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The Loss Of Time Team's Mick Aston


History dude

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Just wanted to express my sadness at the news of the death of Time Team's Mick Aston.

Over the years Time Team has been running he helped make the show very interesting to watch. I thought Mick's insight on Medieval England, especially Churches and Monasteries was amazing.

He's of course irreplaceable. :mellow:

Orbit below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jun/25/mick-aston-archaeologist-time-team

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Here's a picture of when he was younger taken from the back cover of his 1985 book Interpreting The Landscape (Landscape Archaeology in Local Studies).

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For once we can agree, Dude, a sad loss. And such a shame things ended in such bitterness and disillusion. Mick left Time Team because he believed it was being dumbed down, and having spent years teaching and inspiring students at Bristol, seeing the course shut down.

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I was amazed that Tony Robinson seemed quiet about this lovely mans death.

Sometimes the loss of a good friend can not be expressed by words

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Just had a look at BBC report, quite interesting and all the time team colleagues except Tony pay their respects!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23041568

Quite a few names missing though. In that report, one permanent member (Phil Harding) and one occasional one (Francis Pryor).

No sign of Carenza Lewis, Stewart Ainsworth, Victor Ambrus, Robin Bush, John Gater, Alice Roberts ...?

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Quite a few names missing though. In that report, one permanent member (Phil Harding) and one occasional one (Francis Pryor).

No sign of Carenza Lewis, Stewart Ainsworth, Victor Ambrus, Robin Bush, John Gater, Alice Roberts ...?

I wondered whether personalities clashed because Mick Aston did leave the show, just because Tony Robinson was the figure head of the show, he was still an actor with an actors temperament and if I was a Professor of Archaeology I certainly would not be to pleased about an actor asking sometimes very silly questions. Phil Harding he's o.k. but those long nails "Yuk".
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I wondered whether personalities clashed because Mick Aston did leave the show, just because Tony Robinson was the figure head of the show, he was still an actor with an actors temperament and if I was a Professor of Archaeology I certainly would not be to pleased about an actor asking sometimes very silly questions. Phil Harding he's o.k. but those long nails "Yuk".

I don't know. Tony Robinson and Phil Harding were friends of Mick's before Time Team, in fact he was the one who brought them into Time Team. I think Tony Robinson was there to ask naive questions and so keep it aimed at the average viewer. From my own experience on digs, one of the things we all did from time to time was chat to passing members of the public who were interested, and the golden rule was always that there was no such thing as a silly question. (Digging has one thing in common with fishing - fishermen get 'Caught anything yet?', diggers get 'Found anything yet?') Mick Aston's driving idea was to bring archaeology to the general public in a non-academic way. All his books are very readable by the average reader, but his falling out with the programme was that they were dumbing it down. When they decided to make the changes the production company said that in particular they wanted to "recruit a female co-presenter who does not have to be overly experienced or knowledgeable". So Mick saw the writing on the wall and bailed out.

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I don't know. Tony Robinson and Phil Harding were friends of Mick's before Time Team, in fact he was the one who brought them into Time Team. I think Tony Robinson was there to ask naive questions and so keep it aimed at the average viewer. From my own experience on digs, one of the things we all did from time to time was chat to passing members of the public who were interested, and the golden rule was always that there was no such thing as a silly question. (Digging has one thing in common with fishing - fishermen get 'Caught anything yet?', diggers get 'Found anything yet?') Mick Aston's driving idea was to bring archaeology to the general public in a non-academic way. All his books are very readable by the average reader, but his falling out with the programme was that they were dumbing it down. When they decided to make the changes the production company said that in particular they wanted to "recruit a female co-presenter who does not have to be overly experienced or knowledgeable". So Mick saw the writing on the wall and bailed out.

This is very informative Bayleaf, I couldn't understand as to why people like Sandi Tosvig and Bill Oddie were featured in a couple of episodes. I love Timeteam and I will miss Mick Aston, with his colourful attire and his long flowing white hair. God bless him.
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Back in the late 90's , as a very mature student, I undertook a degree...part of which consisted of Archaeology. The first thing we learned was that Time Team, interesting as it was, was just altogether too rushed and that we were never to expect such rapid results!

I think I and all my fellows had become interested in archaeology because of people like Mick Aston...certainly not through Baldrick!

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Back in the late 90's , as a very mature student, I undertook a degree...part of which consisted of Archaeology. The first thing we learned was that Time Team, interesting as it was, was just altogether too rushed and that we were never to expect such rapid results!

I think I and all my fellows had become interested in archaeology because of people like Mick Aston...certainly not through Baldrick!

I studied archaeology as a mature student in the 90's as well, and the other Time Team related thing according to the lecturers was that almost without exception, new undergraduates arrived convinced there was a legal time limit of three days on any archaeological investigation.

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Quite a few names missing though. In that report, one permanent member (Phil Harding) and one occasional one (Francis Pryor).

No sign of Carenza Lewis, Stewart Ainsworth, Victor Ambrus, Robin Bush, John Gater, Alice Roberts ...?

Unfortunately, Robin Bush and Victor Ambrus are also deceased. In their time I enjoyed both their contributions to Time Team

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Unfortunately, Robin Bush and Victor Ambrus are also deceased. In their time I enjoyed both their contributions to Time Team

I seemed to recall Victor Ambrus had died, but couldn't find a reference. Thanks for the correction! ;-)

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