Tony Robinson : A big hello to everyone who watched tonight's show and as it's a repeat an even bigger hello to everyone who has now watched it twice. Next week's show will be on for the first time - it shows how we attempt to build a water lifting system just like the Romans and I promise you it's a great programme. And Phil's absolutely brilliant in it.
daren rachel : hi tony
Cameron : Tony, would just like to say that Time Team is simply the best thing since sliced bread
Martin : Hi, I don't have a question but I'm 51 and I'd like to say that Time Team brings me even MORE pleasure than Blackadder! Please keep on digging. :-)
Glyn : Hello!!!!!!!!
Gill : Message for Tony, Thanks for TimeTeam, fantastic show, never fails to have me hooked.
Tony Robinson : That's really nice :)
Elmo : Cheers Tony, I personally prefer the later slot as kids are in bed (if not asleep)
robg : Tony time team is 10 years old how long do you think it will be around for another 10 years?
Tony Robinson : I've signed a contract to make Time Team for another two years and Channel4 are certainly putting a lot of resources into it including a massive eight day live TV archaeology event between the 22nd and 29th June. But in two years time, who knows?
Bill : So I presume that the site is lost to an office block? That should be illegal.
Tony Robinson : The problem is Bill, if you made digging in London illegal because of the archaeology, there'd be no new building because there is potentially cracking good archaeology all over the place. I think we've got it just about as good as we're ever going to get it in this country in that at least our archaeologists can record what's down there so that when the new buildings are demolished as their previous ones were 22nd century archaeologists will know where to look.
Chris Ward-Johnson : Tony, thanks to you and all the other members of the Time Team for such a great program. Where will you be digging on Big Dig day? In your own back garden perhaps?
FanTT : Are you going to do your own little dig for the Big Dig in June (and make all your celeb friends do some too)?
Tony Robinson : Dear FanTT, there are certainly lots of celeb type Time Team fans like Pete Waterman, Brian Harvey (E17) and Eddie Izzard and I'll be trying to persuade some of them to open up their swanky homes and put a test pit in. I think I'll be hurtling all over the British Isles in a helicopter checking out the best test pits so make yours a good one. Is your lawn big enough to take a helicopter?
bob jones : Time Team is one of the best factual programmes on TV. What sites do you chose and what critieria do they have to meet
laufan : Tony, absolutely superb show. Do you personally have any input in which sites you visit?
Tony Robinson : We have four full-time researchers trawling through letters from viewers and requests from archaeologists and organisations all over the country. We obviously try to choose sites that are likely to give us good results but in addition we look for as wide a variety as possible eg. different periods, different landscapes, different personalities, different archaeological techniques. The only thing that seems to stay the same is the weather - it's always bloody raining. Once the long list of potential sites has been put together all the Producers and Directors sit down and try to turn it into a short list. I give my input at that time. But quite frankly all the ones I think sound rubbish turn out to be fantastic and then the ones that I champion we usually find sweet fanny adams.
hi : iam only 15, but iam addicted to the show, the first one i watched is a vague memory about 5-7 years ago and the team found some sort of a castle
wiganstar : Tony, sometimes the scientists get a little 'frustrated' with your questioning....that is for our benefit is'nt it?
Tony Robinson grins
Tony Robinson : No they genuinely get frustrated with my questioning! It's the questions that are for our benefit.
Kenny_Nottingham : Tony, it must be a nice but strange feeling to know that archive footage of your show, could, in say 100 years be regarded as historic?
Tony Robinson : Kenny, a lot of people think that we've got so much information today that archaeology will be redundant when people are looking back at the early 21st century. The problem is the typed, faxed, videod and computerised information that we have degrades very quickly or else gets junked or wiped; we may well find that people in the future know significantly less about the 21st century than about some earlier centuries. I don't think that videos of Time Team will survive the test of time, whereas illuminated manuscripts are still around 1500 years after they were written. So sadly, I'll have to enjoy being a celeb now, because my work ain't gonna be around very long after I'm dead.
Paulus : Tony that's why it should be on DVD!
Tony Robinson chuckles at Paulus, I think that's a very good idea, could you get Channel4 marketing onto it and make sure that you negotiate me a good advance!
Jim Young : Have London Museum completed their reconstruction yet?
Ollie : Hi Tony. When will the follow up to tonight's dig be shown?
Tony Robinson : The follow up is shown next Thursday. The construction is completed and last time I was there it was fully functional and set up in the museum's garden.
DerekN : Hi Tony, not a question, but I just wanted to thank all of the time team, My 7 year old son is now the next phil
Raul Mendieta : Do you get really disappointed when you spend days looking for something but find absolutely nothing??
Tony Robinson : Of course we always want to find a marvellous Roman floor or a Norman helmet, but the fun of the programme is that we genuinely don't know what we'll get, so neither do the audience. It may be that we'll come up with nothing and we'll just have to make the most of it but then the following week we'll find something great and of course it will be at the last minute.
rick-fascinated : tony, I would love to see a Time Team dig but we never know where you are filming - Is there anyway viewers could be told?? Or would the crowds be to much - chuckles
Tony Robinson : I think the answer is yes Rick. In some city sites security problems have got completely out of hand and in the country a lot of the sites that we dig are on environmentally sensitive places or on private land. I think you'll either have to wait for the shows to come on the tele or try dating one of our archaeologists and persuading them to let you have a sly peek.
