Robin James Edwin Bush (12 March 1943 – 22 June 2010) was the resident historian for the first nine series of Channel 4's archaeology series Time Team, appearing in 39 episodes between 1994 and 2003. He also presented eight episodes of Time Team Extra in 1998.
Bush became involved with the Time Team programmes through his long friendship with Mick Aston when Aston was Somerset's first county field archaeologist. Aston had previously discussed the idea of devising an archaeological television programme with Tony Robinson, and a pilot episode was set up. Through helping to devise the programme's format with producer Tim Taylor, Bush was invited to take part in the pilot which was shot at Dorchester-on-Thames in October 1992. Although the pilot programme was never screened, the idea was good enough to persuade Channel 4 to commission a four programme series of Time Team, which was filmed in 1993 and broadcast the following year.
Bush also appeared in Channel 4's series Joe Public, for which he researched the loss of a hat jewel by Henry VIII. Bush appeared regularly as resident historian on Revealing Secrets (55 episodes) for Multi Media, transmitted on Channel 4 on weekdays from 26 March to 4 July 2001.
As a solo presenter Bush filmed a series of six half-hour programmes entitled The West at War, broadcast in 2005, which examined the impact of war on the South West of England from Roman times to the present day for ITV Westcountry.
For twelve years Bush was a Liberal Democrat member of Somerset County Council and served as chairman of the council from 2001 until 2005. He also held other positions in public life.
