Specials

This is a list of Time Team special episodes that aired between 1997 and 2014. These special episodes often depart somewhat from the regular Time Team format, by revisiting previous sites to do a follow-up story; travelling outside the UK to excavate other sites of interest; chronicling digs overseen by other organisations; or using information gleaned from other Time Team episodes to draw a more complete picture of ordinary life during a particular historical era. Other specials may focus on a dig with a particular holiday theme; a more complex excavation over a longer period than the standard three days; or a visit to a particularly famous historical site.

Most shows fit within a 1-hour time-slot (approx. 46–49 minutes of content), although some (e.g. episodes 3, 9, 26, 33, 35, 36) are longer at 1.25 hours of content, and some (i.e. episode 24) at 1.75 hours. Regular contributors include: presenter Tony Robinson; archaeologists Mick Aston, Phil Harding, Carenza Lewis, Helen Geake; historians Francis Pryor; Robin Bush, Guy de la Bedoyere, Sam Newton, Alex Langlands; illustrator Victor Ambrus; landscape investigator Stewart Ainsworth; geophysics John Gater, Chris Gaffney; surveyor Henry Chapman; and, Roman specialist Mark Corney.

Special 01 - Much Wenlock, Shropshire
As a curtain-raiser for the 1998 series of Time Team, which started in January 1998, In this very first special, Tony and the team gather to celebrate the festive season with a look back over the last five years which has taken them on a journey from prehistoric Oxfordshire to the dawning of modern-age technology in Victorian Britain.
 * 1997 Christmas Special.
 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 28th December 1997.

Over the years, viewers have flooded the series with queries as to what happened after Time Team finished their three-day investigations – were the sites further excavated, were finds available to see in museums and how did local people react to finding an important archaeological find on their doorstep?

Time Team returns to a few key sites for updated reports and the Team members also remember their favourite moments and finds.

Special 02 - Barley Hall, York

 * 1999 Christmas Special.
 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 19th December 1999.

This pre-Christmas special offers a taster of what is coming up in the next series – and provides an update on previous Time Team digs. Presented by Tony Robinson from York's Barley Hall, where a Medieval Christmas celebration is in full swing, the show tells what has happened at many of the digs featured in the last series.

Special 03 - Holme-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk

 * The Mystery Of Seahenge.
 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 29th December 1999.

In the spring of 2050 BCE, a huge oak tree was felled and its stump upturned and half-buried on a site near to what is now Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. The following year, a number of smaller oaks were felled and cut into 56 posts, which were arranged in a circle around the central stump. This Bronze-Age monument, hailed by some modern archaeologists as among the most exciting ever discovered, could have formed some kind of ceremonial site, perhaps with special astronomical or other significance.

Alternatively, it has been proposed that it could have been a place of 'excarnation', where bodies were laid out after death to hasten the process of decomposition and speed the spirit on its way to the afterlife. Druids and modern-day pagans organised sit-in protests against English Heritage's decision to remove and preserve it. Time Team's Visit included the construction of a modern replica.

Special 04 - York

 * Time Team Live 1999 - Highlights.
 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 26th March 2000.

Looking at sites from three different periods, this Live dig's archaeological highs and lows are crammed into just 60 minutes in York where the team uncover three skeletons at a Roman cemetary (one being a Roman skeleton complete with hobnailed boots), a Viking 'tenement block' with a superb glass bead, unlike anything found in Britain before, a Viking's discarded leather shoe, and the major structures (pillars) of a medieval monastic hospital.

But what does all the evidence show? Who were these people and how did they live?

Special 05 - The Real King Arthur

 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 24th December 2000.

Once upon a time there lived a great hero and king known as Arthur - and his story is well known. Or is it?

As Time Team discovers, most of what we know about Arthur is myth, the creation of imaginative writers and artful propagandists. Time Team is on a quest, searching for the truth behind the myth, mystery and multi-million-pound industry which has grown up around Arthur – the alleged 'King of the Britons'.

Special 06 - The History Of Britain

 * First broadcast on Channel 4: 27th December 2000.

Time Team takes a trip from the Palaeolithic to the present and plots the nation's past through the finds and revelations made across the last seven series. The Team pays a visit to classic UK archaeological sites, such as Grimes Graves and Bede's World, and examines key digs from programmes past to look at how archaeologists have interpreted the nation's history.