It's been described as the most ambitious archaeological project Britain has ever known. One eighth of the entire ancient city of Canterbury is being excavated in advance of a massive redevelopment scheme. The excavation, just inside the city walls in the south east of Canterbury, is known as the 'Big Dig' locally, and will take four years to complete.

The archaeologists responsible for the Big Dig are working to a much tighter time scale, though. The excavations are taking place in phases, each of which has to be completed by a set date, at which time the developers move in, destroying or burying what is left of the archaeology beneath new buildings.

Time Team followed the progress of the Big Dig for nine months during 2000-2001, both on the excavation site and behind the scenes, and helped the archaeologists to reconstruct the 2,000-year-old story of this historic piece of Canterbury real estate. At least they had more than the usual three days to do it in.