Great British Treasure Hunt

Reporter George Lythgoe is still keen on promoting the looting of the archaeological heritage for edutainment (Metal detectorists from Furness will dig for treasure and a trophy in new ITV five-part series next month' Furness News 17th February 2022). He's still plugging the dumbdown ITV series 'Henry Cole's Great British Treasure Hunt'. I was really sad to see this:

"Their finds will be assessed and scored by expert judges. Archaeologist Dr Susheela Burford (the show’s Finds Liaison Officer) will evaluate the historical interest and significance of each item, then award a number of points, from five for the most interesting, down to one for the least. To add some extra excitement, auctioneer and independent valuer Adam Partridge then takes a look and hands out a bonus point for the find with the highest monetary value. Scores accumulate across the five episodes, shown over successive evenings from Monday to Friday, and whichever duo has the highest at the end of the week wins the prestigious GBTH trophy. In 2020, the show was dubbed as 'the Antiques Road Trip meets the Detectorist' by the Radio Times."

Object-centred, as usual. That the ITV is unable to make a show that promotes an archaeological approach to archaeological evidence is not really a surprise to anyone. That British archaeology has not yet worked out how to promote a wider public understanding of an archaeological approach to archaeological evidence is the tragedy of the discipline. That somebody from the main outreach scheme that does exist lends an air of legitimacy to this is just pathetic.