TIME Team favourite Phil Harding has revealed he no longer carries a knife because “you almost feel like a thug”.

TV archaeologist Phil, 69, said knives never used to be a “nasty object”. Owning a knife needed to be put back into the right context, he added.

The star, well known to generations of Time Team viewers for his trademark denim cut-off shorts, battered hat and love of a good pint, made the comments as he guest edited the BBC Wiltshire breakfast show on Monday.

Pointing to stories in the newspapers about efforts to tackle rising levels of knife violence, Phil said: “When I was a lad it was nothing unusual to carry a knife, because you cut a piece of string or you cut a bit of bread and cheese.

“Most men did carry a knife. The last thing you ever expected was to stick it into somebody.

“I don’t carry a knife anymore, because you almost feel like a thug and I don’t like that.”

The archaeologist added: “We’ve got to put owning a knife back into the right context." What it should be.

“It’s a very, very useful tool and certainly in history if I dig up a Saxon cemetery the most common artefact is often a knife and it was never a nasty object.”