But why? Tony Robinson is extremely irritating, but the rest of the team are recognised authorities in their own fields. They are as thorough and as careful as they can be given the time constraint. Yes of course the 3 day timescale is a pain, but without it there would be no television programme. Without the television programme there would be no telly money and possibly no excavation.

I would suggest that Timeteam - with all its faults - has done more to awaken public interest in archaeology than anything else. Is archaeology really just the private stomping ground of the exclusive academics? Public opinion does count when public funding is allocated.

PS watching Timeteam is not compulsory - plenty of rubbish on the other channels.