An article in The Daily Mail today was entitled :
'What's she got that I haven't?' Veteran quits as Cambridge beauty joins TV's Time Team
It reported that the 65 year old archaeologist, Mick Aston, had quit the programme after 19 years, when producers had hired 30 year old Cambridge graduate and former model, Mary-Ann Ochota, as a new co-presenter.
Mick :
* is a white haired professor and former academic at Bristol and Oxford Universities who wears a loud jumper and as 'site director', chose where the 'digs' were to take place.
* has said that changes to the programme which led to the introduction of Mary-Ann Ochota and the dropping of some archaeologists had left him "really angry" and compared them to the reshuffle at the BBC’s 'Countryfile' programme, which introduced younger presenters and, said, reduced it to "cliché-ridden pap".
Mary-Ann, on the other hand :
* holds a master’s degree in 'archaeology and anthropology' from Cambridge University and after graduation, did some modelling, including shoots for Kellogs 'Special K'.
* was the anthropologist on the BBC’s 'Castaway Exposed' and has presented a number of other programmes using her 'expertise'.
Executive Producer Philip Clarke said : " We were very sorry to see Mick go, and he leaves an extraordinary legacy. Not everyone takes change happily."
So who would I rather have on the programme ? Mick talking about 'test pits'?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux_kEyWCSbc&feature=related
Or Mary-Anne who gives us a taste of things to come on her 'Show Reel' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrdtcaSmal8
Well, I'm sorry Mick, I know who I would prefer to see on 'Time Team'.
P.S.
Here is one of Mick's old colleagues on the programme, Phil Harding talking about his lifelong friend, his shovel. Wonderfully and unintentionally very funny :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f0iQVajLA&feature=related
P.P.S.
Is this the lovely Mary-Ann advertising Kellog's Special K ?
She may hold all that, but she decided to become a model, it was her looks that brought her to time team.
ReplyDeleteIt's like everything else as they changed the set up for time team it became more about the people then the archeology with looking at clothes dress and bows and arrows then looking at the ground.
Even now they have all gone the program looks empty