Years ago it was a superb programme though it did deteriorate. For a while my youngest daughter wanted to be an archaeologist because of it.
Whether it was dumbed down archaeology or making it accessible to ordinary people .... who knows. It certainly led to me doing some voluntary work on an excavation of a Roman settlement on the edge of the village I used to live in.
Mick Aston, like most of them on there, was an engaging eccentric. Sad loss.