|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The team
 Sarah Gabbott
John Howell
Dave Martill
John Howell
John Howell grew up on a farm in south Wales, where at an early age he promised himself that he would find a job that involved spending a significant amount of time out of doors with lots of international travel. After reading a novel about a geologist he decided that seemed like the ideal lifestyle and went to Cardiff to study for a degree in geology. After Cardiff he worked in London just long enough to confirm his dislike of offices and next moved to Birmingham to do a PhD.
Having completed his doctorate, he moved to Liverpool, where he spent 10 very happy years travelling the world and doing fieldwork in such fantastic places as Utah, Namibia, South Africa, Argentina and Chile. John's principal research revolves around reconstructing ancient environments in order to understand the distribution of oil and gas within the subsurface.
In 2002, just after making the Dinosaur Detectives programme for Channel 4, John left the UK and went to live in Norway (he claims the two aren't related). He is now a Professor at the University of Bergen and deals mainly with the computer modelling of subsurface oil reservoirs, whilst trying to spend as much time as possible in the field.
John Howell
How did you get involved with the Big Monster Dig?
Now there is a question everyone seems to ask ... Ever since Time Team first went out 10 years ago, almost every geologist in the country has thought somebody should do something like that for geology. I heard about the Big Monster Dig project long before the producers invited me for a screen test. In fact, they screen tested a couple of my friends and some of my ex-students before me. I think they must have interviewed almost every sedimentologist in the country at some point. Basically, the production team who were making the Dinosaur Detectives pilot show sent me an e-mail asking me what I knew about the Charmouth dinosaur, then chatted to me on the phone and invited me to come and see them.
So what did you know about the Charmouth dinosaur?
Nothing really – and I told them so! I am a sedimentologist and my interest in palaeontology – dead things! – was pretty limited, although I have got a lot more interested as the shows have gone on.
Wasn't that a problem – not doing 'dead things'?
No, because they already had two very good fossil experts. What they needed was somebody with a different set of interests
What happened next?
I went down to London to meet the producers, we had a chat, I made a few suggestions and they asked me to talk in a geological way about the wall in the office! Two weeks later I was invited to go and visit a brick pit in Peterborough – the one where we eventually filmed the 'big fish' programme. Once there I met Dave Martill for the first time. Everyone was very friendly but a bit guarded – it was definitely a club that I wasn't in yet.
Anyway, we were shown a big grey cliff and asked to talk. I composed myself and got ready to speak, but before I could open my mouth Dave was off, talking like a horse-racing commentator. I waited for him to take a breath, but two minutes later he was still going! They stopped filming and I still hadn't said a word.
We moved around the corner in the quarry and tried again. This time I was ready. When the producer said 'action' Dave was off again talking at 200 words per minute. This time, though, he paused – not a real pause, just slowing down a bit, but that was enough for me to get in. I told a few tales of ancient seabeds, of clay settling slowly in a deep, dark abyss, of animals sinking into a soupy seabed and being preserved and uplifted by massive forces that moved continental plates and everyone seemed happy.
So basically, I think they gave me the job largely because I had proved that I could interrupt a fully flowing Dave Martill.
Then you went on to film the pilot programme Dinosaur Detectives?
Yes, that was a really interesting experience. We all learnt a huge amount and the show was very popular. It demonstrated that the public were definitely interested in geology.
How do you get on with the rest of the team?
By the time we came to film the Big Monster Dig programmes, Lucy had replaced the Dinosaur Detectives presenter, Kate Hubbard. Kate was great, incredibly professional and obviously very experienced. But it was actually a bit intimidating, even though she was very nice. Lucy is very different. First of all, it was her first major presenting job, so there was a real feeling that we were all learning together. I think this made us much more of a team. Lucy is also really interested in what we are doing and she manages to ask exactly the sort of questions that the viewers want to know the answers to. She is also very hard working and at the same time a really fun person to work. She's a marvellous person to work with and we all love her.
What about the other team members?
