Tuesday 29 July 2008

Conclusive proof that the past exists

As an avid avoider of Timeteam I approached BBC's new archaeological drama series "Bonekickers" with some trepidation. Whoever thought the title up deserves a good kicking for a start.

It has always amused me when tv series appear that are based on a subject I (or others) know fairly well. The most recent example being ITV's Primeval, where animals from past eras pop through anomalies and cause mayhem (mostly in London though - so the majority of us are ok!). My other half being a palaeontologist took great delight in pointing out factual errors ("ooh they've scaled up that arthropod about 120%!"), and even I had a baulk at some of the dialogue - my favourite line being where Cutter (the Palaeo Prof) describes the appearance of cretaceous reptiles as "conclusive proof that the past exists". The boy L ended up writing a rather good review of it in the Palaeontological Newsletter (see page 56) which I would heartily recommend. He suggested I do the same for Bonekickers but, as I pointed out to him, I'd be too embarrassed as it was more likely to show up my lack of knowledge in certain areas...

Anyway, I've only seen episodes 1 & 2 so far but it does amuse me how random archaeological facts are crowbarred into the dialogue. "Stand in or away from the trench, not on!") shouted at a postgraduate (soon to be full time team member) who really should have known that in her first year undergraduate. Wafflings of Pitt Rivers' classification systems and, my particular favourite and very close to my own heart: 'Dolly' (the loveable drunken old pervy prof) waving a magnetometer at some female students and demanding they remove their underwired bras. This is something I have done on a few occasions but sadly with less panache. You've got to love it! It's utterly ridiculous, is kicking up a storm on the Britarch mailing lists, and is clearly attempting to appeal to the Da Vinci generation, but I have to admit I'm kind of enjoying it. Just as a guilty pleasure you understand... I may try out the Bonekickers Drinking game for episode 3.



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