Time Team Live 2000


	Biographies

	Tony Robinson Tony Robinson the series presenter, is probably best known for his role as Baldrick in Blackadder and as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Maid Marion and Her Merry Men, which he also wrote. He has a keen interest in history and archaeology – he is president of the Young Archaeologists' Club – and is particularly fascinated by ancient Greece and the lands of the Middle East. A busy year, as ever, for Tony. He has been elected onto the Labour Party's ruling National Executive Committee and filmed a special edition of Blackadder, which has been shown exclusively at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. Says Tony: 'As a Londoner, I have always thought of Canterbury simply as that town down the road with a cathedral in it. In fact, it's one of the world's major religious sites, choc-full of fifteen hundred years of archaeology. Hopefully, what we find will give the viewers a real taste of how this magnificent city has been transformed by wave after wave of invaders and pilgrims.' And as for his new hair-do… 'I fancied it and I'm a silly bugger,' he says. And before anyone mentions Billy in Ally McBeal, he was in fact watching an episode of the US drama while his hair was being bleached.
	Sandi Toksvig Sandi is a great favourite of everyone on the Time Team Live shoots – this is her third. However, her interest in archaeology is not some recent fad. After six years in the rarified atmosphere of Mamoroneck High School in New York state, Sandi returned to Britain to attend Girton College, Cambridge, where she achieved a first-class honours degree in law and archaeology and anthropology. In fact she won the Theresa Montefiore Memorial Award for outstanding academic achievement and the Raemakers Prize for Archaeology. Although Sandi is well known as a television presenter – initially on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and more recently on the BBC's Call My Bluff and Island Race, which she co-presented with her friend John McCarthy – she is also a writer. She started out with comedies for radio and television, including the weird and wonderful No. 73, which she starred in and co-wrote. Ostensibly solely for children, it was surreptitiously watched by many adults and lauded as a cult by teenagers. She is also the author of five children's books: If I Didn't Have Elbows, Tales from the Norse's Mouth – a rewriting of Norse sagas for children, for which she put her own Danish heritage to good use – TheTroublesome Tooth Fairy, Supersaver Mouse and Supersaver Mouse to the Rescue. In 1999, she published her first adult novel Whistling for the Elephants. She has now completed her second novel Flying under Bridges.
	Liza Tarbuck Liza loves working on live television and is one of the best-known faces on Channel 4. Until very recently, she was the popular co-host of The Big Breakfast alongside Johnny Vaughan, and prior to that presented the highly successful clothes show She's Gotta Have It. Liza was part of the National Youth Theatre and went to RADA where she studied for two and a half years. Liza first got into TV in 1986, when she played the part of Emma Wray in Watching, which ran on ITV for seven years. The Weekend Show for the BBC was Liza's first presenting job. Alongside Dale Winton and Daley Thompson, Liza travelled the country interviewing eccentric people. 'I have always been interested in archaeology, and as a child my lovely mother dragged me hither and thither to look at archaeological things,' she says. 'So for me, to be on an actual dig and to get my hands dirty, is an absolute joy.'
	Dr David Williams Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton 'I specialise in Roman amphorae, which are large, double-handed container clay vessels used by the Romans for transporting liquid commodities such as wine, olive oil and fish sauces. The attractive thing about these vessels is that they were made in the Mediterranean and surrounding areas, and when they turn up on British sites, you know that they are imports. If you look at the distribution in England of the amphora, you can tell if they have carried wine from Italy or France, olive oil from Spain or fish products from Spain and Italy, this enables you to build a picture of the economy of the province by looking at these vessels from the Roman period and you can tell the trade patterns of the time from them.'
	Paul Bennett Director – Canterbury Archaeological Trust Paul Bennett is Director of Canterbury Archaeological Trust and has been heavily involved in the preparation for Time Team Live. At the moment he is at Blue Boy Yard removing the soil, rubbish and rubble that cover the temple courtyard surface. 'I am particularly interested in Blue Boy Yard, as a lot of the archaeological work in Canterbury has been focused on the Roman temple courtyard. Our excavations have provided considerable information about the plan of the temple, particularly of its surrounding portico, its courtyard, the small shrine within the courtyard and even an ornamental fountain fed by water under pressure. The one thing that we have yet to find is evidence of the temple itself and that is what we are hoping to find. We have amassed considerable evidence of a building within the context of Roman Canterbury; it would be an exceptional find, of both local and national importance. As we dig, we are getting late Roman coins from the courtyard surface and traces of possible buildings and later buildings. Watch this space!' ^top
	Rebecca Hook Archaeologist, Canterbury Archaeological Trust Rebecca is taking off the landscaping rubble from Trench Three, which has just been opened up. Rebecca says that as an archaeologist 'it's great to be involved in a project that involves the public, after all that is what archaeology is about, to build a picture of history for all of us.
	Bridget Russell Member of the Friends of Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Finds Assistant for Time Team Live Bob Newland Finds Assistant Bob and Bridget are washing finds from Trench 2a and Trench 2b 'Some of the finds that we clean are very fragile, so we have to be very careful with everything, but at the same time we are very, very thorough.' Says Bob 'We have to make sure that we leave as little dirt and mud as is humanly possible, especially around the edges, as the experts use them to tell what fabric (material) the pot is made from.' Pleased to be part of Time Team Live, Bridget says of the weekend 'the whole experience has a tremendous buzz and as we live in Canterbury, we are extremely interested to see what comes out of these important sites.' ^top
	Jannicke Langfeldt Archaeological Conservator for AMTeC Friday evening and Jannicke is waiting patiently for the finds to come in from the trenches after filming, 'I clean coins so that it is possible to date them accurately. I also clean and stabilise other finds so that they don't deteriorate and if something is particularly fragile, I lift it from the trench. I imagine that over the weekend they will find a lot of medieval painted glass, but what I would really like to see is some bronze objects, such as balls or statuettes from Roman times.'

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