Fossil Detectives

[deer boy]

Last night after finishing on WAB i put the telly on & started flicking through the channels only to come across David Attenborough on Fossil Detectives.
I only caught the last 5 minutes but he was talking about his own collection of fossils.
There's 8 episodes & last nights was the second one, it's on BBC 4 (Thursday) at 7:30 with repeats later.
For those interested here's a link for the first two episodes

BBC iPlayer - Search results for 'Fossil Detectives'

[Dan Salter]

Yet again i find out about a great series after i missed (recording) the first episode....how does this happen so often? advertising of natural history programs is non existent!...

Ill have to wait for the repeat series now to record them all but ill try and catch the other shows....i did watch something else about fossils the other night and he was interviewed but i cant remember what it was?....

[deer boy]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Yet again i find out about a great series after i missed (recording) the first episode....how does this happen so often?

DAN

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

advertising of natural history programs is non existent!...

A cynical person might say this is to make you buy the series

[Ukwildlifeo]

I Iplayered last weeks after reading about it in BBC wildlife magazine. Was great apart from where they show a picture of a 3d exceptionally preserved fossil, with the oldest known preserved penis which they described as an 'arthropod, closely related to crabs and similar to a shrimp' which lead me to shouting "ITS AND OSTRACOD! JUST SAY IT!" lol. Possibly because I've spent the last 6 months studying them

[Dan Salter]

mmmm

battered ostracod and chips!.

(funny until he remembers the penis part)...

[forfi]

Knickers and bum,that BBC linkie will only work in the UK and there I was all ready with me coffee and weevil-free biccies,feet up ready for a nice half hours edumacation.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

mmmm

battered ostracod and chips!.

(funny until he remembers the penis part)...

theres also the slight problem with them being on average 1mm long, and their basically like a small shrimp between a pair of bivalve shells - wont get much of an 'ostracod stick' out of them!

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

theres also the slight problem with them being on average 1mm long, and their basically like a small shrimp between a pair of bivalve shells - wont get much of an 'ostracod stick' out of them!

To be honest i ordered a medium cod from our normally superb local chippy the other week and it was about the same size!...

The guilt of eating cod is too much now...so im trying out other fish now

[derelict]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

I Iplayered last weeks after reading about it in BBC wildlife magazine. Was great apart from where they show a picture of a 3d exceptionally preserved fossil, with the oldest known preserved penis which they described as an 'arthropod, closely related to crabs and similar to a shrimp' which lead me to shouting "ITS AND OSTRACOD! JUST SAY IT!" lol. Possibly because I've spent the last 6 months studying them

I know it's an obvious question but why have you spent 6 months studying ostrocods? Not a lot of professional zoologists can say that... !

[kerensa]

Hello everyone.
Just a little update. After its run on BBC Four last Summer, Fossil Detectives is coming to BBC Two - starting this week on Fridays at 7pm from October 24th 2008.

Wanted to let you know cos I saw the post about lack of advertising last time.

I'm the series producer and director of the programme, so let me know your thoughts and once the launch on BBC Two is clear in a few weeks' time, I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers,
Kerensa

[derelict]

Originally Posted by kerensa

Hello everyone.
Just a little update. After its run on BBC Four last Summer, Fossil Detectives is coming to BBC Two - starting this week on Fridays at 7pm from October 24th 2008.

Wanted to let you know cos I saw the post about lack of advertising last time.

I'm the series producer and director of the programme, so let me know your thoughts and once the launch on BBC Two is clear in a few weeks' time, I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers,
Kerensa

I hope you'll stick around - if only to tell us how the programmes were put together rather than just answer questions. There have been some interesting if somewhat tongue-in-cheek threads on here in the last couple of months about TV natural history productions... I'd imagine that one advantage of fossils is that they are easier to work with than live animals... for example they don't die between takes...

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by kerensa

Hello everyone.
Just a little update. After its run on BBC Four last Summer, Fossil Detectives is coming to BBC Two - starting this week on Fridays at 7pm from October 24th 2008.

Wanted to let you know cos I saw the post about lack of advertising last time.

I'm the series producer and director of the programme, so let me know your thoughts and once the launch on BBC Two is clear in a few weeks' time, I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers,
Kerensa

Ooh a 'real' tv person....

I noticed your name on the titles of one of the episodes and wondered if you were the Kerensa from Time Team?...

Either way its nice to have you here! (great series by the way...i have even splashed out on some fossils to re start my childhood fascination)

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by derelict

I know it's an obvious question but why have you spent 6 months studying ostrocods? Not a lot of professional zoologists can say that... !

Sorry just came back tot his thread. It was for the main project for my masters (and perhaps later a published paper if all goes well )

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by kerensa

Hello everyone.
Just a little update. After its run on BBC Four last Summer, Fossil Detectives is coming to BBC Two - starting this week on Fridays at 7pm from October 24th 2008.

Wanted to let you know cos I saw the post about lack of advertising last time.

I'm the series producer and director of the programme, so let me know your thoughts and once the launch on BBC Two is clear in a few weeks' time, I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers,
Kerensa

Oh good. I rather enjoyed the show. The talks with David Attenborough about his palaeontological side were very interesting. I also thought it was very well presented with none of the awful dumbing down that is all to common on TV

[kerensa]

Hello again,
Nice to hear from you - thanks for nice comments about the series! I'm not the Time Team person - but have been enjoying following your threads. Really chuffed to hear about you rediscovering your childhood passion!

Sure, I'll stick around and try to give some insights into making programmes. Most things take ages and ages to organise, then usually quite a while to film. The editing is the trickiest part - choosing which bits to put in and which bits to leave out. Really hard on this series as we had so many wonderful contributors and stories.

Fossils are easy to film in one respect - they stay still! But sometimes you have to find them in awkward places - like up cliffs or between tides. The advantage is that many of them are so beautiful, they're inspiring in their own right.

Bye for now,
Kerensa