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23 February 2003
Back to our roots
At Athelney, in Somerset, Time Team revisits the site of one of its first programmes, filmed ten years previously in 1993. Back then, the Team was not allowed to dig within the area of the scheduled ancient monument. So the resulting programme – the first Time Team ever screened – is distinguished by the fact that, 100 programmes later, it is still the only one that doesn't feature any trenches.
Now, as it celebrates its 100th anniversary, Time Team is back – and this time English Heritage has given permission to excavate 400 square metres of trenches.
The history
We know that Athelney once stood as a lone hill among miles of marshes. The site was fortified by King Alfred, who used it as a base to launch attacks on Danes (Vikings) in the surrounding area. Through great skill – and the luck of the battlefield – Alfred managed to force the invading Danes out of Wessex and eventually out of the whole of southern England. Documentary sources, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, tell us that Alfred returned to Athelney after these battles and constructed an abbey on the site to give thanks for his victory.
The quest
In this special 100th-anniversary programme, Time Team's experts carefully consider the geophysics survey results and place their limited-space trenches after earnest deliberation. Over the three days of painstaking work, the Team discovers not only the original defensive ditches from Alfred's fort, but also evidence for a solid monastic structure. The remains of an iron-working site are also discovered – leading to the tantalising speculation that this might have been the place where Alfred had his weapons produced to supply his army.
Flying high with Time Team
It's a popular (and expensive) part of the show, yet often only takes up seconds on screen. The amazing aerial filming that Time Team carries out from hired helicopters can bring a site alive, as well as setting it in its context, that no amount of ground-based filming can match. So what is involved in getting a crew into the air and who does what behind the scenes?
One of the common misconceptions is that Time Team has its own helicopter. It doesn't. Firstly, helicopters are extremely expensive things to own, crew and maintain; and secondly, perfectly serviceable and TV-experienced choppers and pilots are available for charter all over the country. All Time Team has to do is to book the machine for an hour's flying time and along it comes when it's needed.
Of course it's not quite as simple as that. Big business and celebrities may well charter a quick, trouble-free flight to Ascot, but Time Team requires a little more of its choppers. The demands of getting the archaeologists, a film crew and all its equipment into the air can mean that a helicopter is operating at the margins of its weight-carrying capacity. Low flying and a few acrobatics can also be required as part of the Time Team job – not to mention the cloud and rain that seems to turn up on cue whenever Time Team is digging.
Special helicopter crew
The dedicated helicopter crew on Time Team had done it over 100 times by the end of the 2003 series, so they certainly know what they're doing. First on the scene is Joe Ellison. He's also in charge of communications on site. Joe will have organised a suitable landing place for the helicopter prior to the dig starting, and he liaises with the pilot to co-ordinate the landing. Standing in the middle of a field with his high-visibility jacket on, Joe guides the chopper down.
Then sound man Steve Shearn and cameraman Richard Gibb arrive. Backed up by their capable camera assistants, Jack Holmes and Will Fewkes, they all get to work preparing the helicopter and their equipment. The on-screen helicopter regulars, Mick Aston and Stewart Ainsworth, get dropped off at the landing site later by a production runner when the helicopter is ready to take off.
Before that there is a lot of work to be done on the helicopter. First, the posh interior panels are removed, together with any surplus refinements. The crew need the room, and the helicopter needs to lose as much weight as possible. Then the doors are taken off. 'It's great fun flying without doors and with one foot on the side rail,' says Stewart.
After the interior has been stripped, the audio set-up is rigged with a small mixer in the back of the helicopter and microphones attached to the flying headsets. Richard Gibb gets strapped into a special harness and then everything (including the crew) is tied down to the helicopter. Stewart and Mick brief the pilot on the route and then the engines charge up to speed.
How it's done
A trick of the trade: Time Team does two flights, not just the one as it seems in the programme. This enables the editor to piece together the film so that you see the presenters (Mick and Stewart) and also what they are talking about (the landscape) in one seamless piece of film.
For the first flight, the helicopter is rigged with the camera looking into the back seats with a close-up on the talking heads of Mick and Stewart. Sound man Steve Shearn is just out of shot. Following the pre-arranged flight plan, half an hour is spent flying over the landscape with Mick and Stewart on camera.
Then it's time to land and do the swap. Without shutting the engines off, Richard has to turn in his seat and hang out of the side of the helicopter. Then a TV monitor is set up in the back so that the director of the scene and Stewart (or Mick) can see what the camera is pointing at. Up to full power and it's off again. Using the monitor, Stewart and the director can guide Richard to film what they were just talking about in the last take. Another half an hour in the air, and then it's time to land and put everything back together.