Even if it is hard to get a word in edgeways sometimes, Dave is a very respected palaeontologist and I have a lot of time for what he has to say. It's true that he is given to somewhat fanciful theories at times but he is a sound scientist and ready to drop them if they can't be proved. Dave's biggest selling point is his enthusiasm. He really loves the subject and I think it shows when you talk to him.
And Sarah?
Sarah is great, a real antidote to Dave, very solid and methodical. She is also a really good scientist and genuinely cares about getting to the bottom of a problem. She's a good person to talk things over with and bounce ideas off. I think that she is a real asset to the show. She also disproves the old perception of geology as a male dominated subject. We even let her drive the Land Rover sometimes!
I didn't know either of them before we did the first show, but now we genuinely get on really well. If nothing else comes out of this then I have learnt some stuff about dead things and have made some good friends.
What was your favourite show?
That's very difficult to say because they were all good for different reasons. The trips to France and Spain were great because the localities were so stunning and there was a real feeling of being on a team expedition. The shows on the Isle of Wight were good because it is such an amazing place to find fossils and it's Dave's home territory. Peterborough was nice because we didn't need to worry about finding anything and I loved the trip to the brick factory. The mammoths programme was really different to anything we normally do and Will the flint knapper was a smashing bloke. Seeing him make those tools with Dave really made that show for me. Hastings was wild because I spent most of the weekend hanging off a cliff – and we even dangled Lucy over the edge.
How was that? She looked very calm.
She was terrified, though she'll kill me for telling you. She only looked calm because she is so professional. It really was a wild place – the cliff was crumbling away, the waves were crashing at the bottom and the weather was terrible. It turned the whole thing into an unstable vertical mud bath.
Do geologists spend a lot of time hanging off cliffs? Is that what you normally do?
No, not all geologists do that sort of thing, but sometimes it's the only means of getting to difficult places. I also climb and do a lot of other outdoor stuff in my spare time. The shows have been great -- I have been in planes, balloons and even paragliding. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it!
What does your 'real job' involve?
It's the best job I could ever have hoped for. I work at the University of Bergen, which is on the west coast of Norway. I spend about half the year teaching and working in my office, supervising student projects and trying to do my own research. The other half of the year I spend in the field.
What does the field work involve?
Some of it is teaching, most of it is research. It's not too different to what you see in the programmes. We make maps, measure logs and try and interpret how the sediment got there. A lot of it is done to help us understand what oil, gas and water reservoirs buried thousands of feet below the surface actually look like. When you only have limited data from boreholes you need a lot of help. Looking at similar rocks at the surface is the best way to understand what the stuff in the subsurface looks like.
What sort of places do you go to?
I generally work in very dry regions where there is not too much vegetation to cover the rocks. I have worked in the western USA, Namibia, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and Spain to name but a few. Namibia was amazing – really remote, with just myself and a couple of good friends and two four-wheel drive vehicles in the middle of this stunning desert for weeks at a time. I also have a very soft spot for Utah because I have spent a lot of time out there and it's got some of the world's greatest sediments.
Why are you working in a Norwegian university?
I was actually at the University of Liverpool when we did the Dinosaur Detectives show. I spent 10 years there. I moved to Norway because there were some very good opportunities there to develop my research. Research in British academia is getting stifled and the resources are constantly being reduced. Norway is also a fantastic place to live, especially if you like the outdoors.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in geology?
It depends on where you are in your life and what you want out of it. For people who are still in school there is increasing attention to geology in the national curriculum, which is very positive. Then there are a lot of excellent places to study for a degree in geology. I would advise looking for somewhere that has both a good research rating and a good reputation for teaching. Class sizes are increasing all the time and it is important to know that the people teaching you are at the top of their field and that they care about teaching. For older people, the Open University does an excellent foundation course in natural sciences. That's a great way to find out more and see if you want to follow it further.
What does the future hold for you?
I hope that we get the chance to do more with the Big Monster Dig because I really like the format and I love working with the people. I also have a couple of other ideas in the pipeline. I think most importantly we have proved that people are really interested in geology and the story of the Earth.
^ Top
|
|
|
