Charles digs up the past
CHANNEL 4 does love a dig.The archaeological kind, that is.And so do we, as viewers. Archaeological digs are tremendous to watch for a number of reasons. Most notably, they offer us mystery (heaven knows what they’ll find down there) and history (it’s bound to be jolly old, isn’t it? Either that, or it’s the marrowbone the dog buried there last Tuesday).
The latest is ANCIENT SECRETS OF ALTHORP WITH CHARLES SPENCER (9pm). Yes, as in THAT Charles Spencer, brother of the late Princess of Wales. Keen to solve a mystery that’s intrigued him for decades, Charles has invited a team of archaeologists to pop round and dig up his back garden, or at least a bit of it. It’s not the same team who dig up people’s back gardens in that show with the funny man from Outnumbered, but one led by Dr Cat Jarman and Prof Mark Horton, who I’m sure are just as good, if not so snappy with the one-liners.
Ever since he was a lad, Charles has been fascinated by claims that a lost Anglo Saxon village is buried beneath the grounds of his family’s Althorp Estate. So he’s decided it’s time he checked. Or, better still, hired someone else to.
And the result? Well, without giving too much away, I can tell you that their findings do (eventually) turn out to be somewhat jaw-dropping, but not for the reasons Lady Diana’s sibling is anticipating.
Earlier, there’s digging going on as well in THE ARCHITECTURE THE RAILWAYS BUILT (Yesterday, 8pm). The programme’s presenter, railway historian Tim Dunn, is in Birmingham, where the old Curzon Street Station is being “reborn” as part of the HS2 terminus – and where something exciting has been found beneath the rubble.
Actually, it’s a whole lot more than just exciting.
“It’s so incredible,” says Tim, “that I feel I need to pinch myself.”
Again, I shan’t spoil the surprise for you. But if you’d like just a small clue, I can tell you it was created by the legendary locomotive designer Robert Stephenson (yes, the Stephenson’s Rocket fellow, no less). Tim describes the find as both “joyful” and “sensational”. And while it might sound as though he’s over-egging it a tad (it’s not as though it’s a holdall stuffed with banknotes), I guess to a chap who loves his subject this much, it really must be.
Sadly, he doesn’t actually go ahead and pinch himself, as he’d originally promised us, which does dilute the power of his reaction just a smidgen.
“Joyful” and “sensational” convey Tim’s excitement just fine but not quite as forcefully as “joyful” and “sensational” and “ouch, I’ve really hurt myself” would have done.