Getting Time Team to Shetland

Moving a stripped-down crew of 45 people and several tonnes of equipment more than 900 miles to the Shetlands is no simple task. Production co-ordinator Nicola Gibbs had her work cut out to make it all happen. It was her role to make sure that everybody had planes, cars, boats and beds booked up and all correctly timetabled. 'I've worked on programmes that have sent crew as far as Pakistan and America so I wasn't that worried, but when you add on all the contributors and digging equipment it's quite a big project,' says Nicola.

'The 4x4s with trailers of equipment drove up first, a journey requiring three stopovers along the way. The rest of the Team and all of the camera equipment had a 6.15am book-in at London Heathrow Airport. By 7.15am a Boeing 737 with everyone on board was on its way to Aberdeen. Then it was a short wait until all the equipment could be loaded onto a smaller twin-propeller aircraft. With a cheer, Time Team was airborne once again and flying towards the Arctic Circle.

'Touchdown at Sumburgh Head meant the team had made it to the southern tip of Shetland by 10.30 in the morning. Into the hire cars and then the push north continued. After driving up the main island it was onto a ferry and across to the island of Yell. Then, after travelling to the northernmost point of Yell, another boat was taken to Unst island, our home for the duration. Finally at around 12.30pm the Team all booked into the hotel. Of course, that wasn't the end of the travelling: every day of excavation needed a drive-boat-drive journey of an hour each way to get to Fetlar island!'

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