More on Dumbing Down British TV Archaeology

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Professor Mick Aston reportedly quit the British TV archaeology 'reality show' after being one of its iconic stars for 19 years after changes which were leading to a dumbing down of its archaeological content. The changes include the appointment of a new presenter, Mary-Anne Ochota (Craig). Ms Ochota holds a master’s degree in archaeology and anthropology from Cambridge University, the newspapers are not omitting to report that after graduation she did some modelling, including shoots for Special K (though she was also the TV anthropologist on the BBC’s 'Castaway Exposed' and has presented a number of other programmes in the field). The Daily Mail reports:

In an interview with the magazine British Archaeology, Professor Aston said he was responding to changes first proposed by producers at Channel 4 in late 2010 – before the filming of the series that is currently being aired. They included a new prehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsenter to join Tony Robinson and decisions to ‘drop some archaeologists’ and ‘cut down the informative stuff about the archaeology’. [...] He said: ‘The time had come to leave. I never made any money out of it, but a lot of my soul went into it. I feel really, really angry about it. ‘Whatever happened, we’d all thought, we’ll complete the 20th series. It feels very sad that I shan’t do that. I’m not proud of Time Team, it hasn’t worked.’ A former academic at Bristol and Oxford universities, he has worked tirelessly to bring archaeology to a wider audience.

But as we know, you cannot do that these days in Britain without pandering to the lowest possible denominator, a trite story, golden treasures and a cleavage.


Tamara Cohen, ''What's she got that I haven't?' Veteran quits as Cambridge beauty joins TV's Time Team', Daily Mail 7th Feb 2012

Photos: "Mary-Ann [...] is quickly getting the hang of showing Time Team viewers what they want to see ;-)" (Woody's TV Caps)