Chameleon eyes
'We've done this so many times that we're used to it,' says Steve Shearn. 'Sometimes, if the pilots haven't done TV before, they look a little distraught when we start pulling it apart. But generally these chaps are very good and know the score. We use some of them, like Biggin Hill, quite a lot, so they're used to it.'
So with flying all over the place, and frequent hovering and banking, doesn't Richard get a bit disorientated looking through his viewfinder? 'Well, there's a little trick there,' says Richard. 'You have one eye on the viewfinder and the other looking out the door. If you look at most cameramen who do this sort of thing you'll find that they have eyes which look away in different directions. We just learn to be like chameleons.
Further reading
The Anglo-Saxons edited by James Campbell, Eric John and Patrick Wormald (Penguin, 1991) paperback £16
Three experts have collaborated to produce this complete, illustrated guide to the Anglo-Saxons, from their arrival in England to their conversion to Christianity and defence of Britain against Viking attacks.
Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest by H R Loyn (Addison Wesley Longman Higher Education, 1991) paperback £20.99
More than 30 years since its first edition, this book still remains a standard text on the social and economic development of Anglo-Saxon England from the first settlements in the fifth and sixth centuries AD to the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest. It draws on surviving legal and literary sources, as well as the latest findings of archaeologists, numismatists and art historians.
The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England edited by Catherine E Karkoy (Garland Publishing, 1999) hardback £50
This volume offers comprehensive coverage of the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, bringing together essays on specific fields, sites and objects, and offering the reader a representative range of both traditional and modern methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to the subject. Individual sections deal with settlement archaeology, the archaeology of church and monastery, death and burial and women and the material record.
Kings and Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England by Barbara Yorke (Routledge, 1990, new edition 1997) £18.99 ISBN: 041516639X
Wessex in the Early Middle Ages by Barbara Yorke (Leicester University Press, 1995) £25 ISBN: 071851856X
The Anglo-Saxons by Barbara Yorke (Sutton Publishing, 1999) £5.99 ISBN: 0750922206
Barbara Yorke's work in assembling the evidence for a Jutish kingdom in south Hampshire featured in a running debate between Time Team's Robin Bush and Anglo-Saxon cemetery expert Helen Geake during Live 2001. The first two of her books listed here cover this subject in depth, while The Anglo-Saxons reviews the main events of the period 400 to 1066 and the legacy left by the Anglo-Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxon World by Kevin Crossley-Holland (Oxford University Press, 1999) paperback £6.99
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated and edited by Michael Swanton (Dent, 1996) paperback £12.99
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the first continuous national history of any Western people in their own language. This translation is the most complete and faithful yet published, with extensive notes referring the entries to current knowledge as well as to maps and genealogical tables.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated and edited by Michael Swanton (Exeter University Press, 1999) £5.99
A basic translation without the notes, maps and tables that accompany the above.
Other websites
This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
The Life of King Alfred
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/
OMACL/KingAlfred/
Online copy of The Life of King Alfred by Asser, Bishop of Sherborne. This text was originally composed in Latin, possibly around 888 AD, by the monk and bishop, Asser, although some scholars contend that it was actually composed much later by an unknown hand.
Anglo Saxon England: A guide to online resources
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/
early/pre1000/ASindex.html
Part of the ORB Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies, this website has perhaps the best set of web links covering everything from original Anglo-Saxon texts to bibliographies, maps and teaching resources.
Anglo-Saxon England
www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/prehistory/vikings/angsaxe.html
Includes, among much else, a map of Anglo-Saxon Britain and a detailed bibliography.
Angelcynn Anglo-Saxon Living History 400-900 AD
www.angelcynn.org.uk
Excellent website run by the Angelcynn Anglo-Saxon re-enactment society. Contains material on the history, warfare, weapons, armour, clothing and appearance of pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxons, with details on their culture, myths and religion, information on various finds, useful links and an invaluable Anglo-Saxon glossary.
Sutton Hoo Society
www.suttonhoo.org
The lavish grave goods found at Sutton Hoo, England's premier Anglo-Saxon burial site, are on display at the British Museum, but they were loaned to the new museum that opened on the site in 2002. Further details about visiting the Sutton Hoo burial site are available on the society's website, which offers an online interactive tour of the site. Details of how to join the Society are also on the website.
Regia Anglorum
www.regia.org
Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman reconstruction society, used by Time Team on the Live 2001.