Only just heard....
Very sad news.....I'll certainly miss him on Time Team..Really enjoy that programme.
(Hah !! ....I've just checked...He quit the show a year or more ago....Apparently because he thought it was being dumbed down. I must just be watching repeats !!)
Only 66....No age again.
Phil.
He was a man who loved his job who will be missed.
Very sad, a great part of the team, full of contagious enthusiasm, the type of guy who could get you interested in something you never were before. :(
Sad news indeed :(
He was right though, the new shows are a bit like kids tv
Knowledgeable and always seemed like a real gent too - sad news right enough.
Six years older than I am - intimations of mortality!
Worked with him down in Shapwick.
Obituaries tend to be a bit gushing but its true to say he was a lovely chap.
A real loss to archaeology too.
I always enjoyed his input on TT and never understood why Channel 4 felt they had to improve/change/mess up an already excellent product.
Sad news indeed. I put the article up from the Guardian on my Blog, worth a read I will paste here. Please remove if required.
Time Team's Mick Aston dies
The archaeologist and broadcaster, who found fame with the Channel 4 series, has passed away aged 66
Archaeologist and broadcaster Mick Aston, who found fame with TV programme Time Team, has died aged 66.
Close friend and former colleague Phil Harding, who also worked on the popular Channel 4 series, said he had received the news from Professor Aston's son James.
Time Team's official Facebook and Twitter accounts also paid tribute to the retired academic: "It is with a very heavy heart that we've been informed that our dear colleague Mick Aston has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family."
Dr Harding said that although his friend had suffered health problems, learning of his death just two weeks after talking to him on the phone for the last time had come as a shock.
"It just seems so incredible, like a bad dream, but unfortunately this is no dream," the 62-year-old said. "He was a seriously good mate and a seriously good archaeologist, a unique man. Everybody loved him, he just had a way with people. I cannot believe there was anybody who disliked him, he just had such a relaxed way.
"He had incredible knowledge and an effortless way of making archaeology accessible to people."
Born and raised in Oldbury in the West Midlands, Professor Aston was instantly recognisable on television for his colourful jumpers.
He lived in Somerset, and continued to take part in archaeology projects after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.
Before being named an emeritus professor at the university of Bristol and an honorary visiting professor at Exeter and Durham, he first joined the cast led by actor and presenter Tony Robinson when the show began in 1994.
Professor Francis Pryor, who also worked with Professor Aston on the programme, paid tribute to a man who he described as "remarkable archaeologist who could really dig".
He said: "I will remember him fondly - was a warm, loving, nice man. He did very good work on original British towns which is still being built on and he was an authority on monastic church archaeology and early medieval archaeology."
Quote from: Dour Puritan on 25 June 2013, 06:28:06 PM
I always enjoyed his input on TT and never understood why Channel 4 felt they had to improve/change/mess up an already excellent product.
Totty.
Mick Ashton. Horrible jumper, great bloke. He shall be missed.
Another one gone, this is becoming a sad month. And the same age as me - that's no age.
We're none of us getting any younger (I was 59 this month) but as long as we still push our toy soldiers finely painted miniatures around the table top at least we can feel a little younger at heart.