Bonekickers

2008

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
5| TV-14| en| More Info
Released: 08 July 2008 Ended
Producted By: BBC
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bonekickers/
Info

Bonekickers was a BBC drama about a team of archaeologists, set at the fictional Wessex University. It made its début on 8 July 2008 and ran for one series. It was written by Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah. It was produced by Michele Buck and Damien Timmer of Mammoth Screen Ltd and co-produced with Monastic Productions. Archaeologist and Bristol University academic Mark Horton acted as the series' archaeological consultant. Adrian Lester has described the programme as "CSI meets Indiana Jones [...] There's an element of the crime procedural show, there's science, conspiracy theories – and there's a big underlying mystery that goes through the whole six-episode series." Much of the series was filmed in the City of Bath, Somerset, with locations including the University of Bath campus. Additional locations included Brean Down Fort and Kings Weston House, Chavenage House for episodes 5 & 6 and Sheldon Manor. On 21 November 2008 Broadcast magazine revealed the show would not be returning for a second series.

Genre

Drama

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BBC

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Bonekickers Audience Reviews

Alicia I love this movie so much
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
zoens-sx9224 If you're hoping for an accurate account of history, or a spellbinding mystery, then this show will disappoint. If you want to have a fun, pointless show with strange plot points, poor directing and comical characters, then this show is perfect. The mysteries aren't that good, the older professor is a sexist pig and i think the young girl is only there so that she can ask questions so that the plot can be explained to the audience. An absolute riot, if you have a sense of humour.It's the kind of show to watch with a group of friends that know little of history to find it interesting, or those that know so much, that the plots are awful. This is the kind of show that makes America's "Relic Hunter" look like a documentary.
dcellers Having come to the IMDb page on Bonekickers after already having seen the series--a perfectly fine, better than average production, from which much pleasure can be derived--I can only assume that the extremely harsh comments about it here are the result of some kind of (probably informal) conspiracy, perhaps inspired by the content of episode one. The cast is attractive, the individual episodes work as adventures, and the characters' various back-stories add depth to the mix. For those who haven't actually seen the show, then, check it out: unless you identity with the villain in episode one, you may well enjoy the series, in which case (as an added bonus) you will also be amused (and intrigued) by the hostility being directed toward it here.
LouE15 Thank you so much - reading the user reviews here was the funniest half hour I've had in ages – I was weeping with laughter – which is more than I can say for the experience of watching a couple of episodes of the show itself. There's nothing like a truly terrible show to bring out the wit and brilliance in people's writing.I'd love to have agreed with those "so bad it's good" reviewers who enjoyed it like an illicit substance…but I was mostly just dumbstruck. The problems started and ended with the script: this isn't the first show to be made on a shoestring, and the actors really did throw themselves into their parts – but come ON! Maybe those responsible for creating and greenlighting it were on some miraculous substance themselves. Lots of shows have a preposterous premise, dodgy "science", poor story lines and so on and so on – but they don't all end up like this. The scriptwriters should get together with Guy "Revolver" Ritchie and make the World's Most Dreadful Psycho-Drama Ever. I'll be there, weeping.But, oh Adrian Lester, what were you thinking?! – I know, actors have got to eat and all that – but couldn't starvation have been at least a temporary alternative? You're better than this!One final gripe: I've got to take up the reviewer who was disgruntled at the existence of, not one (gasp!), but TWO (GASP!), black archaeologists in this show. I'm getting strange flashbacks here…"55 Degrees North" took hits from cynical reviewers who saw only the PC brigade where they should have seen something better-natured. Gosh, don't you think that it would be pretty great if the presence of two, whole, black archaeologists on this show inspired even ONE budding young non-white 'bonekicker' of the future to alter the racial imbalance in this field - an imbalance this very reviewer admits to?! But of course this isn't what the BBC should be doing, is it? The BBC should be doing nothing but entertain (white) people. Which they've done very effectually for a very long time. Now it's time to reflect the viewers they actually have, even at the expense of so-called "accuracy". So get used to this, quickly: not everyone in Britain is like you: perhaps the stultifying world of archaeology needs just this reminder – from the BBC, no less – of its own long overdue obligation to seek a wider academic spread and fanbase.I'm off to think about how this show could have been any worse. Perhaps if Worzel Gummidge were in it...no wait - a song & dance sequence!
Anti-bonekicker Okay, I'm a professional and not an academic, but even so. I've managed to avoid this series up until now, but last night featured the Roman Baths Museum and I had to watch it for the background. Pity the actors got in the way..... Not going to comment on the archaeology side (yeah I know it's fiction) but the whole thing was just nuts. And not in a good way either. I could have assembled a better plot from an Ikea flat-pack and the dialogue sounded like they'd shredded the script and picked up random lines off the floor. And the big surprise at the end? - anyone not get it before the programme was half over? And in answer to cake-26, I know of a few black archaeologists and worked with people from various ethnicities when doing work with the public, so the presence of Adrian Lester and Gugu Mbatha-Raw is valid but they are so under-drawn as characters as to be 2-dimensional. Hugh Bonneville played his part as if he was half-cut and I really wished I was too.