Shoot director Michael Douglas was put in a difficult position trying to make a Time Team programme with such severe time restrictions on digging. Here he explains what it was like:

'I felt surprisingly calm. We had so many archaeology experts working on this who all seemed to be happy with what was being found. We discovered new things that they did not know about two days before the excavation. It all went really well, but we had so much information it really had to wait until the editing stage before I could put it all together.'

What about working in the tense environment of the tidal river?

'Sorry to use a cliché but it was very challenging. Each morning we had three crews all shooting around one little trench. One thing's for sure: you cannot argue with the Thames. We had two hours and that was it. We just had to cope with the elements and shoot everything we could. It was quite thrilling.'