Why don't you ever go back to sites again afterwards?

Mainly because there are so many new ones that demand our attention! Actually Time Team has been back to a couple of sites where the archaeology was so exceptional that it was impossible to resist. The first was at Turkdean where the Roman villa discovered in the first programme proved to be a huge and spectacular site. There was more than enough new material to fill a second programme – which isn't always the case with other sites, interesting though they may be.

The other site to which the Team returned was at Coventry, which first featured in a programme in search of the city's first cathedral for the 2000 series. Time Team went back the following year partly in response to viewers' requests for updates on some of the programmes. The discovery of a remarkably preserved undercroft and other amazing finds from the 'lost' Benedictine Priory Cathedral, which Henry VIII had demolished around 1539, fully justified a second visit. As Tony Robinson said, 'We not only wanted to come back out of curiosity – we felt we had a responsibility to show the viewers what had been found.' The programme was shown as a Time Team Special in 2001.