ABSTRACT
In the past, archaeology, as an academic and professional activity, and TV, as an entertainment medium, have been strange bedfellows. In other ways they have been successful partners. Like any relationship, what archaeologists and TV producers expect of each other has been the source of conflicts, but over the last thirty years few research activities have attracted as much sustained TV interest and loyalty as archaeology. Of its kind archaeology is way out in front. Other science subjects such as medicine (health) are more likely to be TV perennials because they affect us all and therefore attract journalistic interest. More recently, subjects like cosmology and genetics have become favourite topics, the latter due to its perceived ‘relevance factor’ and the presence of several high-profile ‘character academics’ like Stephen Hawking, Steve Jones, Robert Winston and Steven Pinker. But those looking for a view on the status of archaeology on TV can make a useful comparison with geology or earth sciences. Until the last few years geology rarely figured on TV in its own right. It took until 1998, with the production of Earthstory and its sister programme The Essential Guide to Rocks by BBC Science, for it to have a series all of its own. Archaeology has had series of its own since the 1950s.
