Guy de la Bédoyère

Guy de la Bédoyère has appeared in a number of Time Team programmes as an expert on the Roman period. In addition, his expertise in second world war aircraft was called upon for the Wierre-Effroy programme, in the 2000 series, covering the excavation in France of the 92 Squadron Spitfire, which crashed on 23 May 1940; the Reedham Marshes programme, in the 1999 series, which excavated a crashed USAF Flying Fortress; and the Warton Marsh, Preston programme, in the 2005 series, which saw the Team digging up two USAF A-26 Invader aircraft.

What do you think of Time Team?
I have been lucky to take part in a number of editions of Time Team. The shows are tremendous fun to take part in, not least because the mood is always excellent and everyone works together extremely well. The days are long, though, sometimes running from eight in the morning till eight at night.

It's very easy for archaeologists and armchair experts to criticise Time Team for coming, seeing and digging, and then leaving with unseemly haste. What matters, though, is that Time Team has maintained a momentum that makes archaeology and history fun as well as interesting. Not everything goes according to plan and mistakes get made – but there's no doubt that they listen and learn.

How did you get interested in archaeology?
My father gave me a Roman coin when I was about 11 years old. I remember spending the evening transfixed at the thought of all the people that must have handled it, and all the things that had happened since it was made. I still have it.

Are you a historian or an archaeologist?
I have degrees in history and archaeology. But I'm primarily a historian. Most of my books about Roman Britain are biased to its history, the literary sources and other written records. These give us the story. Archaeology, if you like, provides the set-dressing.

Where did you study archaeology?
I started archaeology at Durham in 1977, got bored and changed to a multi-discipline degree. From 1982 to 1985 I did a modern history degree at London while working at the BBC, followed by an MA in archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, London (now part of UCL).

What's the most interesting thing you've done?
One of my principal interests is the 17th-century diarist, John Evelyn, and his relationship with Samuel Pepys, his best friend. In 1997 I published their complete correspondence in Particular Friends: The correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn (Boydell), and of all the books I have written it was the most satisfying. I worked on the original manuscripts in London, Oxford, and at various other libraries, transcribing and annotating the texts and providing a full historical and biographical introduction. I've also written The Home Front for Shire books, and contributed to an encyclopedia of Irish history. One of my 2004 projects is a series of textbooks about science history: The First Computers, The Discovery of Penicillin and The First Polio Vaccine.

What other TV programmes have you been in?
There are pages at www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk/tvrad.htm and at www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk/butser.htm that will tell you all.

Where does your name come from?
It's a French name going back to the Middle Ages. In around 1440, Bertrand Huchet married one Jeanne, dame de la Bédoyère. Bédoyère was a fiefdom in France. Bertrand took the title, and became seigneur [Lord of the Manor] de la Bédoyère. Eventually the title was absorbed into the name, and the surname became Huchet de la Bédoyère, which is what my full surname is.

There was one famous de la Bédoyère: Charles. He was Napoleon's aide-de-camp at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and was executed afterwards. I am not descended from him. His father was the brother of one of my ancestors. My grandfather was Michael de la Bédoyère (1900-73). He was editor of the Catholic Herald for around 30 years, and author of a number of biographical and theological works. I've only been to France once (in 1986), not including the 1999 Time Team Spitfire dig at Wierre-Effroy.

As is fairly obvious, people only have one unbroken male line in their ancestry. In my case that's the French line. Every other part of my father's background is English, Scottish and Anglo-Irish. My ancestors include Henry VII, Mary Boleyn (sister of Anne), and Sir William Cecil (Elizabeth I's chief minister). My favourite ancestor is Emily Mary Hill (1750-1835), first marchioness of Salisbury, my great (x5) grandmother. She was a reckless old lady, who continued to drive herself to London to gamble and play cards. She eventually burned to death when part of Hatfield House went up in flames. I'm descended from her youngest daughter, Emily, whose own granddaughter, Mildred Greville-Nugent, married my great-great-grandfather, Louis-Maris Alexis de la Bédoyère, in Le Havre in 1869.

My mother's side is 100% Glaswegian.

How do you pronounce your name?
It's pronounced bed-why-air, and Guy is English (rhymes with pie), not the French Guy (rhymes with knee).

Guy has recently given up much of his freelance broadcasting and writing and now teaches history at Sleaford High School in Lincolnshire.

Guy's website is at: www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk.

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