Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Time Team: The Team’s Favorite Digs DVD Review

***Complimentary product received in exchange for an honest review***



Led by presenter Tony Robinson (Blackadder) and an eccentric crew of historians and experts, the critically acclaimed pop-science show, Time Team: The Team’s Favorite Digs makes its North American DVD debut from Athena on August 13, 2013. The release follows Athena’s 2012 release of Time Team: Unearthing the Roman Invasion and collects the team’s favorite episodes. With just three days at each site, the program provides a fast-paced, fun introduction to archaeology. A long running hit in the U.K., on air since 1994, an American version of the show, Time Team America, premiered in 2009 and is slated to return in 2013. The DVD 3-Disc set includes eight episodes, plus Time Team’s first episode and two follow-up episodes (161 min.); 16-page viewer’s guide, and more (407 min., $59.99, AcornOnline.com).

Tony Robinson is back as the leader of Time Team, a band of archaeologists, historians, surveyors, geophysicists, and other assorted experts determined to unearth mysteries concealed by topsoil and time. For these eight episodes, the team members have selected their favorite digs, ranging from Iron Age, Roman, and Saxon Britain to a World War II crash site in France and a sugar plantation in the Caribbean. Each dig presents a different set of challenges, whether it’s zip-lining to an offshore promontory, fighting back jungle growth, interpreting strange findings, or, of course, contending with the ever-present threat of rain. With just three days at each site to complete their excavations, they race against time to reveal Britain’s buried history.

British actor, comedian, and history enthusiast Tony Robinson starred on the classic period comedy Blackadder and has presented numerous documentary programs including The Worst Jobs in History and The Real Da Vinci Code.

EPISODES:  Llygadwy, Wales (Mick’s Choice), Gateholm (Francis’s Choice), Wierre-Effroy (Tony’s Choice), Bonus Episode: Wedmore, Turkdean (John’s Choice), Braemore (Helen’s Choice), High Worsall (Stewart’s Choice), Bonus Episode: Turkdean Revisited, Nevis, West Indies—Part 1 (Victor’s Choice), Cirencester (Carenza’s Choice), Nevis, West Indies—Part 2

BONUS FEATURES: Time Team’s first episode and two follow-up episodes (161 min.); 16-page viewer’s guide with fun facts about the locations; articles on excavation practices, archaeological hoaxes, the Romano-Britons, and Anglo-Saxon burials; and a glossary of terms; Biographies of the Time Team

Street: August 13, 2013                                SRP: $59.99               UPC: 054961894499
DVD 3-Disc Set:  8 episodes – Approx. 407 min., plus bonus – Documentary – SDH subtitles 


My Thoughts 

I've always been fascinated by archeological digs. There is something about touching the past that has always enthralled me. In Time Team, you get to follow leading archeologist, Tony Robinson, as he explores some of his favorite dig sites. The team goes around the world unearthing lost treasure from roman antiquities in Wales to a possible slave quarters in the West Indies. There are always challenges to overcome. Sometimes jungles have overgrown the area they want to search and they always have to deal with whatever mother nature throws at them on their time pressed schedules. The show never gets overly technical, making every discovery easy for the average person to understand, but still offering an exciting new educational look into the past and the process of a dig. I enjoyed watching this series along with my older children. They had no trouble following and it made for an educational family movie night.


If you want to grab a copy of Time Team: The Team’s Favorite Digs and get your hands dirty with a real archeological team, it is available on Acorn for only $59.99.


***Please note that I received no form of monetary compensation for this post. I did receive a sample of the product to try in order to write a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced in any way. ***

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