Diane : i saw tony in canterbury - a vision of loveliness
Tony1 : What made you the most excited through all your time on the team
Tony Robinson chuckles at Diane
Tony Robinson : Well Tony1, I think the archaeological moment that gave me the most thrills was being allowed to uncover a Roman floor which had been under the soil for 1600 years. That was a real privilege. But I must admit that when Channel4 told us earlier this year that we were going to be doing an eight day live show I got pretty excited.
Fiona : Has the Time Team format been sold to any other countries?
gary123 : has fame affected the team or do they still lead normal lives?
Tony Robinson : I don't think the format has yet been sold anywhere else, although Tim Taylor (who owns it) has been in talks with various foreign TV stations. We linked up with Discovery to do a show for America a few years ago but after it was transmitted they didn't ask us for anymore, which was a bit sad, but hey. gary123, all the archaeologists will tell you that fame hasn't affected them one bit. Cynics would probably tell you they've turned into a bunch of old queens. The truth probably lies somewhere between those two polarities.
Mim : What do Mick, Phil, Carenza etc do with themselves when there's no Time Team digs?
ed : Just wanted to mention how attractive DR Alice is.. Archaeologists becoming sex symbols ? whatever next ?
Tony Robinson laughs
Tony Robinson : ed, you're not the only person to have been enthralled by Dr Alice's considerable talents this year. I know she'll be coming back this series but she's actually a very good and very serious osteo-archaeologist and I'm not sure how many shows we'll be able to persuade her to do. Mick writes a lot of books although at the moment he's convalescing because he's been very poorly. Carenza lectures at Cambridge and does other TV shows including House Detectives (the traitor!) and Phil's still a proper field archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology.
NW : Tony: have u ever considered doing a degree or education in archeology?
andyp : so are you looking at becoming qualified at digging tony?
Tony Robinson : I'd love to do a degree or take a long-term course. The problem is I've got so much work to do, so many books to write and so many places to go that I just never get round to it.
Chat Ed : Our half hour with is almost up, so last three questions now...
Gunn : You done digs underwater and abroad whats next??
Tony Robinson : The problem is we never know what archaeological sites are going to come up. I'd love to do one hanging off the side of a mountain in an equatorial forest or below layers of ice, but if the archaeology doesn't seem to be there it's not worth the company putting the money in. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that there will be something exciting this year, rumour has it that we've got a great wreck to dive but I'll believe it when I see it.
big joe : Tony. how do I become a helper/digger on time team? its my dream.
emma chapman : i want to do work experience with time team!!!!!!!! please tony, im desperate here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Richard Ball : yeah me too Emma
Tony Robinson : In order to dig the site you're going to need to take your archaeology degree and then go on to do a Masters or a Doctorate. We work under such pressure that only highly skilled archaeologists are appropriate.
emma chapman : yeh but im 15!
Richard Ball : I wont live that long, im 50 now
Tony Robinson : I know half of them look like renegades from a pub punk band but underneath it they are awfully well educated and terribly nice to their Mums and Dads. If you're 15 you can do archaeology A level and if you're 50 you can always become a mature student.
JohnB : The big dig - am I likely to find anything in my back garden?
Tony Robinson laughs
Tony Robinson : Where do you live JohnB?
JohnB : On border of Cambridge/Essex but just in Suffolk (16 m E of Cambridge) Jo : worms?
David2k3 : ive found coins in the garden but that's about it :P
Tom : I found a 3 year old spade in my garden. I remember losing it too. Lovely.
Tony Robinson : Err... you've probably got a cemetary containing loads of dead angles complete with grave goods.
JohnB : Ok. Then I'll get the small trowel out then!
Blithe : How is MIck? Will he be back for the live dig?
ed : Please pass on a speedy recovery to Mick!!!!
Elizabeth : Will Mick be back soon?
rayhighuk : Tony, how is Mick Aston? Is he OK? How long before he can return to work?
Tony Robinson : He's getting better, something went wrong with his head but then that's not really surprising is it?
rick-fascinated : tony please pass best wishes on to Mick
Andy G : Ditto
hevva : dito
Tony Robinson : I hope he'll be back for the live shows but we don't know yet and it would be stupid to rush him.
Vicky : ALL HAIL TONY!
daniel : thanks for your time Tony
Tony Robinson : I'm phoning Mick tomorrow so I will pass that on :) Why don't you knit him a jumper - that'll cheer him up!
Ollie : Thanks!
GayBoy : Bye Tony, love you
emma chapman : bye tony!!!!!!!
Ron Bean : Cheers TONY!!!!, Many thanks!
Jo : thanks tony :-)
Maria : Thanks Tony - bye.
steve smith : bye tony!!!!
mutleys_babe : luv ya tony byyyeeeeeee
Tootles : Cheers Sherriff!
Grant : bye tony, you ROCK!
Tony Robinson : I'm always amazed that so many of you are quite so enthusiastic about the programme but you've made it the most popular factual programme on Channel 4 and even the 10 year old repeats are the most popular factual programmes on Discovery. Thank you for keeping me happy, challenged and in work.
oli : woo! tony rules
Tony Robinson leaves the room
