster. Brunel went from hero to laughing stock overnight as his leviathan stuck on the slipway. Brunel died not long after. Today archaeologists are scouring the banks of the Thames to discover why launching such a big vessel proved a complete disaster. Examining the slipways, they hope to discover what went wrong and how it affected shipbuilding in London for ever. Tony Robinson joins them in their quest to solve the puzzle. But he and the team also explore some of the extraordinary successes of this long-gone industry and a time when the East End led the world.

0x52 - Castle of the Saxon Kings - Bamburgh, Northumberland

September 11, 2009

Tony and the Team help investigate the Saxon roots of Bamburgh Castle, high on rocky cliffs in Northumberland above the vast North Sea beach and with the magical island of Lindisfarne visible in the distance. It's been a seat of power for thousands of years and has long held the attention of archaeologists. The Team are at Bamburgh to help the Bamburgh Research Project, which for a decade and a half has been digging through 1000 years of history to uncover the Saxon roots of this fortress. Bamburgh was once home to the 'Bernician Kings', Anglo Saxon overlords who ruled great swathes of Britain. Could there be a unique stone-built hall under the carefully manicured lawns of today's castle? As the Team hear stories of brutal death and financial wealth, and examine finds of gold jewellery and stone thrones, Phil and the diggers edge closer to a tantalising discovery.

0x54 - Secrets of the Saxon Gold

April 22, 2012

In July 2009, amateur metal detectorist Terry Herbert found an Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard worth over £3 million in a Staffordshire field. The hoard was saved for the nation by Stoke on Trent and Birmingham Museums, who, with the aid of a lottery grant and public donations, purchased it jointly. Two years ago Channel 4 told the story of the discovery of these golden, richly jewelled objects. Now, with the initial phase of the post-excavation process nearing completion, archaeologists are beginning to unlock the secrets of the hoard. After further digging and carefully unpicking the jumble of finds, experts from the museums have realised there were over 3500 objects buried in this small area with the gold alone weighing 11lbs. Thanks to their painstaking restoration work and application of the latest scientific techniques, they can understand the function of these objects, begin to explain how and why they came to be here, and pinpoint the origins of the hoard's raw materials.

0x55 - The Time Team Guide to Burial

April 29, 2012

For thousands of years, nomadic tribes roamed freely across Britain. But by 5000 BC they were starting to settle down, and a landmark of the south west - the Dorset Ridgeway - became a magnet for thousands. For many experts, the Ridgeway is as important as Stonehenge in understanding the lives of our prehistoric ancestors. The ridge of high land running parallel with the coast between Weymouth and Dorchester has been an important place for people since the Neolithic period, from 4000 to 2000 BC. There are no fewer than 1000 ancient monuments that record the history of the Ridgeway since that time, including baffling great henges that showcased unexplained rituals, at least one of which involves a giant stone penis; a town built on top of a massive Iron Age hill fort; and a deadly and terrifying Roman war machine. Time Team investigate, and reveal how the latest scientific advances are shedding new light on the way our Stone Age ancestors lived. The extraordinary range of monuments on the ridgeway make it one of the richest archaeological sites in Britain, and Time Team's journey along its length is a journey through thousands of years of human occupation.

0x56 - Britain’s Stone Age Tsunami

May 30, 2013

As the last glaciers retreated, a tsunami hit the NE coast. A sandy layer was deposited all along the NE Coast of Britain. A variety of experts have been investigating this event. Tony joins all their research together.

0x58 - Lost Submarines of WWI

July 7, 2013

Today's submarines are vast, billion-pound, high-tech monsters with a nuclear payload that can level cities. But the story of Britain's first submarines began over a century ago, with inventors risking life and limb in a range of bizarre contraptions.

0x59 - 1066: The Lost Battlefield - Battle, East Sussex, England

December 1, 2013

The site of the Battle of Hastings is reputed to be at an abbey built to commemorate the battle, yet historical and archaeological evidence fails to support this site. Time Team examines three potential alternatives.

0x60 - Britain’s Bronze Age Mummies - Low Hauxley, Northumberland, England

March 2, 2014

0x61 - The Boats That Made Britain - Dover, Kent

September 7, 2014

Ancients boats have been found all over Britain. Over 2 years a replica is made of the boat found 20 years ago. The replica is paddled around the breakwater. But what were these boats used for?

0x62 - Expedition Crew: Return to the Roman Sarcophagus (Day 1)

December 22, 2022

In September 2021, the full team had the traditional three days to shed light on a huge villa on the Broughton Estate, originally discovered by Time Team’s Keith Westcott. But with questions surrounding the sarcophagus remaining unanswered, we’ve sent in our new Expedition Crew for a closer look. Time Team returns to Broughton Roman Villa in Oxfordshire to investigate the mysterious stone sarcophagus that originally led to the site’s discovery. Can the team relocate the burial? And what will we find? There’s a lot to do and – on this occasion – only two days to do it!

0x63 - Expedition Crew: Return to the Roman Sarcophagus (Day 2)

December 23, 2022

It’s the second and final day in Oxfordshire. Can all of the questions be answered in the time remaining?

0x64 - Expedition Crew: Hidden City (Vlochos, Greece) Part 1

April 1, 2023

Time Team’s Dr Derek Pitman and Lawrence Shaw are part of an international team investigating an ancient settlement at Vlochos, in Thessaly. This ongoing project is uncovering a thousand years of history buried just beneath the surface.

0x65 - Expedition Crew: Hidden City (Vlochos, Greece) Part 2

April 2, 2023

Time Team’s Dr Derek Pitman and Lawrence Shaw are part of an international team investigating an ancient settlement at Vlochos, in Thessaly. This ongoing project is uncovering a thousand years of history buried just beneath the surface.

0x66 - Expedition Crew: Mortar Wreck

June 10, 2023

Time Team’s Expedition Crew returns to investigate a Medieval shipwreck off the South coast of England, laden with a fascinating cargo. Derek Pitman and Lawrence Shaw spend a day with the dive team from Bournemouth University Maritime Archaeology to uncover 700 year-old secrets hidden beneath the waves.

0x67 - Digging Band of Brothers - Aldbourne, Wiltshire

September 30, 2023

Time Team have been invited to Aldbourne, Wiltshire, by Operation Nightingale, on the 80th anniversary since Easy Company were stationed here in 1943, shortly before D-Day. Working alongside service men and women from the US and UK, the team have just over a week to investigate the camp, once home to the iconic 'Band of Brothers