Time Team: Special: Over the summer of 2003 Channel 4 ran the Time Team Big Dig. With over 10,000 participants all over the country excavating test pits each one meter square by fifty centimeters deep, and there were lots of great stories. Most of these pits were in private gardens and the project stirred up controversies about approaches to public archaeology. Find out what went on over the summer at some of the digs featured in this Christmas Special. Tony, Mick and the Time Team are joining up with engineers, technologists and historians in an attempt to reconstruct one of these unique machines - and, in the process, discover how they worked and what they were for. Gradually the oak and iron components are pieced together, but whether the machine will actually work when all the parts are assembled is anyone's guess. The road to eventual success turns out to be quite a rocky one and, as the deadline looms ever nearer, it's not just the ropes that end up getting frayed...

Starring:

Carenza Lewis, Henry Chapman, Ian Powlesland, John Gater, Mick Aston, Phil Harding, Stewart Ainsworth, Tony Robinson, Victor Ambrus

Genre:

Documentary, History